"Passin' Me By" Twenty Years Later - Chris "Preach" Smith

Today, twenty years ago, The Pharcyde dropped ‘Passin’ Me By’. That song back then
was the vessel that helped a young cat pour out some inner anguish, but also drink
from the well of wonder the hip-hop music of that time created.

I was in a turbulent state at the time. I was on the verge of leaving St.Francis Preparatory
High School due to grades and my growing disconnect. I was bookish, but not in a scholarly
way. I was into exploring a whole other world in northern Queens, into video games, deep
into hip-hop - and heavily into girls. There was trouble at home, and I was one kid on the 
block who had to catch up with the rest socially in some respects. Tall, overweight with a 
tapered ‘fro and a polite quietness, I was basically tagged as a herb from time to time. I 
got my escape when I could, usually once I got home from school and turned on the radio
or caught some TV. But on this day 20 years ago, I remember my man Dax talking about 
The Pharcyde, and this new single he copped on tape. He gave me the tape, I popped it 
into my Walkman and the opening notes took me away. I zoned out, which at the time was
hard to do on a crowded bus full of Catholic high schoolers glad to leave the confines of 
Fresh Meadows. As soon as we got to the 165th Street Terminal, I parted ways with Dax,
made my way over to the nearest record store and got the album. And for the next two 
days, I let ‘Passin’ Me By’ seep into my pores.

It’s a song that stuck with me for a couple of reasons. First, at that time, hip-hop had its 
share of love songs, but they tended to be done by MC’s who had established sex appeal
like Big Daddy Kane or LL Cool J. And even then, the songs were lyrical come-ons. There
weren’t that many that spoke to what I was going through at that time. ‘Passin’ Me By’
spoke to me because these were four guys, four MC’s who poetically delineated each of
their unrequited crushes. I could feel that pain they went through, echoed by that chorus
of horns and the refrain that clung to you like your clothes after being out in the rain with
no umbrella. ‘She keeps on paaaaaaasin’ me byyyyyyy…’ The second thing was, it was 
West Coast hip-hop that wasn’t full of raw gangster attitude like Ice Cube, Tupac and Dr.
Dre who were HUGE around that time, even out in NYC. It built on the dopeness we had
back with A Tribe Called Quest and ‘Bonita Applebum’ and De La Soul’s ‘Buddy’. Tracks that
I loved, but wasn’t old enough to get the full definition of yet. It harkened to the jazz & blues
my folks had blasting every weekend. Little wonder since J-Swift’s production made great
use of Quincy Jones’ ‘Summer In The City’ along with Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Are You Experienced?
You even get a bit of the Weather Report in there. The way The Pharcyde created this song
also is a lyrical masterpiece. Starting it off with Imani’s high-pitched voice speaking about a
crush on his teacher was the magnet that drew you in once that bassline kicked in, and 
then SlimKid Tre’s non-chalant telling of his crush kind of reminded you of how you’d be 
with your boys after telling them you were digging a girl. Bootie Brown’s verse, quick as it
is sums up exactly how your boys WOULD react. And Fatlip’s verse? MAN. ‘Now here she 
goes again, the dopest Ethiopian…’ He channeled Cab Calloway for that, without question.
Listen to the verse and tell me I’m lying. 

You also can’t talk about the song without talking about the video. They went together, 
like Alize’ and orange juice. That video was remarkable because of the grainy, Super 8 black
and white it was filmed in for one. Then you have every member of The Pharcyde upside 
down throughout most of the video as they rhyme. And they all showed that angst. For 
a time, I truly felt like Fatlip was shedding real tears in the back of that cab at the end of
his verse. And SlimKid Tre looking like a jilted Black Jesus crucified too…they showed me 
and others that it was okay to express being lovesick. It was okay. It hit me in the heart, 
one that had been crushing on a girl named Leticia Baez, a girl so fine that she could’ve 
been a Jet Model of The Week for a whole month and no one would’ve cared. She was like
melted copper, and shined even more when she smiled at you. ‘Passin’ Me By’ was heavy
for me in that it showed a greater sensitive side to MC’s when it came to women, that 
even they never got all the girls. Despite that, they were better men for their heartbreak
and for expressing it. It helped me to express mine, and be a better man for it. So that 
the world wouldn’t continue to pass me by, nor would Leticia Baez. And I got up enough
courage to befriend her, and got real cool with her, even going to the same college as her.
Thanks in part to a song that still sticks with me 20 years after hearing it on a bus cutting
through Hollis, Queens.