THE PHARCYDE Baby got back
The Pharcyde — Slim Kid, Fat Lip, Booty Brown and Imani — were one of the iconic hip hop acts of the early ’90s, along with A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Brand Nubian. But as the decade passed and various members drifted into the hip hop ether, the group’s future looked uncertain. But they somehow made it through to the other side, and they’ve brought with them a new album, Humboldt Beginnings, and an Australian tour. CYCLONE reports.
As Booty Brown explains, when The Pharcyde hit Metro City this Friday, October 15, we shouldn’t be expecting the same group that we remember from the ’90s.
“Hip hop changes and you have to change along with it, or you kinda get left in a certain mould,” a candid Booty Brown says.
The Pharcyde originally formed in South Central Los Angeles — an area previously known for gangsta rap — at the beginning of the ’90s. Slim Kid, Booty Brown and Imani (aka Darky Boy) originally made up a collective of b-boys known as Two For Two, who performed on the TV show In Living Colour. When they hooked up with another dancer, Fat Lip, they soon evolved into a fully-fledged hip hop group.
The Pharcyde signed to the independent Delicious Vinyl and cameoed on an album by the UK acid-jazz combo The Brand New Heavies — Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol 1 — establishing them in the music world.
So in 1991 they unleashed their debut, Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, now widely considered one of the major classics of the time. The single Passing Me By soon became a cult hip hop joint. In 1995 they followed it up with Labcabincalifornia, admirably confronting the inevitable challenge of living up to their acclaimed debut.
It seemed to be going well until Fat Lip quit and, after that, Slim Kid (who’s since put out a solo album as Tre) followed suit. This left Booty Brown and Imani in a difficult situation, but they continued to tour and record as The Pharcyde — right to this day.
Booty Brown doesn’t pretend that the departures didn’t rock The Pharcyde, leaving them seriously questioning their future.
“It did at first, like the initial shock, but then later it was just one of those things where I just realised like, ‘You know what? Either I’m gonna do it or I’m not gonna do it, and this is the way I wanna do it,’” he says. “I still feel I’m The Pharcyde. I’m nothing different and as long as Imani’s with it, then we have no problem with it. I just say that initially it was always gonna be a shock, but there’s a lot of things that always shock you initially.”
There were some dark times and points where they considered disbanding — even though it was all a long time ago now. The fact is though, The Pharcyde never envisaged themselves going beyond three albums.
“We were just saying most people last three albums and, after it starts going down, you get to the fourth or whatever, it kinda evaporates,” he recalls.
Of course, Booty laughs, The Pharcyde fragmented before their third album.
“We didn’t quite make it to the third one but, by that time, music changed, our ideals changed, and we just kinda changed with everything. I think that’s what I feel positive about — we do change. You do take the risk of some people saying, ‘hey, this work is not as good as the last work’ or ‘this work is not as good as this work,’ but we’ve always taken that risk in our careers.”
There have been rumours of a full Pharcyde reunion, but Booty maintains that they are no more than rumours.
“It seems kinda corny to me (laughs), because everybody now is trying to do this ‘get together’ thing, but it doesn’t seem to me that the honesty of it all is there,” he offers. “Right now I just believe in change, I like change. I always wanna be able to just change here and there — whether it’s for the good or for the bad — but just changing. I have no fear of taking risks.”
Similarly, he is doubtful about A Tribe Called Quest’s comeback.
“I’ve heard different stories, I’ve seen different things… Man, I’m a Tribe fan to the heart, I’m a super Tribe fan to the heart, I have all the albums. Even though I’ve met Q-Tip, we’ve known each other, I’m still a fan, but the last single that I heard off them which was supposed to be the reunion single, it didn’t thrill me… it kinda left me like, I don’t know — it just didn’t thrill.”
Even the Fugees have regrouped; eight years after their infamous falling out, they reunited to perform at a secret show organised by Dave Chappelle in Brooklyn just last month.
Though many would like to claim it as the remaking of hip hop history, Booty is suss of the media stunt.
“I think everybody is just on this kick. Hip hop is not the same, we need to bring it back, we need to bring back this, we need to bring back that, but then hip hop is just not the same — even with stuff being brought back. The Beastie Boys are ‘back’ for some fans, but then it’s like, I don’t think people are just really taking it on like that… at least compared to Paul’s Boutique or their other releases. I’m not saying that there’s less fans, I just think that the whole hip hop arena has evolved into something else and, man, I don’t wanna get caught not evolving into that.”
He adds, “I’m a fan, but I’m not like just an overhyped fan who’s gonna put a gold stamp on anything that comes out.”
Booty Brown realises that on The Pharcyde’s forthcoming Australian tour they will attract many nostalgic old fans — and he will be happy to see them — but he hopes to court new followers as well. He doesn’t feel that The Pharcyde has to be tied to the past.
“I’m always happy for people, but being that the group has gone through whatever changes throughout the years, some people say, ‘well, the music’s not the same…’ but I just think we have our old fans and then, at the same time, hip hop has changed in a little way, so now we’re getting new fans.”
The Pharcyde are releasing Humboldt Beginnings — their third release as a duo — independently and, according to Booty, it signals a fresh direction. Needless to say, the good-humoured Booty is open to fans’ responses to the LP.
“It’s an independent release — basically it’s us on our own label, trying to do it the best way we can. We didn’t really have anybody saying, ‘hey, you can’t do this’ or ‘you can’t do that.’
“This is the start of us trying to do something in a new direction, so I go on people listening to it and what they feel off it and, you know, of course, there’s gonna be people who are like, ‘Well, Tre is missing and Fat is missing, so we don’t get that side’ — and ‘It’s good but it’s not this, and it’s not that…’ But I feel positive because basically we did it ourselves. It’s ours.”
This excerpt originally appeared in Issue 922 of X-Press Magazine, published on Thursday, October 14, 2004. Share your memories of this and other classic X-Press content by joining the Rewind Facebook group. Rewind: 40 Years of X-Press Magazine by Bob Gordon is on sale now in hardcover and softcover.
