The Other Side

If you know your classic hip hop, you'll know The Pharcyde. Formed in 1989 as a four-piece in South Central Los Angeles, they were integral to the rise of alternative hip hop and gained worldwide fame with singles like Passin' Me By, Runnin' and Drop.

And like so many hip hop artists that came up in the late '80s and through the '90s, they didn't always have the easiest time in an industry where label demands frequently clashed with their talent's aspirations. The Pharcyde's history is somewhat chequered – there are the highs of success, particularly as they built their reputation for brilliant live shows and released instant classics like their debut album, Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde. But there were also lower points, such as when founding members Fatlip and Slimkid3 left the group, and when later releases failed to meet the expectations of critics and industry suits.

Through it all, Imani (Emandu Wilcox) and Bootie Brown (Romye Robinson) have remained stoic. They have been in The Pharcyde since the beginning, forming it after meeting through their work as dancers. Now, after over 20 years of making music and performing on stage together, they're heading down to Australia for the first time in years.

“I'd say this is about the third time in Australia,” says Robinson, speaking on the phone from LA. “[The last was] 2009 for the Good Vibes [Festival].”

It seems like it's suddenly all the rage for groups from the '80s and '90s to get together for reunion tours, but for Robinson, this opportunity is less about giving the old fans a last hurrah and more about getting to know the new generation. “We wanna just like, outreach to the new people,” he explains. “There's new fans out there, kids sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and we haven't had no major records out or anything like that, so I think the human contact, coming to see them, that's important. They gotta find out what they can expect from The Pharcyde.”

It's a good point. After all, the internet has made it infinitely possible for younger fans to explore older stuff as well as the new, and hip hop, with its tradition of sampling and referential lyrics, tends to be more steeped in history than most musical styles. Wilcox sees the tour as a chance to give fans a sense of The Pharcyde's full development. “Oh yeah, you'll get a peek into our world. We'll let you know what we've been working on – the beginning, the middle and right now.”

Both Wilcox and Robinson are currently working on their own projects – Wilcox has been working with Ta'Raach, and Robinson has been writing under his alter ego Frank Friction. So they're both working independently, which gives them greater control than they had in their heyday when they were signed to Delicious Vinyl.

Robinson remembers the difficulty of balancing his own opinions with those of The Pharcyde's label, particularly when it came to following up Bizarre Ride with the group's second album, Labcabincalifornia. “When we did Labcab, compared to Bizarre Ride, it was so different, you know, the stuff that we used to go through.” The hardest part was convincing the label that a track had the goods to win over fans. “It was a process to say what was gonna be the single, and to argue that and go through that… It's cool in one way, because you're fighting for what you believe in, but it's soul-deadening. You're trying to move forward, but you're stuck.”

Working independently has given Robinson more freedom. “Now, without having those expectations… If I want to go out there and make some country and western, I can do that. There's nobody to say what we can or cannot do. And that's the best place I think you can be when it comes to music.”

Wilcox takes a slightly different view of working with his former label. “They didn't dictate the kind of music we made, they just dictated the releases,” he suggests, adding, “you still gotta take into consideration, you're [working with] somebody else's money, so you gotta compromise on some level.” However, he's not immune to the benefits of working independently. “Now, there's no compromise. I don't answer to nobody.”
To Wilcox's mind, an album or a hit single was never the end game. “At the end of the day, we make music. We don't make records, we don't make singles. We make music. That's just how it is. And now less compromises, because we're not doing it off somebody else's money right now.”

They may have been performing together for over two decades, but Wilcox and Robinson still remember their first gig together as The Pharcyde. “December 1992,” says Robinson. One would assume that The Pharcyde's live career got off to an auspicious start, but as it happened the gig didn't quite to go plan. “We wanted to make such a big impact, and it just didn't click off how we wanted to click off,” laughs Robinson. “It was an infamous day in history that will never be forgotten. [Afterwards] we were like, 'If we're gonna do this shit, we're gonna have to get it together.'”

To add insult to injury, the group had actually rehearsed for the show. “It wasn't like we just came off the cuff for the show – you know what, we practiced,” insists Wilcox. “We thought we were gonna rock the show. We just felt so confident, like that it would just click.” Reality, however, was slightly different. “We got on stage, and stuff just started falling by the wayside. It was a real eye-opening day. No member of the group was satisfied with what went down. The label, they were cool with it, but we couldn't believe it just happened.”

Both Wilcox and Robinson started pushing themselves to learn how to rock a stage and feel good about it at the end of the show. The most important thing they learned, though, is how to roll with the punches. “Nine times out of ten, there's gonna be a problem,” says Wilcox. “It's not gonna be perfect unless you're rolling with Prince or rolling with U2 or some shit.” Wilcox doesn't look for perfection in his team; he wants people who can push through a tricky situation. “The people that we roll with, like, our drummer has sat on cases because the stool was broken. Those are the people who you want to help you build your team, who can go out there and fight some battles.”

For The Pharcyde, the battles are still worth fighting. Whether they're playing a gig or recording a track, both Wilcox and Robinson are happy to still be in the music business. After surviving more than 20 years in the game, that's fair enough too. “Right now, I'm just free to do what I want,” says Robinson happily. “It's the awesomest feeling to just say, 'You know what? I want to make a beat like this today.' I feel like I don't have the pressure that we had with labels. The expectations are not there. The only expectation is to do something good. Do something great.”