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Pharcyde's latest album is a step away from group's 'Bizarre' past

By Kimberly Howitt
Daily Arts Writer

The Pharcyde, a group of charismatic MCs with a sense of humor, have been proving that their serious skills on the mic extend far beyond the studio. Slimkid 3, Fatlip, Imani and Romey (Bootie Brown) definitely know how to rock it live. Plus, these dudes can dance.

The Pharcyde's first album, "Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde," which won the respect of the hip-hop world and beyond, sounded like a bunch of rowdy kids with cartoon-like personas, rhyming hilarious stories over twisted beats. They had rhymes that everyone could relate to, and hype beats that everyone couldn't help but bob their heads to. The Pharcyde seemed to virtually explode onto the scene. They were slap-happy funsters, loopy pranksters, and most importantly they didn't take themselves too seriously.

Three years later the Pharcyde released their second album, "Labcabincalifornia." This time, the hyper kids had matured. They let us know that they survived the hassles of the recording industry, and they are coming back wiser.

The Pharcyde used to reside at the infamous Pharcyde Manor, their former house and studio. However, things got rowdy, and they decided to move to a calm, secluded new studio/house, the Labcabin', in upper-middle-class Los Feliz, Calif. The transition between environments is reflected in the music on their latest album.

When asked if that was the plan -- new studio, new sound -- Imani said, "There was no plan." His partner Romey agreed, "Yeah there was no plan, that's just how it went down, you can't plan things like that."

Even when there is a plan, plans tend to change. According to the band, "Labcabincalifornia" was originally supposed to be called "Revelations." Romey explained, "Special Ed got the title first ...We were gonna do Revelations, we were gonna say different things. It was a whole different concept. (But) ... it wasn't like that, (and) we just decided to call it `Labcabincalifornia.'"

When Romey heard that Vibe magazine compared this album musically to early Sly Stone and mid-career Stevie Wonder, he paused in amazement. "Damn, that's kinda cool," he said. "I never heard that before, that's my first time ever hearing that. That's pretty deep, pretty damn deep."

Hip-hop in 1995 saw tons of collaborative projects. Almost every album had at least one track with old homeys dropping a couple of rhymes and showing their support for one another. (Sometimes it made you wonder if it was because there's a slew of MCs who can't stand on their own.)

The Pharcyde's first album, "Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde," included an appearance from beat-master L.A. Jay. He was responsible for the slow, melodically eloquent remix of Otha Fish. When asked if they plan on working with L.A. Jay for remixes on this album Imani explained, "Aww maybe. He ain't always around, so we don't know. He has a project going on, him and Tre, they was working with Brian Austin Green."

Even without the help of L.A. Jay, the Pharcyde have produced a second album that is musically moody, with echoing guitars, trippy chimes, and strong, hip-hop bass beats. And unlike many of their contemporaries' attempts at collaboration, "Labcabin'" is strictly the Pharcyde.

In the future, however, Romey said he would like to work with people outside of hip-hop. "I want to piece my own band together actually. I don't know, it's not like no particular one person I would like to work with," he explained. "Yeah, it's easy to say you wanna work with somebody, but it takes a lot of practice and stuff. It takes a lot of time. People just wanna hook shit up, and think it's gonna automatically work, but it's not like that all the time."

There's been talk of the Pharcyde hooking up with the Hieroglyphics crew. Romey said, "Yeah, you always talk about it a lot, as far as being with your people, you always talk about doing stuff together, but the timing is kinda hard, you know what I'm sayin'. Like being out on tour and everything and everybody's got different schedules, so it's kinda hard to do that kinda stuff."

Imani and Romey agree that being on tour can get kind of tiring. But the Pharcyde maintain their sense of humor. At the L.A. show, Fatlip even performed the entire set in nothing but a Speedo and a down vest.

They also agree that one of the dopest things about being on tour is that it's like a nationwide record shop hunt. Even though Imani admitted, "I haven't bought any old records in a while. But I'm about to go make a purchase of the Fugees album and the Goodie Mob, 'cause they got some fat shit."

The Pharcyde released an incredibly innovative video for their second single "Drop." Directed by music-video wizard Spike Jonze, "Drop" breaks the tired mold of the typical hip-hop house party video.

"It was cool (working with Spike Jonze)," Romey explained, "because he knew what he wanted to do, you know what I'm sayin'. There wasn't a lot of time wasted. He was like `yo, you guys gotta do this,' boom boom boom, you know what I'm sayin'."

The Pharcyde filmed the entire video while performing their actions backwards. The final footage is actually played backward so that the band looks like they are moving forward while their surroundings are moving in reverse.

The band even learned to say their lyrics backwards, so when the tape was played backwards their mouths looked right.

"We had a linguist for about three or four days, so yeah, we had to kinda learn everything backwards with the rhythm," Romey explained.

But don't let all this innovation make you too dependent on the Pharcyde for fresh hip-hop. Even with all their success and support, the band claims that they are only going to put out three albums.

"Yeah, we're gonna put out some more music before the last album. But we're really gonna concentrate on making three albums," Imani explained. "We might make four, but I'm saying we're not gonna be making a gang of albums. We're not gonna have like 10 Pharcyde albums. You might get five. Maybe."

All hope is not lost, however. The Pharcyde started out as professional breakdancers, and it's in their blood to keep performing. What's next for the band?