Phar out

It seems that Foot and Mouth disease respects no cultural boundaries. Not counting the usual customs hassles that you might expect a group infamous for their herbal habits to encounter, The Pharcyde manage to arrive a hardly-comfortable twenty minutes before they're due on stage at the Redbox. It's all thanks to a disinfectant-soaked catalogue of cancelled ferries and over-zealous officials, leaving the Los Angelenos a little disorientated, not that you'd know it to watch them rip up a hungry crowd minutes later. And needless to say, it's nothing a big fat aftershow blunt won't soothe…

Originally choreographers and dancers on In Living Color, the Pharcyde (as they were then, Tre 'Slimkid' Hardson, Derrick 'Fatlip' Stewart, Imani Wilcox and Romye 'Booty Brown' Robinson) hooked up in 1990 and produced a psychedelic hip hop meisterwerk in the shape of their warped debut Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, to much critical and grassroots fanfare. For a while it seemed that the Pharcyde might be the chosen ones to rescue LA hip hop from its guns 'n' bitches ghetto, gaining heavy rotation on MTV and still heavier rotation from their DJ peers. It was not to be, as business troubles (disputes with Delicious Vinyl about sales figures and vanishing funds) and inter-nicene warfare within the group slowly took their toll. Trumping their debut five years on with Labcabincalifornia, an album that took its inspiration from the tradition of positive hip hop begun by De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, and then stomping all over it with childish 'shroom-powered glee, The Pharcyde still struggled with an indifferent industry and their own peculiar demons. Since then, losing Tre and Fatlip along the way, the stripped-down core of Imani and Booty Brown have continued to fight the good fight, coming up with Plain Rap and a fearsome live spectacle to boot. I crept backstage after the show, fought my way through a dense cloud of sensimilla fumes, and tried to find out what keeps the Pharcyde burning.

JAMES KELLEHER: This is your second tour of Europe as the Pharcyde, and your first time in Ireland - how has the response been so far?

Booty Brown: It's like everywhere is starved for hip-hop, and a live show that's worth your money. When we're on stage - we used to be fans, we're still fans - so if I gotta pay twenty pounds to see a motherfucker, you better entertain my ass. So when I'm on the stage, I'm acting like I'm in the audience. I try and think of the dopest local artist. Like out here, I wonder how House Of Pain was, when they'd play 'Jump Around', and I want to match that type of energy.

JK: You don't seem to restrict yourself to the newer material either - it's an equal mix from all the albums - do you still enjoy doing the older tracks?

BB: We know what the people want. Because if it wasn't up to us, the record company or whoever would be like, "You gotta make sure they know about the new album." But when we're up there, people want to hear some old shit, they want to see us in rare form, and they want to hear some new shit.

Imani: But the way we think about it is, you gotta be honest: we're out here for the money. I don't want to fake the people out and be like "Yo, I'm out here just to be kickin' it". If I could come out here and do shows or whatever, I would do it, but being that this is our livelihood, I gotta think about everything in steps. It's cool to be out here, I got nothing against touring - I'll go anywhere! Russia, Lebanon, Afghanastan, Turkey, I don't care - if the hip hop crowd is there, my thing is to rock it. In hip hop, you know, you work with a lot of shady people, so you got to watch your step…

JK: Your biggest beef has always been with the record industry, right? When you look back at your career, and all the times you've taken a fall on the business side, and you look from the outside at these fifth-rate copyists at the top of the charts, selling multi-platinum, how does it make you feel?

BB: I think if you keep fighting, basically someone's gonna realise the battle. It's when

you give up, like if I was just to say "fuck it! I don't want to do this shit no more!" and I go and try to be a carpenter, I'd just be fooling myself. And I'm just not a quitter, and I can't give up, even though shit has been against us. And I think ordinary people have shit against them every day, you know? When I was working at Domino's, at Taco Bell, there was shit going down there too. What we're doing now is just bigger, so there's gonna be bigger problems. It's never gonna be easy.

I: We want to be big like U2, when it's all said and done. Or at least move people the way they do…

BB: Yeah, the pop thing. I'll put it like this: Outkast is pop, but they're doing what they want to do. And they present themselves how they want to present themselves.

I: Yeah, they didn't change their formula. The people crossed over to them. And eventually, we'll get our break, and that's why we're going to stick to it.

JK: Did you guys see the Grammys? Eminem up on stage with Elton John?

I: That's great. I wish I had a chance to do that with Elton John - you know how many people listen to Elton John?

BB: That's his opinion. My opinion is, that shit is wack! I mean, I never said nothing about homosexuals, I've no problem with it. But if I go on record saying something about one thing, and you see me doing that same thing… it's like if Pharcyde did something with the LAPD! I know it's a money thing, and I know hella money is involved in the situation, but you've got money, and for you to be questin' after more money, that's a definite punk-ass move! If I wanted to talk about fags and homosexuals, and I got up on stage about it, I would be questioned. It's not wrong for him to be questioned. I mean, Eminem is tight, he really is a tight MC, but it's about people that know better.

JK: He claims he didn't know that Elton John was gay when he agreed to do it.

I: He's a fuckin' liar! Eminem is a fuckin' liar if he didn't know Elton John was gay. My son knows Elton John is gay!

BB: Man, that is the biggest hokus! That's some bullshit…

I: I read something that Eminem said: the word faggot to him don't mean homosexual. Then what the fuck does it mean?! Somebody's schooling him real good, telling him to say all the right things. We don't have no problem with Eminem, but I speak my mind on whatever…

JK: I know you guys aren't big political players, but…

I: I don't vote. I don't believe in the system, so I don't support it whatsoever.

JK: What do you think of your new president?

I: I like him. I think he's good if you like America, because he's gonna make sure that America stays the shit.

BB: I'll put it like this: In one way, George Bush is dope. I mean, shit is gonna be nasty with him, everybody knows that…

I: We could be prosecuted for our beliefs…

BB: But he's not frontin'. Everybody knows it's going to be a certain way. Clinton's OK too. It's kinda fucked up, because all the presidents be doing some foul shit. Kennedy had a special room inside the White House where he'd go fuck ho's! People like them because they're human. I like to get head, I play the sax, he's smoking weed, that's some human shit! And people can identify with that.

JK: Spike Jonze directed the video for 'Drop' back in '96 - have you been following his career closely?

I: He shined the light on us, for a while…

BB: But you gotta think of it in terms of connections - he married Francis Coppola's daughter, and that's a hell of a power move. Anyone who's involved in commercials, videos, Hollywood is where they want to go. And him making Being John Malkovich has put him in a powerful position to do things. It's connections and power moves. I'm not saying that's bad - I mean, he did the video for Sabotage, a couple of Nike commercials with McEnroe, that kinda shit, so he was defintely working…

JK: OK, one final question: if you could send a message to yourselves at 19, when the group was just coming together, what sagely advice would you dispense?

I: Fight man, fight! At all times.

BB: I'd cheer myself on. I've been real broke, and we've been doing this thing, and sometimes I'd wonder why I even quit my day job. But I can't complain - I'm here in Ireland, I've never been here before, and people still accept what we're doing. I can't say that we're doing anything wrong. Right now, I feel like the book is open. I'm about to write some hella shit, and it ain't over 'till we say it's over.