When The Pharcyde visited my home city, I couldn’t let the chance for an interview be Passin’ Me By
When those L.A. stars collided with Sheffield, it made for a night of pure hip-hop greatness. With classic tracks such as Runnin’, Passin’ Me By, Drop, Oh Shit, and more on the setlist, it was truly a night to remember.
At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 22nd, I was lucky enough to grab a seat — well, a bench — in the outdoor area of Matilda Street’s The Network (formerly The Plug, for those who know) for a very cool chat with Tre, Imani and Fatlip from one of the most iconic hip-hop groups of the ’90s: The Pharcyde.
This year marks 35 years since the group’s debut album Labcabincalifornia, and to celebrate, the group have been touring non-stop. “Shows have all been very good,” Tre says. “We’re built for it. We have tour mode and home mode — at home we’re dads and creators, but when we come to work, we’re in that mode. I know the job, and we fucking do this! This is for the fans, and we’re here to celebrate our albums and new music as well.” Their latest EP, 1999 WRITE THE FUTURE, lives upto the greatness of the group and Timeless is exactly what The Pharcyde are.
“It’s a celebration of The Pharcyde,” Imani adds. “It just happens to be 35 years since the Labcabin record we did. It’s a celebration because we’ve spawned generations — some people have never seen us before, and now they get the chance to just be here.”
As we kept talking, the conversation drifted to one of my favourite topics: manifestation. Imani reflected how the group had been on the same wavelength since the very beginning. “It’s rare to have four people all on the same page,” he said. “We were like, we’re gonna go to New York and record with some of the people we appreciate. Whenever something happened, we were all on the same page — and then Q-Tip gave us the opportunity to work with Jay Dee, because we manifested it.” To which I eagerly replied, “I manifested this interview,” before breaking into a quick “manifesting” as a tribute to The Pharcyde’s track Manifest — what a tune.
With my favourite flex being that I know every bar to Passin’ Me By — and like to make any of my friends who’ll listen sit through my rendition — I couldn’t resist bringing it up in conversation. “I feel like there was just this feeling that it was already a hit. It basically wrote itself and invited us to be a part of it,” Tre shares.
“The way it came about was during a time where there were a lot of synchronicities — a lot of good harmonies with the guys,” Fatlip comments. “I would honestly say that was the best part of my life. I’d just got out of high school and reached the dream of getting into the music business. There was a moment, even after we decided to become a group, when we found this record collection — and that’s where we discovered all the samples.” With the help of J-Swift and Reggie Andrews, the iconic ’90s track was born.
As an artist myself, still in the early stages of finding my own sound, I couldn’t pass up the chance to ask true legends how they’ve maintained such longevity in their careers. “Reggie Andrews, our first manager and mentor, told us you have to do like 30 or 40 songs to get one good one,” Imani shared. “So that’s what I would say: if you’re an artist, record, write, and have experiences. Repetition. Just keep on doing it and doing it.”
Tre follows up with his own philosophy: “Study the greats or a musician you like. Study technique and everything — and then fucking forget it all, because it gets in the way. Just be an open channel for what’s coming through to you and let it sink to those who it’s for.”
