- (Low, casual) Just ask us what you wanna know...
MD: What would be your favorite TV program of all time?
- Simpsons.
MD: What about old stuff, growing up?
- Good Times.
- Sanford and Son.
- Jeffersons
MD: Alright, If you could be a character on one of those shows, who would it be?
- JJ! Haha, JJ was The Mack, dude! JJ had style. I wouldn't wanna be like Raj.
MD: Definitely would not want to be Raj. Now out of anybody, you can even include Monty Hall...
- I would be Green Lantern, dude. [Laughter]
MD: Green Lantern?
- Yep. But fuck that- I be a cartoon character before I be somebody on TV. TV's wack! I just had to think about that for a minute- I wouldn't be none of them fools, I'd be a cartoon character.
MD: Do you guys even have a TV?
- I used to.
- Hell yeah.
- No I don't have a TV-
- I mean we got two TVs at the Manor
MD: Rufus, go lay down...
- He just plays Nintendo all day, he's not... OK so that's our feeling on TV, we think TV's bull-
MD: Some of you came up as dancers, right? You were in a Herb Albert video, or something?
- Yep, yep.
- (High pitched voice) Yo I was in a lot of other stuff that was way worse than that. I did a K-
- Naw, that Herb Albert video was alright.
- It got props.
- I did a cable show, some song, but I was in a CLOSET! It was like in a closet, the dancers. (Sarcastic mumble...laughter)
- So this section of the interview is the pre -uh...
MD: The pre-Blunt.
- Pre-Weed. (Smoking sounds, satisfied mumbles)
MD: But wussup, you guys been touring lately?
- Some radio stuff here and there-
MD: To me you're one of the few groups out there that has a show. Most groups that put together a record don't necessarily have a show. How'd you get your show together?
- Naw, we just been, like before we used to dance and there was this era that we called "Trendy Days," where it was nothin' but dance groups. And everybody -
-We just used to bein' on stage, really. That's what it is. We've been performing on stage since we was like, you know -
-Since I was like 14.
- Since I was like 14, as far as like going out to clubs.
- And then, like before we got signed we was always doing shows, always.
- But The Trendy Days were the best, I mean, there was like the Tour de France music, I don't know how we would call it.
MD: Yeah what records were playing then?
- Tour de France.
- Cybertron.
- I guess it would be like techno now. Kinda, kinda- but not really. But it was funky, that shit was.
- Woo-yeah.
- It was way funky.
MD: It was like the beats were funkier?
- Yeah, they would take regular records and speed 'em up, like two at a time.
MD: When we came from the east coast and came out here, rap seemed kind of nervous to us. Pre-NWA, it was just like Egyptian Lover.
- Trendy didn't really have nothing to do with hip hop, trendy wasn't a hip hop thing. Trendy was mostly like mod, ska, know what I'm sayin'? People dressed like ska more than anything.
- Like vintage.
- People wore creepers 'n' shit.
- It was crazy.
MD: Yeah?
- people got perms.
- It was like the 60's mixed with the 50's.
- It wasn't like, it wasn't hip hop. Nobody wore tennis shoes.
- (Deep voice) Nope, nobody wore tennis shoes.
- It was crazy to wear tennis shoes to a dance.
- People who wore tennis shoes were like, you know what I'm sayin'?
- Like, like rebels.
- Like aw man, you got on tennis shoes!
-The first person I saw wear tennis shoes was Thulani. And that nigger just like went to New York a coupla times 'n' shit. He was like trying to hip a lot of people.
- Like the Soul Brothers brought - I got to give 'em their props because the Soul Brothers did make like, east coast-known, kinda ' cause people wasn't jocking east coast at ALL. Really. It was like a whole different thing. Comin and goin', comin' and goin'... - Audio Two, "Top Billin'"
MD: Yeah see that was a big New York thing, Audio Two, "Top Billin."
- Audio Two, De La Soul, Slick Rick, yep, I remember listenin' to their songs, dude, at the, uh, at the parade.
- What parade?
- There was just a bunch of trucks, dude, with Nissans. That's back when Nissans use to roll.
MD: So you grew up in L.A. listening to KDAY?
- Mm-Hmm.
- KGFJ and KDAY.
MD: The only station out now is Dusty's.
- Naw I use to listen to KLOS.
-No I used to listen to KROQ. I used to listen to KROQ and the Swedish Eagles, ha ha ha!
- My dad would get up every so often, and that's when I heard some CRAZY ASS MUSIC!
- He would listen to KMET!
- I used to listen to Duran Duran sometimes and Alligator Woman-type shit.
- Oh shit... Yo that wasn't funky. MD: What's like a regular a day in the life of the Pharcyde about?
- High (ha ha ha ha).
- Rolling a joint. Lighting it.
- There hasn't been too much about anything recently, because its just a lot of other stuff, you know what I'm saying?
- THAT's what it is.
- We get high, OK.
- We be rollin' in the car now.
- Yeah and then we just have to take care of some business. We'll have all kinds of company
- But before it was just like we used to just get high, go downstairs.
- Dance.
- Freestyle, dance.
-Rap.
- And just rap 'n' shit.
- Write.
- Listen to beats.
- Yeah.
- And now we be going to the company, talkin' some bullshit with uh, President. [group laughs together]
- It used to just be on-and-off dance, and rap, all day. And now it's just
- Them were the good old days, we were young bucks.
- There's a total difference now. I don't know if it's good, or if it's bad.
MD: So what's up, you guys all still live in the same crib?
- Yo man, what's up?
MD: Rufus! Go take a back seat, Rufus, hey! Come over this way...
- Rufus-pickin' on me...
MD: So you still live in the- Rufus Come on!- Pharcyde Manor. So what's the hardest thing about sharing one place?
- Keeping it clean.
- That's about it. That shit gets dirty. Way dirty.
- It's foul sometimes. It just smells like you're going to the bathroom in a gas station.
- We got like roaches, crickets, moths, rats.
- So it's cool that we just like have one place, dude. We just need to have like a beats place, a place to pee, everybody have one place.
MD: So what's like the main problem if one of you brings home a girl?
- Aw there's no problem with that.
-NOT a problem.
- It's REAL big.
- We all have our own space, that we don't even have to interfere like that.
MD: So you're saying there's no problem when you come in and three other people are hanging out on the couch?
- Nope. Naw. We never even-
- We don't have any furniture in the house.
- We don't have any couch.
- Only in our room.
- Ha heh heh heh ha.
- There's only a mirror downstairs and records and DJ equipment and speakers, and then upstairs we have beds.
- Yeah the only furniture is the ones that we sleep on.
MD:Alright, out of all the females in the entire world, who would you
most want to bone?
- In the whole world? In the whole world!
- I don't know, dude.
MD: 'Cause there's a song that isn't on the album, where one of you kids was talkin' about bonin' Chili from T.L.C.
ALL: Oh!! [laughter, mumbling] that's L.A. Jay, our producer.
MD: Oh and he's the one who says that rhyme?
ALL: Yeahp,
- I CAN'T SAY DUDE, 'cause... [softly] I got a girl...And I can't print no... ,
- No, but if you could bone anybody in the world- that's just a question, whether you have a girlfriend or not.
- Yo what are you talkin' about? Be a man, own up on your shit.
- OK, you're right- let me think... [mumbling]
- Naw!
- There's a lot of girls out there...
- Naw, not Janet Jackson!
- [With contempt] Janet Jackson, man. Come on!
- She's pretty fly...
- Not for the whole world.
- You said "come on" like she's wack.
- NO! In the whole world, compared to some women in the whole world-
- She's one of 'em!
- She's WACK!
- She's- Naw
- Man there's some beautiful-ass girls
- NO!
- -that could FADE Janet Jackson. She's a made-up mannequin. She's not shit, she's not shh-
- The shit'll be in Janet's butt.
- Naw, she's shit but she's not-
- I don't know because everytime we see like an actress or an actor, they don't all...
- Yeah they're not what they are.
- Yeah I seen her and she didn't thrill me, and I was in LOVE with her.
- I would bone uh, I would bone a caucasian woman.
MD: heh-heh.
- And stir up some controversy
- A big old tittied and a big booty and -
- [Laughing] He didn't want that kinda
MD: [Moans] Oh man...
- Troy Beyers... Hooooh!
- That day of the War show, when she wore that dress!
- Whewoooo [whistle]
- Tre I can't believe YOU can't think of one. There's one you been wantin' to fuck-
- Yeah that newscaster! 'member that newscaster he be watchin'?
- Aw you know where yours is- whooo!
- You know uh, uh...HOME girl on that daytime show?
- Mmhh Young And The Restless?
- NO.
- Sally Jesse Raphael? Tee-hee-hee
- Nope. On that classroom show-
- Ohhhh!!! Saved By The [indecipherable]!
- Yeahp, that's the one.
- I almost fucked the shit outta that little bitch!!!
[Eventually The Pharcyde talk about some of their stranger gigs]:
- Yeah we did some crazy shows, we did that show in the Roxbury.
- Yeah and it was some Gaultier AIDS thing. There was a buncha guys in-
- Drag queens-
- Kissing while we was like-
- The WHOLE audience. The WHOLLLLE audience!
- Yep. They was coool. They was rockin' with the beat.
- That's how it went down, though, know what I'm sayin'? That shit was crazy.
MD: That's pretty hectic... [Out of nowhere, Tre answers the question: who would you most want to bone?]
- Stacy Datch (?)
- WOOOOO.
- What?
- Stacy Datch.
- Nice sheen and all that.
- YEAH she is.
- And I heard she got skin problems.
- Hoo-hoo-hoo!
- HE- aw- ha-ha!!
[Laughing, clapping, gasping, coughing]
- That was-
- -fucked up.
MD: What was the most fucked-up shit that you didn't put on the album?
- We'll start off with the most fucked up shit that we put ON the album.
- We all feel that "Mister Officer" should not have been on the album. It should NOT have been on the album.
MD: [Singing to self] "Please, don't pull me over Mr.Officer, please"?
- Yeah
MD: But I like it because it has a sense of reality that people usually don't put on record-
[Conflicting yelling].
MD: How many people actually get pulled over and kill someone? The reality of it is: "Just please don't fuck with me."
- That was the reality at that time. Our new cut "Buck Down The Devil Bastard Cops."
[Laughter]
MD:Now what's up with your remixes? I know when people ask us to remix shit it's always kinda weird.
- We have no powers. Mike Ross-
- I don't even care-
- Yep. They own the tapes.
- We only own half of our songs.
- The "Mexico Mix" and shit, you know what I'm saying? Straight from hell, dude.
- They put the a cappella version on the single.
- That was stoopid!
- Yo man, what's up with you, homey?
MD: Rufus! [Whistles]
- You trippin', Rufus!
[Mike's dog Rufus keeps trying to steal The Pharcyde's licorice]
MD: I'd say for me-RUFUS, COME ON!-he's gettin' out of hand.
- [To Rufus]. Fuck you! I'll start fuckin' with you!
- He's comin' in my baggee!
- Rufus looks like a kangaroo [Laughs].
- Yeah fuck you!
[TAPE ENDS]
- Fuck that shit, dude! You know why? Cos I don't give a fuck! And that's how I really feel, dude! I'm down to do anything. And if that shit works, I'm down to try it again.
MD: How'd you go about doing tracks?
- J. Swift.
MD:He would hook up a track and then you'd just-
- And that's how it started. J. used to hook up tracks, he used to make all kinds a shit.
MD: To me, the tracks have a style, too.
- Naw, I'm gonna tell you, it's very progressive.
- Gittin' HIGH in the studio and just stayin' in there for HOURS!! And just sayin' whatever comes out n shit. Over some dope ass beats. Blue Light Special...
MD: What do you mean?
- If we did some freestylin', and if it was fly, it would be a Blue Light Special.
- When he makes the track, he would tailor-make whatever loops we'd bring. He was just constructing in the way our lyrics would go.
- J. Swift is departed now. He's Working with the Wascals. We're working with a new guy.
- He's not really new. He's been with us for long time.
- Yeah he's been knocking to get his props.
- Yeah, L.A. Jay.
MD: What's up with the Little Wascals? And what's up with the guy from that group, Buckwheat, who's on your album, saying the rhyme about jerking off in the bathroom? What's up with that?
[Laughter]
- Oh man, niggers jacked off 'n' shit.
- In high school he used to try to pretend like he gonna jack off, know what I'm sayin'?
MD: That's why I like your record- It's the reality aspect. People try to act like, 'that isn't my reality.' They just want to make gangster records all day long. But that is a certain aspect of reallty, you-
[Suppressed giggles]
MD:-You know what I mean? There's a whole OTHER side. What's really goin on?
[Laughter]
MD: For the Pharcyde, what's the Biggest Beef right now?
- MTV and the radio.
- Yo I hate engineers, dude. They'll fuck up your vibe.
- J. Swift.
- He was just too involved and got chased out of town.
- J. Swift was a hated man for a while in Hollywood. Nobody wanted to work with him.
- We went to Paramount, and he was like: "I hate all a ya!" [Laughing].
-J. Swift is just, he's just a crazy guy.
[Mumbling].
- BUT...that's neither here nor there, let's talk about Reggie. Reggie Andrews. At CU, in Inglewood. That boy used to chill before all this!
MD: Before The Trendy Days?
- NO!
MD: After the Trendy Days?
- Post, post-Trendy, pre-Delicious Vinyl.
MD: Now I still don't quite understand what the Trendy Days were...With the creepers?
- Tuxedos too...
- It was just some shit we was sucked into at a young age.
MD: See I've never even seen that scene anywhere. What years are we talking about?
- 84 to 88.
- It was more like '83...to...'87.
- Naw! '88. In '88 it was still goin on.
- NO, In '88 it was dyin out.
MD: See I didn't even know anything about this scene.
- It don't think it was that big.
- It was like the little girls.
- It was girls.
- It was small but it was like...you know what I'm saying?
- It meant a lot.
- Cos back in high school you had your athletes, and then you had...
- Dancers-
- Gangsters-
- Your school people, your average everyday-
- Nah, you had your athletes, trendies, and athletes- that's what they used to say.
- And we were all trendies.
- Trendies was like the people who was dyeing their hair.
MD: What was the single most influential hip hop record?
- Kane, for me.
- Single record, I couldn't even say. It was just a certain era.
- That's a toughee. Quest, dude. When I first heard Quest and De La.
MD: Alright, which old school rapper?
- There's so many, I could never say I had a favorite. I never really liked LL, but I admire him you know what I'm sayin? He's dope!! Or I understand why some people think he's dope. But me, personally, I used to like to listen to Rakim. I thought Rakim was everything, I thought he was super-dope.
MD: Yeah when "Eric B For President" came out, that blew everything apart.
- That was the shit.
MD: Alright if you could get away with any single crime, what would it be?
- Fuckin' I would rob Las Vegas, nigger. I would get about two million at each hotel, nigger. Straight up! No, why wouldn't I go for the gusto? And make it 10 hotels, nigger, 10 million dollars each.
- I would just like break in to some government secret files. Some files that I know that they have against me. I don't know I think they have some files against me. Secret files that they have about.. [yells] THE PEOPLE IN GENERAL! I'm sorry, I just keep goin on.
[Laughter at the notion top secret files on the Pharcyde]
- I'd do something to the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, kill some of 'em.
- That's kinda crazy, boy (giggling).
- With a motherfuckin' steak knife!
- He's pullin' all the stops. Hardcore, straight up. [Giggles].
- I'll shit.
- I would just throw bricks at old ladies. [Giggles] From roof tops!
MD: Alright, if you had a question you could ask other members of the group, what would it be?
- Damn I never thought a that, that's a crazy ass question!
[They decide not to answer this question and talk about their DJs instead]
- We need a DJ, and was gonna have this guy named Big Boy, who's a security guard, right? And he was like 'naw, I know somebody else that can fit the job.'
- Then he came in the rain and brought his bag, 'n' shit.
- [Woo-hoo-hoo!]
- He brought his turnlables over in a bag and a couple of records and...CRASHED! Then he said, 'I'll come back tomorrow.' And then the next day he came he just started sleeping on the couch again.
- AND I'll take the story over from here. We went on a promotional tour-
MD: Now wait, this is the Kid that's your DJ now?
- Mm-hmm. We let him and Smooth stay in the house, an when we came back, it was...fucked...up. To the max. Like we never ever seen it before.
MD: Why, what happened?
- It was half way clean by the time we got back, but it was still fucked up. Take it over from there...
- Maggots in the pan. In my noodles and shit. In Imani's room and shit. Old fish in the kitchen-it was terrible.
- Grease and rats and slime and grotesque!
MD: So he's still your DJ like when you tour?
- Yeah .
- Yeah that's another thing: L.A. Jay was a Trendy DJ
MD: OK so after The Trendy Days what came next?
- It got real heavy. It was like people would go to a concert and then to Hollywood Live. It was crazy, like Slick Rick was coming out here to perform.
- The Real Roxanne
- X-Clan
SPIKE: [To Mike] Get more beefs.
MD: Actually, yeah, y'all didn't have that many beefs, except for the recording engineer. I beef about shit all day long...
- Oh we got the beef, man.
- Mike Ross-
- I got beef with cars and buses. I'll be tryin to jog 'n' shit, and then like a gang of smog'll come rollin in my face.
[Laughter]
MD: Alright, what was your favorite old school outfit?
- Aw nigger, I used to wear mother fuckin' Gucci sweatshirts with a Turkish robe. That was like doing the fresh vest. That's all I remember, having a Gucci sweatshirt. I thought I was the hippest. Had on one of them, uh, golden shower hats- and my curl hangin' out. I was in there! Had a bomber jacket on.
- Naw I could never say that I dressed like b-boy hip hop. Cos I used to go through this, I was on sss [giggle] sss-ome other shit. In high school I used to read through The Preppy Handbook And they used to tell you how to dress and everything, like things you couldn't do. I used to wear preppy clothes. I used to wear Argyle vests.
- We used to wear our pants like, like this! [Pulls up pants like knickers]. Word up, dude. We used to wear our pants real high.
MD: You CANNOT be being serious right now!
-NO! Whatch you mean?
- Hell yeah! We jumped through so many phases. It was hip hop phases. Trendy phases. Then you had your Aaron Hall impersonations. Then you had your Sloppy Spade, hip hop bums. Y'all remember the hip hop bums?
- House Bums!
- It was just all kind a shit we went through!
- Relaxin' your hair, blonde-in' your hair, green-in your hair, blue-in your hair, bald-in your hair!
- Blue contacts! Everybody used to wear blue contacts!
- And then all of us went through The Young Executive Stage, when we didn't even want to be like that. We wanted to be like the clean cut party guy. Have a job.
- Community college was the shit!
- Mr. Friday Night! I call it Mr. Friday Night cos you was always paid, you were riding down the street with the windows rolled down, with the music blastin' and your shirt open, man. In your black Sentra with a fake antennae on the back, with some bumpin' sounds, bumpin' some Guy! Loud. With the windows half rolled down! With your elastic curlies and your Kincaids on, rollin down Crenshaw.
- Johnny Kemp, yeah, but that wasn't a hit, so he ain't shit.
- Where is he now?
- His wife made that song.
MD: Yeah he came out and then fell off.
- That shit was a jam, though. That's a historical jam. You can still play that shit and people get hyped as a motherfucker!
MD: So during that time did you have to work day jobs, or what?
- Hell yeah, we all worked at the mall. I used to work at Taco Bell, then I worked at Sears, for a little while, sellin' uh towels, then-
- Yo you aint never sellin' nobody nothin'!
MD: What was your
absolute worst job?- My worst job was Wendy's. I hate workin' at food places.
- Hey let 'em know what you used to do so people can be aware-
- I used to fuck up, man-
- Fuck the system!
- We used to throw meat patties on the ground and then spit on 'em...
-My worst job was at this place called Narcy Narc. It was a motherfuckin' drug rehabilitation place. I had to clean the floors-
[Giggles from others]
- I had to wash the dishes and shit.
- Man, working for The Man, anything is a bad job, don't even matter what it is. That's why if we don't sell no records 'n' shit, I'm never gonna get a job [Laughter]. I don't give a fuck. I'll just survive, somehow. I'm not gonna get THAT kinda job. I'll do somethin'.
MD: Alright so what's the plan now with the record? I heard they re-serviced it and everything?
- It's raising to the, um, somewhere.
- Sometimes I'm kinda glad because I didn't wanna come out with "Passing Me By" first, it would have been like we were comin' from PM Dawn.
- It was kinda cool cos people got "Your-
[TAPE CUTS OFF]
MD: Alright, does everybody wanna say their voice:
"Slim Kid."
"Fat Lip"
"I-MAN-i."
"Romye."
MD: Alright. I'll try to get everything right, but hey, yeah I think I asked all my shit.
- Rufus!
- That nigger! Man, your dog is killing me!
- I put the licorice down my pants and the-
- Dog'll be goin' anywhere to get some!
[Laughter]
