Thursday, August 16, 2012

Ride to the Pharcyde


"Hell, with the advent of YouTube, you can just make your own rap career and you never have to put out a record." - Imani, The Pharcyde

Imani and Bootie Brown (Tha Pharcyde) with assistance from DJ Vick One and Computer Jay (on visuals), will bring The Pharcyde experience to New Zealand for the first time - Thurs in Wanaka (Mint), Friday in Wellington (SFBH),  Saturday in Auckland (Studio), Sunday in Chch (Dux).

Martyn Pepperell did a great interview with the band earlier this month well worth a look, read it at UTR. Snippet below...

...Now, a lot of people out here don't know seem to know that you were dancers before you were rappers. I was wondering if you could talk about what the hip-hop dance scene was like back in the day for you guys?

Bootie Brown: In LA we called it the Trendy scene. That was what it was. It was sped up electro, hip-hop, Afrika Bambaataa, rock, Cybotron, Kraftwerk. It was just really that electro type of music. We would play it at 45 [not 33 on the record player] sometimes. It wasn't like a big thing, but if you met someone, you could tell if they were doing the dancing, just by the way they dressed. It was a complete style, a complete whole thing that was going on.

Imani: It was loose man. It was nothing official, there was no president, no vice president. It was just cats that liked music, and it was like a scene. You know what I mean? It was just a scene. You knew these people were connected to the scene because of their hairstyles or the way they talked.

Bootie Brown:
I would say that was kinda like the start. That was where I met Imani. It was like a little stage where hip-hop was coming in. The whole thing was changing over and we had this contribution.

How were you guys dressing in that scene?


Bootie Brown: Doc Martins. Creepers, I don't know if you guys had Creepers out there? We were like mods. In a Mad House mod type of way. It would have its own twist sometimes. Some people would wear tuxedos and suits. Depending on what groups you were in, you had a certain kind of style in the group.

Imani: Imagine if The Warriors didn't have chains and knives! [Laugh] You know the movie The Warriors?

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