The Pharcyde set to lift the roof of Cork Opera House for Cork Jazz Festival 

Time is always marching on, all we know will soon be gone,” goes the chorus of “Timeless”, the recent release from the legendary South Central LA hip-hop outfit The Pharcyde. After the unfettered spontaneity of their 1992 debut, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, 1995’s follow up was distinguished by what many observed as a maturity and a pronounced sense of introspection. That may have been the case, but it doesn’t require the above lines to know that The Pharcyde have been though a lot and lived a lot.

While their current tour may be billed as “30Years of Labcabincalifornia”, presenting it as a celebration of their landmark second album, a lot of things have happened over the years, with different iterations of the outfit, so it’s good to acknowledge where they are now with this recent EP.

“We’ve been away for a long time and people’s attention spans are real short,” explains Imani, possessor, alongside fellow MC Bootie Brown, of a distinctively reedy delivery, “so it was just like just something to let them know that we here and we doing things. And we have other things, but this is just something to throw our hat back into the ring and just let them know, yo, we here, we grown up a little bit. It don’t sound the same but we still the same, and it’s going to morph into whatever it’s going to morph into. We’re just here to like roll and have fun.

“We don’t really think too much about where we’re going to end up or how we’re perceived by the fanbase. We’re kinda like doing the music and living the life and then we let all the people determine where they stand.”

“And how they feel about it,” interjects the more smooth-voiced Slimkid3 cheerfully. “It’s not our business how they feel or anybody feels about us. It’s just our business to make the music. It’s like Sly Stone and all those greats before us. They were just making music and vibing. And then you either rode with them or you didn’t.”

Time passes. Change is constant, and The Pharcyde haven’t been immune. Founded in 1991 by MCs/producers Slimkid, Fatlip, Imani and Booty Brown, to cut a long story short, the current lineup, which re-convened in 2020, is without Brown.

Whatever the exact details of what has happened between the quartet, the current three members insist that the door is always open to Brown, and while he may not be with them in person, he is very much with them in spirit, a point Imani is keen to assert.

“We’re The Pharcyde. Whatever group would be doing the s**t we be doing? But the one thing that remains: ‘Imani, Bootie Brown, Fatlip and Slimkid3’” he says with a flourish, quoting from the refrain of the Labcabincalifornia track “Pharcyde”.

“There’s no other additive added to the mix,” Imani continues. “So whatever way you look at it it’s a form of The Pharcyde in some form of fashion. It is what it is whether you accept it or not.”

It feels like a good point to recall Labcabincalifornia, a record Slimkid3 describes as a feeling. I ask him what the leadup to the album was like.

“It was just like one continuous living experience, as it is today,” he replies. “You immerse yourself in life, and we’re like messengers of the things that we see and feel and experience and hear.

“So, the first album was very fun and quirky. We were young and there was things that we didn’t know and we were just experiencing stuff. So, as we grew older as men is what you hear in Labcabincalifornia.”

“We got a dose of reality,” interjects Imani.

“A dose of reality,” agrees Slimkid3. “We got just being jaded by the industry. There’s so many things mixed in that smoothie.”

It’s surprising to learn that Labcabincalifornia wasn’t as lovingly embraced as their debut, but time has proved it to be a classic.

The album is also notable for offering an early introduction to the work of the revered genus hip-hop producer J Dilla, who was introduced to the band by A Tribe Called Quest’s MC and producer Q-Tip.

“First of all, it wasn’t Dilla,” Imani correctly points out. “It was Jay Dee. James Dewitt Yancy. And I like to say he was in the caterpillar stage. Dilla is the butterfly. We didn’t work with Dilla; we worked with Jay Dee. So, he wasn’t who he was going to be later. The dude that you all know and fell in love with, that’s not who we met. We met a shy kid out of Detroit that had never did nothing. So it was a very different experience with Jay Dee versus Dilla.”

I wonder, given they were older and more experienced, if The Pharcyde tried to foster something in him? Again, Imani is keen to set the record straight.

“Naw, naw,” he insists. “Sometimes your little homie is your big homie. And just because he was younger than us, he had a wealth of experience and knowledge to bring to the table. That’s why he became Dilla because he was just working his ass off in Detroit and he was ready for the world and we were just one of the first vehicles for his genius. And then it just happened the rest of the world came after that.”

 The Pharcyde play Cork Opera House on Friday, October 24. Doors 11.30pm.