Has The Pharcyde's Bizarre Ride Come To An End?

"It is what it is." That's a phrase that keeps exciting Booty Brown's mouth on this blazing July afternoon at his studio and office space in the heart of Hollywood, just a block away from Mann's Chinese Theater. We had initially set up an interview with Brown, aka Romye, for part of a "Return of the Pharcyde" story, but as it turns out, that's not the way it's going down.

"Have you already heard?" Brown asked upon our arrival. Well, sort of, was the answer. Something about Tre leaving the group, and with only Booty Brown and Imani left (Fat Lip got the boot back in 1996), the Pharcyde is no longer, well, the Pharcyde."Yeah, that's about it," confirms Brown. "You can't really say me and Imani is gonna make the Pharcyde. It was four people. I would never front on the people and say it's the Pharcyde. It's gonna be totally different. It's half. It is was it is"

So what happend with Slim Kid Tre? Brown answers, "Tre just called and said, 'Dude, I can't do it no more,' and I was like, 'Uh, do what?' He was like, 'I can't be in the group no more.' I said, 'What's the problem?" Tre blamed "the pressure."

"It was a short conversation," says Brown. "But we've been dealing with so much I can't even fault anybody for saying, 'Fuck it, I don't wanna go through it anymore.' But then, anything that's worthwhile, you gotta fight for it." And then come those words again from Booty Brown's mouth: "It is what it is."

After dropping their left-of-center debut Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde in 1992 - a brilliantly creative album that went gold on the strength of the hits single "Passing Me By" - the future looked mighty bright for the four ex-dancers from Los Angeles. But by the time the follow-up, Labcabincalifornia, was releashed in 1995, their bizarre ride was starting to hit some potholes. First of all, beefs between Fat Lip and the groups other three members - creative differences, ego clashes, Fat Lip's participation in nasal sports - eventually led to him being kicked out of the group. Meanwhilw, the Pharcyde were also finding themselves in conflicts with their label, Delicious Vinyl. " I guess it all comes down to money," Booty Brown says of their problems with Delicious Vinyl. "That's the root of all evil, right? It wasn't there and people need it to live. That's the problem of everthing. Some people say, 'Ah, that's bullshit that everything breaks down to money,' but basically that's what it is!' And once again: "It is what is."

The Pharcyde found themselves caught in that old music industry trap - the record label says the group owes them money so they can't get out of their contract, and the group refuses to give the label any more music. So the Pharcyde was struck in a rap artist's No Man's Land.

"But we kept making material the whole time." remembers Brown, "because without material, you're nothing. That's been a year-and-a half dealing with legal stuff, going back and forth."

With Tre departure, an album's worth of completed tracks has now become "the Lost Recording" - destiny unknown. A self-produced and self-distributed Pharcyde EP, Chapter One . . . Testing The Waters, was quietly releashed earlier this year, but with its extremely limited pressing, it'll take more than just a little luck for fans to find it. And for now, with Tre and Fat Lip on their own individual solo missons, Booty Brown and Imani intend on sticking together. But Brown says he up to the task.

"We've already done that." he says. "We were at that point when we were working with Tre, 'cause Fat Lip wasn't in the group. So now, we gotta just come with some new shit. Just freak it. But it's all good....

"Some people are gonna be like.'Damn, that's some shit! It's 1999, about to be 2000, and niggas is breaking up!" says Brown. "And it's true! When you break it down, it's going exactly like that. But it is what is." And if you ask us about the way that it is, it's kinda fucked up.

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