1989–1990: early years Pharcyde group members
Slimkid3 from
Inglewood, Bootie Brown from
Altadena, and Imani from
Compton met as dancers in high school in 1989. Imani and Slimkid3 were childhood friends, who were also good friends with Bootie Brown. Brown knew Fatlip, which was his introduction into the group. Around this time, Imani and Slimkid3 were in a group called "Two for Two", The group met Reggie Andrews, a local high-school music teacher who worked with
the Dazz Band and
Rick James, and who was a major musical influence on their debut album. The group also met producer
J-Swift around this time at SCU (South Central Unit), as he was Reggie Andrews's "star pupil" according to the book
Check the Technique. Before group settled on the name "The Pharcyde", they were almost called "The Rappers" and "True Jiggaboo", with the latter serving as inspiration for their interlude "It's Jiggaboo Time".
1991–1994: Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde The Pharcyde recorded their first demo in 1991, which contained the songs "
Passin' Me By", "Ya Mama", and "Officer", and hired a manager, Paul Stewart, who had worked for
Cypress Hill,
De La Soul, and
House of Pain. The album was certified Gold by the
RIAA in 1996. The album was highly acclaimed, and became one of the most praised and influential
alternative hip-hop albums of the 1990s. Their second single "Passin' Me By" became a
Billboard hit, peaking at No. 52 on the
Hot 100. The song was later featured in the hit movie
Big Daddy and is often critically acclaimed for being one of the best hip-hop songs of all time. The album featured a couple of guest MCs, including Bucwheed (known then as Buckwheat, formerly of the alternative hip-hop group The Wascals) on the tracks "On The DL" and "I'm That Type of Nigga". The album consisted a new updated version of "Soul Flower". Problems between the group and producer J-Swift began during the recording of the debut, with infighting and "personality conflicts". About the group's sense of humor, Imani was quoted in a 1993 interview saying, "We find humor in things other people don't. Everyday situations. People might look at things around here and say, like, 'Damn!' We say, 'Hah, hah, hah.' We just chill out." Before the success of
Bizarre Ride, the group moved to Inglewood, California, where they shared a home dubbed the Pharcyde Manor. Lew of
Dirt magazine reports of the Manor, "...you can tell their laid-back style meeting rapid-fire rhyme delivery is a product of the virtual telepathic rapport that only comes from eating, sleeping and breathing under the same roof." The group is widely known for not using profanity and swearing in their works. Bootie Brown explained that Delicious Vinyl pushed them into not using it for radio play aspects, but that the members tried to push it as far as they could go. The four members are known for their different kinds of flows and styles.
Fatlip is known for having an unusually deep voice while Bootie Brown is known for having a very light and high voice. The group released the song "Pork" as a B-side release on a "Passin' Me By" single in March 1993. After the
Bizarre Ride album was released, the group began touring with
A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, culminating with an appearance at the
Lollapalooza show in 1994. Prior to the that, in August 1995, the group released the first single for the album, "
Drop" which peaked at number 93 on the
Billboard Top 200 and at number 5 for the US
Hot Rap Songs. The second single for the album, "
Runnin'" released in October 1995, peaked at number 55 on the
Billboard Hot 100. This single was later featured in the movie
8 Mile, as well as the
More Music from 8 Mile soundtrack.
Labcabincalifornia featured production from Jay Dee, who handled the majority of the production. Member Slimkid3 has stated that the group met Jay Dee by way of
Q-Tip of
A Tribe Called Quest, who handed them the tape that contained some of the production that would end up on the LP. This album generated lower sales, not reaching gold status. The group also released a deluxe version of the album which featured additional songs "Just Don't Matter" and "Emerald Butterfly". A third additional song for the deluxe version, "Heart & Soul" only appeared on the Australian version of the album. A music video for the critically acclaimed J Dilla beat song, "
Drop" was directed by
Spike Jonze. The music video, which was filmed in backwards has gotten a lot of praise and has been called the best music video of all time.
Rolling Stone called the music video the 14th best rap music video of all time.
Slimkid3 said in a 2020 interview they respected Dilla a lot and said that he was a "calm, cool, collected guy". During the recording of "Runnin, Fatlip erased Dilla's unpredictable kick drum track and replaced it with a kick set to a standard time grid while the others were out of the studio. On their return Tre confronted Fatlip about the change leading to a fist fight. J Dilla re-recorded his version of the kick drum which ended up on the album. Both "Runnin and "Drop" are often regarded as hip-hop classics today, and some of Dilla's best ever work. The album is today considered a cult classic. In November 1996, the group appeared with the song "Gotcha Lookin" on the album
NFL Jams, which was featured with wide receiver
Raghib "Rocket" Ismail. Problems grew between Fatlip and the other members, especially Slimkid3, after this album resulting in his leaving the group in 1997. They were also featured on the song "Bloody Murder (Diamond D Mix)" in 1999 alongside
Channel Live,
Chuck D,
Wise Intelligent,
Tragedy Khadafi,
Zack de La Rocha and D.B.X. As well in 1999, the Pharcyde were featured on a single with their new song "Technical Difficulties". In November 1999, the Pharcyde were featured on two songs on the
V & Legacy album
2000 MG with the songs "Captain Caveman" and "Time – Remix". The three remaining members returned in March 2000 with an EP titled
Chapter One: Testing the Waters, which consisted of six new songs. An unreleased song from that time, "Nasty Habits", featured by
Ralph Tresvant and
Bobby Brown of Boston R&B group
New Edition, didn't release until it appeared on a
DJ Spinna mixtape in 2015. The Pharcyde also released the song "Jealousy" on the album
Delicious Vinyl Presents Prime Cuts, Volume 1 in February 2000, a month before
Testing the Waters came out. The group released their third full studio album later in 2000 titled
Plain Rap. The album received lukewarm reception, although it was praised by some critics and fans. J Dilla had left the group by that time due to being busy on multiple project and instead of having a single sole producer, all three Pharcyde members took turns in being credited for producing the songs alongside
J-Swift, who produced
Bizarre Ride and
Showbiz. They also released a single for the album, "Trust (Remix)" which was a diss track on
Fatlip, dissing his solo career, who had released the popular single and EP "
What's Up, Fatlip" earlier that year in 2000. In the animated music video for the song, Fatlip is presented as a clown and Slimkid3 is in the video, seen riding away on a phoenix, a reference to his first EP, although Imani claimed that he asked them not to appear.
Opio from
Souls of Mischief was featured on the song "The Bomb" on
Humboldt Beginnings in 2004. In January 2001, they released the previously unreleased song "Panty Raid" on the compilation album
Cydeways: The Best of The Pharcyde, originally made for
Bizarre Ride. The Pharcyde were featured on two songs, "It Ain't Nothing Like" and "Let it Go" on the
Rae & Christian album
Sleepwalking in February 2001. In 2002, a documentary was directed by
Spike Jonze who directed the
Drop music video alongside the documentary ''
What's Up Fatlip? following Fatlip two years prior in 2000. The documentary was about the Pharcyde and titled Cydeways: The Best of The Pharcyde
. In April 2002, the Pharcyde released the new song "Sticky Green" which appeared on the High Times Presents: T.H.C. (The Hip-Hop Collection, Vol. 1)
. As well in 2002, they had four different versions of their new song "Can’t Give In" a collaborative single project. In 2002, the Pharcyde were featured with the song "Fresh & Hot" on the Pachecos album Beat Hustlers
. As well in 2002, the Pharcyde were featured on the song "Soul Unit" on an EP titled The Soul Unit
. In 2002, the Pharcyde released the song "Hard Times" on a single. A remix version of the song appeared on the collaborative EP titled Peacock Series Vol. 1
in 2003. The EP consisted as well of four new Pharcyde songs, "Intro", "Still Got Love", "Bonus Track" and "Outro". As well the EP featured songs from the Soul Unit
and the Pitch Hitters'', Bootie Brown's other short lived musical project alongside Spaceboy Boogie X also known as Savona Fran. The Pharcyde also appeared on the song "Medieval" which appeared on the
Danger Mouse and
Jemini collaborative album
Ghetto Pop Life in November 2003. In May 2004, the Pharcyde appeared on the Sharkey album, ''
Sharkey's Machine'' being featured on the song "Snobird". As well in 2004, they also released the two song single "Skammin' / Baby Sit" featuring those two new songs. As well in 2004, the Pharcyde were also credited for appearing on the
Super Cat song "Girls Town" from 2004, because the song uses a sample from "
Passin' Me By". Imani also released his first solo album,
Dosier Vol 1. in 2004. In July 2004, the Pharcyde finally released their fourth and final to date studio album,
Humboldt Beginnings. The album was the first album featuring only Imani and Bootie Brown. The album received even less attention critically and commercially than their last effort,
Plain Rap although it was praised by many critics and has gained some cult following. Spaceboy Boogie X became the group's new producer for the album. He alongside Schmooche Cat also made appearances on some songs. The songs "Knew U" and "Illusions" from the album was released as a single beforehand, with "Knew U" getting a music video. The album contained seventeen songs and was released on the group's own independent record label,
Chapter One Entertainment, after the guys left
Delicious Vinyl after some ongoing drama. In November 2004, Fatlip appeared with the Pharcyde on a
A Tribe Called Quest concert, with many speculations ongoing towards Fatlip rejoining the Pharcyde, as Tre was biggest reason for his departure, but that however did not happen. A compilation of the Pharcyde was released in 2005, titled
Sold My Soul: The Remix & Rarity Collection, featuring a number of remixes and rare songs, including the song "Pork".
2004–2020: numerous performances, tours and legal issues and
Imani performing together in Dublin in 2006|left Former member
Fatlip released his solo debut in 2005, titled
The Loneliest Punk, and Tre Hardson's second full-length solo album "SLIMKID3's Cafe" was released in April 2006. In late 2007, Tre toured with L.A. Latin-funk-hip-hop band
Ozomatli on their Winter Tour throughout the United States. In 2005, Bootie Brown made a guest appearance on
Gorillaz' single "
Dirty Harry", from the album
Demon Days and on a remix of another Gorillaz song "
Clint Eastwood" in 2006. Fatlip and Slimkid3 made up in the years following Tre's departure, although Tre was the main reason behind Fatlip's departure in the first place. The two released the song "All I Want for Christmas (Is Somebody Else)" and was produced by
J-Swift for
Delicious Vinyl records in 2007, although it is not formally a Pharcyde song, as the two were not members of the Pharcyde at the time. A big reason for Imani and Brown's departure from Delicious Vinyl was due to the label still working with Fatlip and Tre. In October 2006, Bootie Brown and Imani were featured on the album
Too Stoned for TV with their original song "I Smoke". In 2006, the Pharcyde announced the compilation project
Eclectic Compassion for a 2007 release. The album was set to feature music across all genres, including rap and jazz, but never came out. Imani's EP
Blackdust, originally titled
Black Stardust which came out in 2009, started out as what was going to be
Eclectic Compassion originally, before being worked as an album and then came out as an EP. The first performance was Saturday, July 19 in Chicago. The Pharcyde also reunited at Rhymesayers Entertainment's Soundset '09, Memorial Day Weekend in May 2009, and were the co-headliners of the festival, which was also headlined by Atmosphere. They also headlined at the
All Points West Festival in Liberty State Park, NJ on July 31, 2009. That remains the last time all four members came together and performed together. Imani and Bootie Brown toured Australia in February 2009 as part of the
Good Vibrations Festival. The remaining Pharcyde members, Imani and Bootie Brown were featured on the song "Keep On" on the album
Enter by
DJ Kentaro in April 2007, although the song is not the same "Keep On" song as the Pharcyde recorded for
Good Burger. The Pharcyde were also featured on the songs "Don't Be Fooled" and "Back And Forth" on the self-titled album
Spaceboy Boogie X in March 2008. They were also featured on the
Diesel Compilation: Sickbay Records album in July 2008, with their new songs "Mary Jane" and "Get That Doe". In June 2009, the Pharcyde were featured on the song "Happy Hunting" on an album of the same name by Speech Defect. Later in June 2009, the Pharcyde were featured on the song "Classic" which appeared on the Ancient Astronauts album
We Are to Answer. In February 2010, the Pharcyde were featured on the song "Get Down" by Jern Eye, with the song releasing in four different versions on a single titled
Get Down. In January 2012, they were featured on the
Souls of Mischief rapper
Tajai's album
Machine Language with the song "Future". In April 2013, they were featured on the song "Firstborn" on the
Cookin' Soul and Mc Melodee album
My Tape Deck. In July 2013, Imani and Bootie Brown released the song "1st Place" under the Pharcyde name, featuring rapper
Moka Only, which became the first self published Pharcyde material since
Humboldt Beginnings. In September 2014, they were featured on the song "Hard Days" on the
Diamond D album
The Diam Piece. At the same time, Bootie Brown was working on his solo musical project Frank Friction. Under that title, he released the album
Bird Talk in 2013. Slimkid3 was also working on multiple projects at the time. He and Fatlip released the album
Love in 2012, and Tre released an album in 2014 alongside
DJ Nu-Mark titled
Slimkid3 & DJ Nu-Mark. In 2019 he joined the collaborative project TRDMRK, alongside DJ Nu-Mark and Austin Antoine and released an album of the same name that year. and
Fatlip performing at the
Donauinselfest festival in
Vienna,
Austria, in 2013 In 2012, the Pharcyde's debut
Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde had its twentieth anniversary, and to mark the event Fatlip and
Slimkid3 teamed up with the album's producers, J-Swift and
L.A. Jay, as well as record label Delicious Vinyl, to play the album in its entirety at a tribute show at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. The performance was intended to be a one-off, but due to an overwhelming success and reception, the two of them began touring the show "Bizarre Ride Live", and, along with MC K-Natural, working on original music under the moniker The Bizarre Ride. In December of that year, the Pharcyde released the
Amerigo Gazaway-produced "Still Got Love (Bizarre Tribe Megamix)" garnering significant praise. In 2013, Fatlip and Tre Hardson reunited to perform on 'The Over 30, Dirty Old Men Tour'. Due to Fatlip and Tre's tour the following year, legal battles took place as Imani and Bootie Brown sued Fatlip and Slimkid3 over using the name "The Pharcyde", as the two were no longer members of the group. They won the case in 2013, granting Romye Robinson (Bootie Brown) legal ownership of the Pharcyde name. The year 2015 marked the twentieth anniversary of
Labcabincalifornia, resulting in a similar tour through Europe and Japan, with Bootie Brown and Imani touring. The remaining two members of the group continued touring Europe through 2017. In April 2015, Imani and Bootie Brown released the song "Sins" featuring Spaceboy Boogie X, now referred to as SBBX, with a music video released in April 2015. In October 2016, the Pharcyde were featured on
Moka Only's album
Milky State with the song "Picture Clear". The Pharcyde teamed up with SBBX again in March 2017 for the song "A Way", with both songs being released by The Record Jungle and released limited on vinyl. Bootie Brown and Imani continued doing performances all over America, and even self-released the song "Phantasy" in April 2018 alongside Rozzi Daime. In July 2019, they were featured on the song "Play That Song" on the
Connie Price & The Keystones album
Lucas High. As well, Fatlip and Slimkid3 continued performing concerts. In January 2020, Imani and Bootie Brown appeared in an interview in the fourth season of the
Netflix documentary series
Hip-Hop Evolution. In April 2020, the remaining Pharcyde members suspended all of their future concerts because of
COVID-19. The downfall of the Pharcyde was named the 26th (out of 30) worst fall-offs in hip-hop history by
Complex magazine in December 2012.
Since 2020: revival Imani explained in a 2025 podcast interview that over the years he started to feel weird over doing Fatlip's and Tre's verses on stage when he was doing concerts with Bootie Brown due to the fact that they were "still alive and should be doing these verses themselves with us". This ended a long beef inside the group, with the members even saying that "for years it was Bootie and Imani vs. Fatlip and Tre". In May 2022, the Pharcyde reunited for the 30th anniversary concert tour of
Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde. In early 2022, the Pharcyde dropped a mixtape, with ten songs recorded by the three members, originally to see if they could rap together again, after they got back together. The mixtape was titled "Imani, Fatlip, & Slimkid3" and became available to the public through Apple Music and Spear of the Nation in February 2022. In May 2022, the Pharcyde were featured on the K-Natural song "Slhick Tawlk", which later appeared on the K-Natural album I Am Ready in 2024, alongside another Pharcyde feature song which came out earlier in 2024, "Feeling Myself". In late 2022, the Pharcyde released the previously unreleased song "My Man", which was originally made to be closing track to
Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, with a new verse with
J-Swift appearing on the track. In October 2023, the Pharcyde were featured on the EMPRS song "Million Miles Away". In November 2023, the Pharcyde released a new song with Spear of the Nation titled "PHR DAH PPL". In 2024, the Pharcyde was featured on the song "Movie Star" with rock band
Tropidelic. In February 2022, it was reported that there would be a reunion of all four members of Pharcyde on Fatlip's upcoming album
Torpor, with two Pharcyde tracks confirmed. The song was released on August 1, 2022. "Torpor" was officially released via bandcamp on July 29, 2022, on CD, with the album released on August 23 and on February 3, 2023, on vinyl. The song saw all four members apologising to one another over their past transgressions. The song remains the last song featuring all four members of the Pharcyde. By that time, they started to call themselves either "The Pharcyde Lives" or just "The Pharcyde. In May 2025, the Pharcyde dropped the EP
Timeless consisting of four new songs, produced by
NBA 2K song track artist, 1999 WRITE THE FUTURE.
Rick Rock and
JPEGMafia became one of the few new Pharcyde producers working on the EP. In a 2025 interview with Imani and Tre, they said that the group was working on fifth album amongst other project, with the new album set to finish off a trilogy consisting of
Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde and
Labcabincalifornia. They said that when they started doing music, they always pictured doing a trilogy of well-known albums and that they were yet to produce the third one. In October 2025, the group was featured on the track "Gang Bang" on the album
God Takes Care Of Babies & Fools by rappers
Myka9 and
Blu. == Legacy ==