After playing Cork and Belfast last year, hip-hop veterans The Pharcyde are returning to play their spiritual Irish home of The Sugar Club — one of the best, maybe the best place to see a rap gig in the city.
Like a lot of hip-hop legacy acts, this one’s complicated. Founding members Imani, Slimkid3 and Fatlip are touring as The Pharcyde, while fellow founder Bootie Brown has left the group, but retains rights to the Pharcyde name – using the Pharcyde social media channels to promote his own solo material. Any animosity could be thawing out, though — Bootie Brown recently appeared on Fatlip’s track My Bad along with his three former MC bandmates, in a song about regret, and “The hardest thing to do is admitting when you fucked up”.
While The Pharcyde emerged out of Compton in the early 90s, they steered away from the gangsta rap of local crew NWA, opting for more playful and surrealist wordplay and soulful, funky samples.
They’ve already done the big anniversary tours for 1992’s Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde and the follow-up Labcabincalifornia, but this’ll still be a worthy nostalgia trip.
The Pharcyde play the Sugar Club in Dublin this Sunday
Moo Kid 