The Pharcyde's Bootie Brown on Hip Hop 50 Years After Its Inception
Part 3 of "maya's black music month interview series"
The year is 1973. It’s a hot August night in the Bronx, NY. A mass of teenagers gathers in a stuffy apartment building rec room to party before it’s time to return to school. A DJ by the name of Kool Herc, unknown to the world but beloved by his community, steps in front of two turn tables. He isolates the breakbeats of iconic songs by artists like James Brown and the Incredible Bongo Band. The crowd is entirely captivated by this unique and fresh sound. That sound took the Bronx by storm in the 1970s, creating a subculture amongst black and youth and eventually getting the name… Hip Hop.
In 2023, Hip Hop reached far beyond the borough of the Bronx and is now the best-selling genre in the United States. This year many black Americans celebrate what is largely being regarded as the 50th year of Hip Hop.
By way of Los Angeles, California, Bootie Brown navigated hip hop in a time frequently referred to as the "golden age of hip hop" as a founding member of the critically acclaimed group "The Pharcyde." Although, Brown got his start in hip-hop in an unconventional way. Through dancing. "Music was nothing that I ever thought that I would be involved in, like as a musician or rapper. . . That wasn't my thing.", he shared. "I can't say that I grew up with this idea like 'Oh, I wanna be this rapper or this artist'"
After High School, he went on to go to the military. After returning home, he went right back to dancing. However, the politics surrounding the dance industry in the 90s inspired him to find a new path. Around that time, J-Swift, producer of “Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde,” presented him with the idea of joining a rap group.
He talked about his relationships with other artists through the Pharcyde and said he wished they would have collaborated with more artists that people wouldn’t expect them to collaborate with. But he also noted that he was grateful to work with the artists and producers they did collaborate with, notably, the trailblazing producer J Dilla.
People of all generations have fallen in love with the Pharcyde's music even if they weren't alive when it was created. He says he appreciates this and hopes younger generations can learn from the Pharcyde's mistakes. He also shared his hopes for the future of hip hop and that he enjoys what younger generations are bringing to the table (specifically mentioning Young Thug, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Yatchy, and Tyler the Creator)
Bootie Brown appears in music video for “Dirty Harry” by Gorrillaz
Since the Pharcyde, Bootie Brown has made a name for himself through collaborations with Gorillaz and producing for other artists like Opio. Brown recently released a single from his "UltraHipFunkWave" project, which he co-produced. "I was always into production on some type of level. . . I didn't really wanna be the MC on the track. I wanted to take the light from me from what I usually do to be on a production type of thing." "I just wanna make dance music," he said. "I could let out a lot of anger inside of me and put that on music. . . But, I'm like, 'You know what? For right now, I just wanna create good music’. . . I'm in this space where I wanna see everybody have a good time."
When discussing the name "UltraHipFunkWave," Brown says, "I feel like I had to create my own genre of music. . . That's my genre of music. . . "What is this? New wave? Is it hip hop?" No, it's a combination of all these things together that interest me, and I want to combine these ingredients to make this new sound. . . I want to be the person that brands my sound. I don't want somebody else to say well, you're making music, and this is what it is. I want to say no, that's not my music. My music is this. My music is UltraHipFunkWave.
Thanks so much to Bootie Brown and his manager Greg Campbell for coordinating this with me. It was such a pleasure, and I really enjoyed conducting this interview.