For Fatlip, the females that reside under Los Angeles’ nostalgic sun have always been on some Great-White-Whale steez. It began with the Pharcyde’s legendary “Passin Me By”, an anthem oozing with hopeless romanticism; Then, on Labcabincalifornia’s “She Said”, Fatlip continued to find himself stranded on a lonely island where the forecast was always platonic; Fatlip’s solo venture yielded Lip’s jarringly candid “What’s Up Fatlip?”, where he admitted that he possessed virtually none of his rap-music prerequisites. Now, alongside versatile producer/wingman Yeti Beats, the Pharcyde alum is again on the trail of the almighty and elusive L.A. tigress.
URB:Can you tell us about the LA girl your new track is based on?
Fatlip: Man, I was going to try and make something up really quick but really but i couldn’t think of anything! Truth is, it’s not even a true story; The song isn’t about one girl in particular. But it’s more about girls who walked into my life. It’s not even really a positive thing that’s why on the chorus I’m asking “Why’d she have to come to LA?” Funny thing is that the song was a demo I made at Yeti’s studio a while back. Two years later he found it and he begged me to make a record out of it. I had no intentions whatsoever of actually releasing it but Yeti was really into it. Every lyric was spontaneous; the whole thing was a freestyle but we kept the entire song the same. It took some convincing but I’m glad I did it in the end.
Your work with the Pharcyde and also your solo work has always been some of the more humble work in hip-hop:
I definitely try and keep it real and I try and express what I think is really the truth. For me it comes natural. I appreciate comedians that are honest and are willing to clown themselves. I think self-depreciation is a part of communication. If you’re scared of your own truth, you’ll never actually be able to communicate anything. Its not that you don’t get butterflies in your stomach when you go up their and become vulnerable, it’s just that you remain honest with yourself and I think folks appreciate that.
You say you were hesitant about this track. Were you nervous about the transition from rapping to doing a funk song?
It’s not like I didn’t like the song, I just felt it wasn’t a record I’d put out to advance my career–I didn’t know if the people who knew me from my Pharcyde work would be into it. But the thing is, Yeti is about half my age and it’s beneficial to be around people that age, they know what’s up and they have a younger energy and outlook. If it was up to me I’d have put someone on that track that people from my Pharcyde days would know. In the end though, I’m happy how it came out.
A lot of classic hip-hop, sans gangsta rap, from L.A. seemed to have a lighthearted feel.Was the jovial feel of the Pharcyde a product of being from L.A.?
L.A. is a tropical place: the women, the weed, the palm trees. Just take a look at people riding on the beach; people like to move slowly in L.A.– it isn’t too fast-paced, they like to stop and smell the roses. when you think of L.A. rap music, you think of people being laid back and good weed and chill vibes. The feel of hip-hop in L.A. wasn’t so serious. We were never taking ourselves too seriously, just having a lot of fun. Luckily we were still making really funky music that people got down with. And I think that mix is Pharcyde’s legacy.
Pharcyde is certainly a part of L.A.’s hip-hop lore. Now that you’re dabbling with funk, you’re getting into another genre with roots in L.A.
Oh Yeah, when me and the Pharcyde dudes recorded our first album in Hollywood, they had plaques on the wall from Roger and Zapp so that awareness has certainly always been there. Of course you gotta attribute a lot of that new awareness [of funk] to Dr. Dre because he definitely used the funk back in ‘93 with The Chronic. We liked that gangster boogie. With “L.A. Girl” I was channeling the ghost of Roger Troutman, the ghost of Rockwell, the ghost of David Byrne, all those guys. When we did the video–shout out to Laura Graham, she put it together– it was us playing the characters we grew up on.
Your flow has always had a real sense of internal dialogue; songs like “She Said” and “What’s Up Fatlip?” really reflect an internal interpretation of the world.
that’s just because I’m very self centered(laughs) and I don’t play attention to anything that’s going on except what’s up with me. Really though, that’s just the way my creative process works I guess. “She Said” was really just my view on everything and that’s why it has so many kinds of “irrelevant” details, like the exact intersection where I am, Sunset and Crescent Heights and everything.
With this new song, you’re definitely on more of a singing tip; there seems to be sort of a divergence from lyricism of late with Waka Flaka Flame resisting being dubbed “lyrical” and even Drake who mixes rap up with singing.
Well to each his own. The new generation, they don’t really get too into the lyricism. It isn’t about tricky wordplay anymore; it’s more about style, swagger, a cool voice and a real life reputation. But I can’t knock any of that; it’s all important. I dig Drake and Lil Wayne and when they rap they have some cool lyrics. Then you got some other guys like Waka Flaka and Gucci Mane, those guys have dope voices, like their songs sound dope because their voices aren’t like anyone else’s. And Waka Flaka admitted he’s not in this game to be the dopest lyricist. It’s still funky though.
So what’s up Fatlip? Will there be a Loneliest Punk 2?
Nah, no Loneliest Punk 2, I don’t think. I’ve been producing mostly. I’m an aspiring producer. I been trying to be Dr. Dre for a while. I pretty much like doing work for other artists these days but i’ll spit a verse on the stuff I work on. I’ve also been DJing around town. I spin everything–lots of electro and currently I’m spinning a lot of hip-hop. Kind of on that real DJ tip, still trying to find those records nobody has and just digging away.
There’s so much growth between Pharcyde albums, especially between Bizarre Ride and Labcabincalifornia. Because of that maturing process is it ever hard to perform work off of earlier albums being that you may have been in a younger frame of mind when you did those tracks?
For some strange reason, we still somehow are always able to make it relevant when we’re on stage. We’re still really into it. We’re just so close to those songs and the memories of when we first made them, so it’s still fun for sure. I love to see fans that are into the songs that would have been like five-years old when Bizarre Ride came out.
Interview with Yeti Beats on the next page.
[...] The two wax poetic about their fresh new single, L.A. Girl, singing vs. rapping, the “Yeti Beats sound”, gorilla masks, and not being afraid to be yourself. Check it out right HERE! [...]