When discussing the Skitzo­freniks, Charlie “CheckMark” Bawles’s speech occasionally slips into the present tense. The group, with himself as the frontman and Erik “Eddie Bones” Brown backing him on production, was once one of Boston’s most beloved rap acts; the two were leading figures in the city’s late-’90s hip-hop renaissance. But after 2002, they hardly released any new music, and the live performances from which they built their reputation became fewer and farther between. Though Friday marks Bawles’s return to the stage at the Middle East Downstairs, it isn’t under the circumstances he or Skitzofreniks fans had once been hoping for.

Erik Brown passed away in February, due to complications stemming from a pool accident that left him confined to a wheelchair and paralyzed from the chest down since August 2009. Friday’s show, which would have marked his 37th birthday, serves as a tribute to the man and the musician whom friends knew simply as “Bones.”

“Erik loved the live shows,” said Bawles, standing across the street from the Somerville barbershop where he works, as rain clouds menaced the afternoon sky. “That’s what makes Friday so special, because I’m doing all our old records. It’s going to be difficult for me emotionally, but the energy is all love. That’s our passion. We both have our careers, but what we are are entertainers. That’s what we do, that’s what we excel at, that’s what we love, and we excel at it because we love it.”

Over two months since Brown’s death, the void left behind by his friend is evident in Bawles’s voice. Upon meeting in high school at Cambridge Rindge & Latin, the pair quickly bonded through their wise-cracking sense of humor, love for hip-hop, and the shared experience of being raised by single mothers. Along with another friend, they formed the Boss Boiz, a R&B-rap hybrid group inspired by Bell Biv DeVoe that earned the teenagers a demo deal with Warner Bros. Records.

But the label’s creative interference, combined with the death of their manager, Buff Love (of ’80s rap heavyweights The Fat Boys), quickly soured their chances of mainstream success, and they returned to Boston with hopes of taking advantage of the city’s fertile rap scene with a different approach.

With Brown providing the head-nodding beats and Bawles lacing them with punch line-packed verses, the pair carved out a loyal New England following thanks to their raucous live shows at area colleges and the now-defunct Bill’s Bar.

“We had this chemistry that we would never rehearse,” Bawles said about working with Brown. “We would go to the show with our records in hand and whatever DJ was there, whether they were DJing for a group or just came there to watch the show, we’d be like, ‘How you feeling? You want to spin?’ We were all about the impromptu, improvisational performing. People loved us because we were raw, we were funny, and we weren’t uptight or angry.”

Papa D, who helped break the group in Boston by playing their records on local radio as a DJ at WERS-FM (88.9) and who later put out several Skitzofreniks 12-inch records on his Brick Records imprint, remembers Brown for his sense of humor.

“Eddie was one of the biggest trash talkers,” he recalled. “Nobody was safe when he was around. At the time, there weren’t a lot of white dudes on the scene, but that didn’t intimidate him at all. He was always cutting people up on stage, but in a friendly way.”

Yet in solidifying their brand locally, the Skitzofreniks never truly took their chances at becoming full-blown stars. While other Boston rappers were establishing global fan bases via tours, Brown and Bawles stayed at home, where after the release of their album “Enter the Realm” in 2002, their priorities, and hip-hop’s business climate, began to shift. Brown’s daughter Marley was born in 2003, and he moved to New Hampshire to focus on family.

“At a certain point,” said Bawles, “you have to ask yourself: Are you going to be a grown-up or are you going to be a kid chasing a dream? And we weren’t chasing the rap dream. We were taking care of real life. It was a tough decision in some ways. But we were family first. And we both wanted to be the father that we never had, so we both got two wonderful little girls that have benefited from that decision.”

Looking back now, the decision seems like the right one. Brown spent six years with his young daughter before the pool accident injured his spinal cord and confined him to a wheelchair. His physical constraints and the emotional toll took him away from music until a few months prior to his death, when he began working on beats again in hopes of releasing a new project.

As Bawles smokes a cigarette outside, his voice trembles with mixed emotions while he speaks about Friday’s show. He still remembers the prophetic final e-mail he received from Brown, who sought to organize a benefit concert to help pay for a new vehicle that he could drive himself. Now, Friday’s show, featuring Akrobatik, Esoteric, and a host of other artists who rocked alongside the Skitzofreniks during their heyday, will be a benefit for Brown’s daughter. It also marks her ninth birthday.

“We used to never rehearse,” said Bawles, who plans on releasing an album of unreleased Skitzofreniks material soon. “But I’m well rehearsed for this show. I’ve got a lot to say and a lot to do for my brother. In the back of my mind, I have that little bit of extra energy for him.”

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