Casual Opio and DJ Toure of The Hieroglyphics Crew at The Phoenix

An Oakland based crew with grassroots that extend as far back as kindergarten (seriously, thats when some of the members first met), Hieroglyphics are one of the most legendary outfits in all of hip hop. Their albums (3rd Eye Vision, Full Circle) are seminal. Each member of the crew has enjoyed a wealth of solo success over the years, but its the Hiero crew that serves as their foundation. Even as they set off to explore other projects, somehow, someway, it all comes back to Hiero. Hiero is home.

And boy did Hiero find a home during our recent run on The Phoenix in Austin during SXSW '11. Here, Casual, Opio and DJ Toure give a rather slick performance, sharing rhymes that stem from a variety of sources over the years. Hiero, Souls of Mischief Crew, a heap of solo materialour latest brings with it the kind of highly practiced cohesiveness and general expertise few musical groups can claim to possess. Thats why Hiero is legendary, why they are one of the most important voices in hip hop history, and why were honored to bring you our latest release.

The Oakland-based Hieroglyphics are an underground rap collective who, at their best, combine an offbeat sensibility with a strong grounding in battle rhyming, freestyling, and other hip-hop traditions. All the members enjoy their own separate careers -- founder Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Casual, the Souls of Mischief, Extra Prolific, producer/manager Domino, Pep Love, and producer Jay Biz (the latter two of which have also worked together as the Prose). Most of the members had known each other since high school (or earlier), and after Del scored a record deal with his cousin Ice Cube's help, much of the Hieroglyphics crew wound up with major-label contracts of their own. Del, Souls of Mischief, and Casual, in particular, earned strong cult followings, but Hieroglyphics never produced a breakout mainstream star, and all the members wound up dropped from their respective labels by the mid-'90s despite their generally high-quality work. The crew regrouped with their own label, Hieroglyphics Imperium, which provided not only a platform for their future releases, but total creative control. In addition, the entire collective teamed up for the first album under the Hieroglyphics name, Third Eye Vision, in 1998. Several self-released compilations also appeared, and the proper Hieroglyphics follow-up, Full Circle, dropped in 2003. In 2007 the crew treated fans to a collection of rare B-sides and remixes from all the members, entitled Over Time.