Tour: The Entire Hieroglyphics Crew Playing Select Dates & Reveal New Animated Music Video
Legendary Eight-Artist Collective Comes Together in a Rare Group Appearance To Do Four Spot Dates This Summer + New Video Premiere Via AV Club
07.02.2014
The Tour:
In a rare announcement for hip-hop heads everywhere, all eight members of The Hieroglyphics Imperium crew will be heading out to perform at special venues on the East Coast this coming August, along with longtime Hiero affiliate DJ Toure. With four select dates on the East Coast, including stops in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Stephentown, New York, this tour proves to be a unique, rare opportunity for fans to see the entire original crew performing together. As part of an already eventful year, the upcoming Hiero tour will be another major highlight for the collective.
2014 has been quite the year for the Hieroglyphics members, who have released several new projects including Souls of Mischief member A-Plus’ Molly’s Dirty Water, Phesto‘s Infared Rum, and Casual‘s new group project The School System. Upcoming releases from Pep Love along with Adrian Younge and Souls of Mischief have kept the collective busy and working hard. In addition to this upcoming tour, the Hieroglyphics will begin work on the new crew album. After the tour ends, fans in Hiero’s hometown of Oakland will be met with the group’s return home, just in time for their free annual block party, Hiero Day, which was recognized an an official day by the mayor of Oakland at last year’s event.
The Video:
Juggling equal parts serious and lighthearted on the mic, the Hieroglyphics crew is notorious for being one animated cast of characters. That idea is taken especially literally in this Steven Cartoccio animated video for “Golden,” off the groups 2013 album The Kitchen, premiering at the AV Club. The fun, pop culture-dripping animated video has Del, Tajai, and the rest of the collective appear as shape-shifting illustrations, morphing into everything from Walter White to Stimpy to Scorpion, in this lyrical fatality. Cartoon heads and crate-diggers alike have much to love about the latest thing Hiero’s touched that’s turned to gold.
The Hieroglyphics crew, known as pioneers of independent hip-hop, is made up of members Del The Funky Homosapien, Casual, Pep Love, Domino, and Souls of Mischief, who include A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, Tajaj. Not only are they considered to be one of the first hip-hop artist collectives to start their own record label, but they introduced a different side of hip hop that was virtually unknown on a mainstream level. When Elektra Records signed Del the Funky Homosapien and JIVE signed Souls of Mischief in the early ’90s, the Hiero crew soon became internationally known as the leaders of a new movement in rap that represented peace and unity, despite having come from a city rife with violent crime. Considered to be some of the most highly skilled lyricists in rap from their inception to today, the Hiero crew continued to break hip-hop norms with personal, emotional rhymes rather than solely gangster-rap. Souls Of Mischief’s “93 ‘Till Infinity” remains one of the most respected and well-known hip-hop classics, referred to in pop culture time and time again. The third eye logo, designed by Del, was ranked as the 3rd most recognizeable music logo by Rolling Stone Magazine, and it is not uncommon for fans to show Hiero members their third eye logo tattoos.
Watch the AV Club video premiere for “Golden”: http://www.avclub.com/article/heres-new-video-hip-hop-collective-hieroglyphics-206456
Purchase “Golden”: http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Explicit-Hieroglyphics/dp/B00DVDZGLG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403898129&sr=8-1&keywords=the+kitchen+hieroglyphics
Tickets for the Hiero East Coast select dates: http://www.hieroglyphics.com/
Hiero East Coast Dates:
8/20 – Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA
8/21 – Brooklyn Bowl – Brooklyn, NY
8/22 – Theatre of Living Arts – Philadelphia, PA
8/23 – Bella Terra Festival – Stephentown, NY
Watch the animated music video for “Golden” here: http://youtu.be/42JpeBuRrEM
The Background:
Founded in 1997 in Oakland, CA, Hiero Imperium Records is Del The Funky Homosapien, Casual, Pep Love, Domino, and the Souls of Mischief, made up of A-Plus, Opio, Phesto and Tajai. Coming off waves of success from earlier releases like Souls’ ’93 Til Infinity, the Hiero crew had already established themselves as a name in mainstream and underground hip-hop, and soon released their first collective project Third Eye Vision. Since then the Hiero team has been thriving in the hip-hop world, releasing a number of projects within the label as well as branching out for collaborations with the likes of The Gorillaz, Jurassic 5, George Clinton, Dilated Peoples, Q-Tip, Xzibit and more.
Links:
official site | twitter | facebook | youtube | soundcloud | bandcamp
“Golden” (Video): http://youtu.be/42JpeBuRrEM
Bio, pictures & streams available here: http://www.audibletreats.com/hieroglyphics/