Protograffiti.

hieroglyphics

GET YOUR WALLETS READY; the new Hiero album is here. When most get dropped from their labels they're done with the music biz, but these Bay Area superstars have built an empire envied by the underground. Launching their own label, and now another for other artists to make it, Hieroglyphics is one of the biggest names in the game. Here's what they had to say in a practice studio under the freeway in West Oakland.

What were you guys trying to do with this new album, Full Circle?

Plus: I don't think we ever try to do anything specifically, just to not do anything we've done already. Try to bring something new to the table. We just did it how we get down, Hieroglyphics.

Pep: We were trying to be current. The title Full Circle brings it back from the beginning to the present. We're brand new and fresh again, with frill potential to make anything happen.

Do you guys chill all the time or just meet up with each other for shows and events?

Opio: Yeah, we chill Hieroglyphics is a family. We grew up together, started this thing together, and we're still together to this day A lot of crews went their separate ways, but Hiero, we're still down. We ain't just in this for the payola or the fame and fortune, it's more creative. We get energy from each other. I gain vision when I hear Pep do his thing or when I hear Plus' new song. It makes me strive to take it to the next level. That's really been the foundation of Hieroglyphics--the togetherness, the oneness that we have. We've been friends for so many years and we were friends before we started. It wasn't like some record producer got us together. This ain't Making the Band; it's Hieroglyphics, we family.

Who did the production?

Domino: Mostly it was inside the crew--A-Plus, Opio, Casual. We got one track from Space Boy Boogie X, but mostly it's in-house production.

Few artists are signed before going independent like Souls were. What happened?

Tajai: We'd all been making music, but it really started with Del getting into the industry through his cousin (lee Cube), and we had been making demos up to that point and just kept doing it through the new way into the industry.

Pep: I was never signed, but I could see what everyone else was going through. The thing about being independent is that all the profits are quadruple, quintuple what someone on a major label would make. You may not sell even a quarter of the records, but you don't need to. Full creative control is yours, but you can't do as much with the promotional/marketing side. Everybody knows how to spread the word like a grass roots thing--the same way any movement starts. We all got it in us. I believe that's a part of the next element of music, everyone believing they can spread the word without a whole corporate conglomerate behind them.

Opio: We were dropped from our labels 'cause we weren't really on the same page. Our whole vision when we gut to the industry was progressiveness. We wasn't trying to appear to be manufactured in any way. That's really not the mindstate of a record label that has N-Sync and Brittany Spools. They're trying to be accessible where as we're just really concerned about the music. We're not trying to make sure everybody can feel us. It's all about the originality and being independent is the perfect format for that.

What's up with your label Hiero 2?

Domino: We wanted to put out groups that weren't just Hiero groups. We wanted to act as a real label. We wanted an offshoot label so people don't just automatically think "If it's Hiero, it's somebody in Hiero." It's not necessarily a "two," but our label puts people on who aren't in Hiero. There's a lot of dope emcees and musicians who should be heard. We felt we needed to do something new and different but still with the Hiero aesthetic, which is standing for what we believe in musically, which is progressive music.

How do you say the female singer's name?

Domino: "Go-op-e-le."

Who else is on Hiero 2 besides Goapale?

Domino: Her and Encore, and that's really it. We just started and no one's really officially signed to that part of the label, but from here on in that's where we're gonna put a lot of different artists. We're putting out Encore. distributing Z-Man. And the Delinquents, we're distributing them. They aren't actually signed to us but we're putting them out. We're always gonna be doing music, but there'll be a point where we'll want to get behind the young cats too.

As a crew, Hiero has had the most songs in skate videos over the years.

Tajai: Oh yeah. We're from the Bay Area and there are a lot of raw skaters from the Bay. I think that's how it started off, as a hometown kind of thing. These cats were playing songs from our demos in the videos. Its expression, doing your thing and trying to be original, that's where it intersects. More than skaters in particular like our music, it's more like all them sports inspire you to push yourself to the limit and express yourself and your style in what you do. And that's what Hiero does. It's more that connection than our music is especially good for skating. But we love the skaters, they're keeping us alive.

Domino: Part of the whole reason for the buzz in the underground we got was because of the skater love. A lot of them songs on the Plan B video are the ones that weren't released but sought after. I remember when the Souls Of Mischief were on tour, there were more people coming up to us asking about the songs on the Plan B video than damn near any song on the record So definitely, we noticed that immediately

If coming up as rappers and being successful was the childhood dream, you've obviously achieved that. So what's next?

Tajai: Enjoying the fruits of our labor. We've finally got it to where we have a large fan base and a way to get the product. Don't come up to me at a show and be like, "I downloaded your stuff man!" 'cause I'ma slap you, Just become financially prosperous so we can make other fool able to live out their dream. When we were coming up the only way you could come out was "Hey, let's go get signed to a major label and we'll have a video and be rappers." Nowadays we can do it with the H2 label. We're putting out fresh talent and people are taking to it like people are taking to the majors. It's getting our finances in order to help other people realize their dream, so we can bum real big and surf every day.

Pep: I plan on doing some reconstruction on this whole hip-hop plane we're working with, and reorganizing the matrix and getting the hip-hop thing back to how it was supposed to be in the beginning--coming with raw shows, really rocking the crowd, taking our rhymes to the next level and showing them what Hieroglyphics is really about.

Whose got to get something off their chest?

Tajai: Make sure you support not really "underground," but independent hip-hop We're really making them for people to listen to and buy. I don't care if you download them, if you get them from a pay download service. If you want to download them it's cool, I know records are expensive. But buy a t-shirt or come to the show. It's important we feel the support because that's the only way we can continue doing this. We make these records because we love making records, but of course we make them to be purchased and enjoyed. It's the same as supporting your local burger joint instead of going to McDonald's. America is all about homogeneity and pasteurized and standardized, and we're trying to be on the vanguard of different. That's what skating's about. The X-Games are OK, but it's really about street skating and pushing yourself.