Hieroglyphics, also known as the Hieroglyphics Crew and Hiero, is an American

underground hip hop Underground hip hop (also known as underground rap or simply underground) traditionally refers to hip hop music that is outside the general mainstream canon or counter-cultural in nature, usually with a heavy emphasis on emotion, lyricism, and/or ...

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...

based in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. The group includes founder

Del the Funky Homosapien Teren Delvon Jones (born August 12, 1972), better known by his stage name Del the Funky Homosapien (sometimes stylized as Del tha Funkee Homosapien) or Sir DZL, is an American rapper. Music career 1988–1997: Early life and beginnings Born in O ...

, fellow rappers Casual,

Pep Love Pallo Peacock, known professionally as Pep Love, is a hip hop artist and a member of the Oakland, California-based hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. Early life Pep Love was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He relocated with his family t ...

, and all four members of the group

Souls of Mischief Souls of Mischief is a hip hop group from Oakland, California, that is also part of the hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. The Souls of Mischief formed in 1991 and is composed of rappers A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai. History East Oakland ...

—

Phesto Damani Thompson, known by the stage names, Phesto and Phesto Dee (born April 29, 1974), is an American rapper and producer. He is one of the founding four members of the Oakland, California-based underground hip hop group Souls of Mischief, and, ...

, ,

Opio Souls of Mischief is a hip hop group from Oakland, California, that is also part of the hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. The Souls of Mischief formed in 1991 and is composed of rappers A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai. History East Oakland n ...

, and

Tajai Tajai Massey, known mononymously as Tajai ( ; born April 21, 1975), is an American rapper and producer. He is one of the four founding members of the Oakland, California-based underground hip hop group Souls of Mischief and, with Souls of Mis ...

—as well as

DJ Toure Hieroglyphics, also known as the Hieroglyphics Crew and Hiero, is an American underground hip hop collective based in Oakland, California. The group includes founder Del the Funky Homosapien, fellow rappers Casual, Pep Love, and all four member ...

and producer/manager

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...

. Since their inception, Hieroglyphics have found a following largely through their members, podcasts ("Hierocasts"), and promotion through their website. The collective uses a three-eyed, straight-lipped face logo that figures prominently on their albums, website, stickers, and clothing.

History

As a collective, the Hieroglyphics have released three studio albums: ''

3rd Eye Vision ''3rd Eye Vision'' is the debut studio album by American hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. It was released by Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings on March 24, 1998. It peaked at number 26 on the ''Billboard'' Heatseekers Albums chart, as well as n ...

'' in 1998, '' Full Circle'' in 2003, and '' The Kitchen'' in 2013. In 2005, the collective released a live DVD and accompanying CD of the Hiero's 2003 ''Full Circle Tour''. The collective has also released five compilation albums: ''Hiero B-Sides'' and ''Hiero Oldies Vol. I'' in 1997, ''Hiero Oldies Vol. II'' in 1998, ''The Building'' in 2004, ''

The Corner ''The Corner'' is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book '' The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood'' (1997) by David Simon and Ed Burns, and adapted for television by David Simon and David M ...

'' in 2005, and most recently, '' Over Time'', in March 2007. Individual members of the collective have also released albums of their own, either through solo projects or outside group projects.

Logo

The collective's third eye logo is the

Mayan numeral The Mayan numeral system was the system to represent numbers and calendar dates in the Maya civilization. It was a vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system. The numerals are made up of three symbols: zero (a shell), one (a dot) and fiv ...

for 8. Created by

, the son of an

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...

ist, it has been used to promote the collective on their album covers, website, stickers, clothing, and other promotional materials. In a 2000 interview with ''

SF Weekly ''SF Weekly'' is an online music publication and formerly alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper ha ...

'', Del commented: The ''Clerks'' comic in question was drawn by

underground comic Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

artist

Jim Mahfood Jim Mahfood (born March 29, 1975), a.k.a. Food One, is an American comic book creator. Apart from his creator-owned comic book series ''Grrl Scouts'' and his comic strip ''Stupid Comics'' (which appears weekly in the ''Phoenix New Times'') he als ...

who has worked various rap and hip hop items into his work over his career. In an interview with ''halftimeonline.net'' in 2004, Mahfood mentioned Del and the Hieroglyphics by name:

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Singles

As featured artist

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hieroglyphics Musical collectives Alternative hip-hop groups Hip-hop groups from California Hip-hop collectives Musical groups established in 1995 Musical groups from Oakland, California Underground hip-hop groups