Decades before Odd Future, back when Wu-Tang was first bubbling on the East, there was the Hieroglyphics crew out of East Oakland, California: Casual, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Domino, Pep Love, A-Plus, Opio, Tajai, Phesto, and DJ Toure. They were the Beatles of backpack rap, made it cool for punk kids like me to get into hip-hop, and brought a certain credibility to true hip-hop music that was being absorbed at the time by Bad Boy vs. Death Row, urban apparel brands, and MTV videos.

Of course I discovered Hiero – as I did almost all the best music in my teenage years – by watching skate videos.  Our first collaboration with Hiero back when we opened THSF was one of those milestone partnerships that was lightning in a bottle. So as we draw nearer to the follow-up Hiero collab at The Hundreds San Francisco this Thursday, I wanted to remind and re-educate our readership on the Hieroglyphics legacy.

You never knew…

and this is how I knew…