The West Coast Wu-Tang

Back in the mid-nineties I spent most of my teenage years in apathy of the school events and socializing, devoting most all of my time to my skateboarding passion. I must have spent every dime I made from bagging groceries and cooking hoagies on skateboard videos (old school VHS). The great thing about all those videos was that the pros got to choose their favorite songs to play during their featured montage of tricks, which ranged from punk to hip hop and sometimes even country.

I discovered Hieroglyphics when a commercial (yes, some of these videos even had advertisements) for a snowboard company had one of the gnarliest underground hip hop tracks I had ever heard. That track turned out to be a song featuring Del the Funky Homosapien called "At The Helm". This song ended up being the anthem of my summer.

Third Eye Vision was one of the most innovative albums to come out in 1998. Hieroglyphics is a super crew consisting of Del, Casual, Pep Love & Jaybiz (The Prose), and Souls of Mischief along with producer Domino. It's a bulkly album with numerous stand out tracks and almost no fillers with back and forth, top notch rhyming from all members. Although they're from Cali, their style resonates more from east coast artists and sample heavy beats (a rarity when most were opting for a more stripped down, clean production). Definitely a hip hop classic. Pick this album up if you ever come across it. You won't be disappointed.

You Never Knew
At the Helm
Oakland Blackouts