It’s funny how these things happen…I was looking through some old files and came across the very first audio recording I ever made in RealAudio. You remember RealAudio, right?

Way back when we were using telephones to dial-up our connections to the Internet, RealAudio provided a low-bandiwdth codec that was efficient enough to encode audio in a file size that could stream (that is: play and download at the same time) over 14.4 or 28.8 Kbps modem connections. It was quite a revelation at the time.

But the ironic thing about this discovery of mine is that we launched this new feature on Hieroglyphics.com on exactly October 30th, 1996. That’s 16 years ago to the day. Freaky.

Anyway, I won’t hold you up. I’ve converted the RealAudio clip below into MP3 and also provided the original RealAudio file for you tweakerz; it’s a piece of Hieroglyphics.com history. And below those files, please find the original news post as it appeared on Hieroglpyhics.com announcing RealAudio’s arrival:

(Click here to listen if the embed above does not display)

Original RealAudio .ra file: Download here

Click image to enlarge:

This Page Was Posted On October 30th, 1996

RealAudio Now @ Hiero Online

Thanks to all those who helped fill out our questionnaire this month! Over 95% of you thought RealAudio would be an excellent addition to Hieroglyphics Dot Com, so we went out and purchased a server! Again, your imput means a lot to us here at Hiero Online. Although you may write me a suggestion, and never get a reply back, please be assurred that I read all of my mail! I do get a lot of it, and am not able to respond to each one, but all of your opinions, suggestions, etc. are heard. Keep it comin’!

For those not in the know, RealAudio allows us to deliver real-time, streaming audio on demand. No longer do you have to wait, and wait for your sounds to download! With RealAudio, just click, and listen within seconds!

Listening To RealAudio

In order for you to listen to RealAudio sound files, you will need the RealAudio Player. Please visit this page, and follow the simple instructions on downloading the RealAudio Player software. Then, when you are finished, come back here, and listen to our brief introduction to RealAudio @ Hiero Online, in real-time!

If you already have the RealAudio Player installed on your computer, go ahead and click below for a taste of things to come!

Thanx for all your feedback, 1nce again! Enjoy, and let us know how you like this new feature!

-Yameen

NOTE:
You Will Need AT LEAST a 28.8 Modem Connection
For The Following RealAudio Sound Clip To Work!

Welcome to Hiero Online & RealAudio

Last weekend I dumped over 131 gigs of DV video tapes of all kinds of stuff from 12+ years ago.

Among the tapes was some live footage of the Hieroglyphics crew performing at The Glass House in Pomona, California on March 16th, 2000.

Youtube’s upload limits at the time of this writing forced me to split the footage in two. I’ve embedded both parts below. Enjoy!

Part 1:

01:00 – Make Your Mind Up – A-Plus
02:30 – Oakland Blackouts – Opio & Del
05:00 – After Dark – Pep Love
07:30 – I Gotta (Get Down) – Casual
11:30 – That’s When Ya Lost – Souls of Mischief

Part 2:

00:08 – Catch a Bad One – Del
02:35 – Crooked Angles – Pep Love
06:30 – See Delight – Opio & Pep Love
09:20 – I Didn’t Mean To – Casual

Machine Language, the latest album from Tajai of Souls of Mischief / Hieroglyphics, features two Yameen songs:

“Formless” from Nuntype
“Hemingway” also from Nuntype

Additionally, Tajai has included an updated version of “Matter of Moments” with a new beat on Machine Language, a song which was originally cut from the Nuntype album (You can download the original here).

Machine Language is available now from Bandcamp.

You can also pick up the full length Nuntype album featuring me and Tajai in high quality FLAC, 320kbps MP3, or WAV from Bancamp now for the first time ever in such high fidelity digital formats.

For more on Tajai, click here.

I’ve been going through my MiniDV tapes (remember those?) and found the recording session for what would become “Center of Attention” (off of DJ Babu’s, Duck Season Vol. 1) featuring Souls of Mischief, Pep Love and Dilated Peoples. The video and recording session took place at Evidence’s Los Angeles-based home studio in March of 2001. Higher resolution video link after the Youtube embed below:

» Higher resolution version hosted at Vimeo

I dug up a pretty amazing audio conversation I had with Domino of Hieroglyphics from way back in June 1997, right as Hiero was knee-deep preparing their debut “family album”, 3rd Eye Vision for mass consumption.

Presented in our all-new Stink-E-Scope theater technology, this is more than just a simple audio interview: Sit back and be amazed by the moving pictures, the talkie high fidelity audio and tons of Hiero history as we go back…WAY back…To 1997:

Click above to begin interview

Errrrr…Put yer breaks on. Scratch that. Actually? I’m sorry to get you all hyped up and let you down, but your browser’s too under-powered for this feature (we ran a test when you landed on the page). Truly sorry. We try to push the envelop of cool ish around here and sometimes that means using the newest tech available.

All is not lost, however! You can upgrade to one of these modern browsers (we prefer Chrome):

- Chrome
- Safari 5+
- Firefox 3.5+
- Opera 10+
- Internet Explorer 9+

Here’s a blast from the past: Me and Souls of Mischief on TechTV talking bouts TEH INTERNETZ way back in 2000:

I make my debut around the 2:07 minute mark.

I was digging in the (virtual) crates and came up on an old CD-R featuring a session demo of a track we cut from the final version of Nuntype, recorded more than likely in 2000.

The song is called, “Matter of Moments” with me on production and Tajai on the mic. It’s never been released until now.

Although “Matter of Moments” was cut from the final playlist, the instrumental did manage to make it onto the retail album under the name “Cacophony Carknock”.

It’s unmixed, so keep that in mind, but it still sounds pretty good. Check it out below:

» Download – MP3 (8M)

And for more on Nuntype, check out: www.nuntype.com.

I’ve been doing some CD-R Spring cleaning and came up on another batch of Hieroglyphics Crew photos that we took for the old Hieroglyphics.com website Emporium store in 1999.

This batch features Domino, Tajai, Casual, Pep Love & JayBiz, Phesto Dee and Del the Funky Homosapien sporting some of the fly fits we had on sale back in the day.

Check the gallery below. Pretty sure the photos were shot by Giant Peach Karen. The lovely Viviane Oh also makes a guest appearance in the group shot. Her work you may be familiar with on album covers such as Casual’s, He Think He Raw, Rasco’s, Time Waits For No Man and Souls of Mischief’s, Trilogy.

Here it is, ya’ll: the “Light of Love” anime video trailer featuring Yameen & Lady Alma. Mark de Clive-Lowe is on the remix, and we are GO!

Be sure to check for a few cameos in the video including Casual of Hieroglyphics and Bobbito’s Footworks Illadelph record store, formerly located in Philly during the mid-to-late 90′s.

Check out a higher quality version at Vimeo as well: http://vimeo.com/13042021

Animation fans — especially Japanese anime from the likes of Gainax, Studio 4C, and Madhouse — are definitely in for a treat.

Production – Realthing
Executive Producer – Yujiro Funato
Producer / Creative support – Norifumi Fujita
Direction / Animation – Jamie Vickers
CGI Direction – Mayu Hirano
Animation / Color Design – Yuko Ueno

» Download the song from iTunes

» Download the song from Amazon.com MP3

I was going through some old discs and found a stash of photographs we used for the Hiero Emporium online store redesign on Hieroglyphics.com back in 1997. Thought I’d share em cause they’re pretty nice.

All photographs are the property of Jacob Rosenberg. Ya’ll know Saucee Jake: He can be heard on Del’s “Pet Peeves” getting hyphy on Del. Jacob was the director of videos such as “You Never Knew”, “If You Must”, and “At The Helm”.

Also, you may be wondering who that dude on the right of many of these pics are. That’s Alex Tse; the producer of the videos I mentioned above and dedicated Hiero fan. Where’s Alex now? Writing the screenplay to The Watchmen movie and the forthcoming live action Ninja Scroll adaptation, of course.