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 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.

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.

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.

Youtube member, YO! EDY K RAPS has posted some classic, live Hiero YO! MTV Raps performances and interviews from the early 90′s online, some of which I havne’t seen personally in over 15 years. Check em out.

But oh — a word of warning: Get em while they’re hot. Vaicom (MTV’s parent company) pulled the Del / Fab 5 Freddy interview down the last time it was on Youtube, so best to check it quick if that’s gonna be the case a second time around. Enjoy.

Del The Funky Homosapien Ft Hieroglyphics – No More Worries (Live) @ Yo MTV Raps 1993

(A-Plus, Casual, Snupe of Extra Prolific, Del)

Souls Of Mischief – 93 ‘Til Infinity (Live) @ Yo MTV Raps 1993

Del The Funky Homosapien – Interview Pt 1 @ Yo MTV Raps 1991

Del The Funky Homosapien – Interview Pt 2 @ Yo MTV Raps 1991

[YO! EDY K RAPS via Access Hip Hop]

Dope article written by Tajai of Souls of Mischief over at XXLMag.com about Hiero’s independent legacy:

Making the transition from being on a major, where everything is paid for—cars, hotels, plane tickets, tour support—to being on…nothing, was shocking and a little bit scary. We came directly out of high school into a major label deal into a world of stardom, so to not have that label security made it seem like everything else would go away.

Check it out over at XXLMag.com »

See also:
• Yameen & Tajai Interview, XLR8R Magazine
• Yameen & Tajai Releases

I’m pretty hyped about the new album from Souls of Mischief, produced by Prince Paul which finally has a title: Montezuma’s Revenge. I think if the rest of the album is anything like the first single, “Tour Stories” it is going to be great.

That said, the first single from the album is out this week and available on iTunes. “Tour Stories” features Clean, Explicit, Instrumental and Acapella tracks and can be got for $3.96. It was produced by Domino and co-produced by Prince Paul. It’s a dope track.

Click here to cop it on iTunes.

And here’s a nice little treat from Grand Good on YouTube: Souls of Mischief performing the song live at The Knitting Factory in New York on December 16th, 2008.

Based on the 2K / Experimental Jetset original, my take on Hiero & Souls of Mischief:

I’ll pass em on to Tajai. Maybe Hiero will make them officially?

Be sure to check out that Experimental Jetset link I posted earlier. They are not only the OG designers of the shirt, but have been good enough to post a gallery of other similarly-inspired designs right on their website. So check it out.