Hieroglyphics: Pep Love, Opio, Casual, A Plus, Phesto, Domino, Del Tha Fukee Homosapien, Tajai.
Additional personnel includes: Goapele, Abstract Rude, Michael Ashburne, Alexandra Lalinde, Caroline Bazzichi, Herb Lee, Big Boy, Big Tigger.
Producers: Domino, Opio, A Plus, Casual, Space Boy.
Recorded at Hiero Studio, Venice, California.
Sometime in the 1990s, a group of maverick rappers in Oakland gathered under a name befitting the sharp, cerebral, often oblique skills of its members: Hieroglyphics. The collective includes the talented, prolific Del tha Funkee Homosapien and the gifted freestyler Casual, along with Souls of Mischief (Opio, Phesto, Tajai and A-Plus), the multi-talented Pep Love, and producer Domino (not to be confused with the Long Beacher who sang "Getto Jam"), most of whom already had successful albums before releasing THIRD EYE VISION together in 1998.
The Hieroglyphics crew returns five years later with all members intact on the thoroughly captivating FULL CIRCLE, and it's precisely the kind of record one would hope for from such an eclectic cast of eccentrics who've been rapping together for over a decade. The Hieroglyphics possess some of the most acute, inventive, imaginative wordsmiths in the rap universe, Swiftian minds capable of composing lines like "my rhymes is illegible, but still legendary" or refrains like "put your hands where your halo at" with ease. However, the mix still wouldn't work if the vocals didn't mesh, and far from spoiling the soup, the ridiculously many cooks play off each other, particularly Del and Casual, two of the most idiosyncratic voices in hip-hop.
