The Sleeprockers team up with Hieroglyphics on the Bay Area’s venerable rap group’s long-awaited new album

Words by Andrew Bell • Photos by Zaved Khan

Going to see The Sleeprockers live is like going to watch the hip-hop version of Miles Davis with his band. With an MPC, a mountain of turntables between them and a bunch of pedals, loopers and other alien-looking technology, the crew has taken collaborative live beat production to a new level, even catching the attention of West Coast hip-hop hall of famers Hieroglyphics.

Is it any wonder the Hiero crew would tap the five-man DJ/production crew (DJ Nocturnal, DJ Wanted, Kwes the Bess, Mr. Vibe, and Rated R) to sleeprock (yes, it’s a verb when Hiero asks you to do it) a new group album that would become The Kitchen, the first group album from Hieroglyphics since releasing Full Circle a decade ago?

“They really gave us creative control for the most part,” explained Kwes the Bess. “The more we wanted to push boundaries the more they were with it.”

Aptly named after The Sleeprockers’ practice of setting up their production equipment in the kitchen, the new album is an innovative recipe for hip-hop brought to you by some of the most seasoned lyricists in the game.

Hiero and Sleeprockers go back a few years. In 2010 Hieroglyphics put the word out that they were looking for DJs. “I hit ‘em up and told ‘em I had a whole crew of DJs who came from all different backgrounds, from party-rocking to battling and everything in between,” explained DJ Nocturnal.

In 2011, Hiero asked the crew to collaborate on a new group album that would become The Kitchen. They got busy finding samples, mixing, cutting, scratching and sometimes flipping whole beats.

In the process of recording The Kitchen, Hieroglyphics member Tajai was so impressed with The Sleeprockers’ work he asked them to collaborate on his latest album, Machine Language, which was released January 2012.

All that time, The Sleeprockers have been sitting on what is definitely one of the most anticipated albums in West Coast underground hip-hop.

For anyone under the impression that any of the Hieroglyphics camp has lost a step lyrically over the last 20 years, have no fear. All the uniqueness and funk that you loved about everyone’s signature styles in 1993 are still there, just with updated content and more current beat production. And, of course, sleeprocked.

The bass-heavy, boom-bap revamp is apparent, beginning with the intro track, produced by The Sleeprockers and including juggling by West Coast DMC Champion DJ Wanted (currently residing in Japan), and carrying into the second track “Livin It Up,” a futuristic, funk slapper produced by Del The Funky Homosapien.

The Hieroglyphics camp flexes their own production muscles throughout The Kitchen as well with more than 11 of the 17 tracks produced by Del, Opio or A-Plus. The Kitchen is stocked with that trademark trunk-rattling Oakland funk that the crew has taken around the world.

Lyrically, the Hieroglyphics cast has always had the unique ability to represent both the “street” and “conscious” sides of hip-hop simultaneously, and The Kitchen is no different. The entire album is chock full of social commentary while still…Um… how do you say “Slumps like a MF” in journalist-ese?

After 10 years, there is a distinct development in The Kitchen. More than just a whole crew full of flavorful rappers with flamboyant personalities and flows, there is a cinematic feel to the album. This is largely due to The Sleeprockers’ influence on the intros, interludes, mixes and cutting (scratching) on the album.

So what is it like to work with some of your hip-hop heroes? For The Sleeprockers it didn’t sink in until the end. “I don’t think any of us looked at it like that when we were working on The Kitchen,” explained Mr. Vibe. “But there was definitely a moment after it was done that was like, ‘We just DID that.’”

When asked their favorite individual tracks from The Kitchen, discussion bounced around the room between Sleeprockers. The first track brought up is “That Merch.” Produced by Unjust and featuring Pep Love, “That Merch” documents the hustle involved in peddling the now-infamous third eye memorabilia at shows and how important the merchandise game has been to Hieroglyphics’ success. “That Merch” is to underground rappers what Notorious B.I.G.’s “The Ten Crack Commandments” was to drug dealers.

“Gun Fever,” the first single from The Kitchen, followed closely behind “That Merch.” A conscious banger about America’s obsession with guns, the track features Tajai, Pep Love, A Plus, Del the Funky Homosapien and Casual speaking on their own personal experiences with gun violence.

The track was originally recorded in 2011 before the State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman case was headline news. “It was expressing what was going on in our own neighborhoods,” explained Hieroglyphics member Tajai. Released at the end of April, the music video for “Gun Fever” has reached almost 50,000 views on YouTube in only a couple of months.

Last but not least, Opio’s laid-back, classic West Coast production on “Highway 5” gets passed around the circle as another Sleeprocker favorite. A shining example of the key ingredient that The Sleeprockers bring to The Kitchen, “Highway 5” features both Rated R and Mr. Vibe bringing the patented sleeprock flavor to the track.

There are still tracks like “wShores Galore” (no, that’s not a misprint) for all of the die-hard “93 ‘til Infinity” heads, but the overall feel is an updated, kind of Golden Era 2.0. nostalgic. But for as much as The Kitchen “takes it back” it also moves it forward.

The Kitchen drops July 16, 2013 on iTunes, Amazon, etc., but you can pre-order packages now at Hieroglyphics.com including posters, CDs, T-shirts, and instant downloads of the next single, “It’s Partly Me.”

Getting to Know a Familiar Face

If you like hip-hop, you probably know this underground rapper/producer and probably don’t even realize it. As a result of 15 years of “forward-thinking” and hip-hoptimism with Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics, Oakland native Opio’s ’90s-esque collaborations have been emulated by the likes of Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco. Opio offered up some “vulture’s wisdom” and spoke to Submerge about his most recent solo project, hip-hop philosophy and his current tour that maked a stop in Sacramento.

There is something I wanted to clear up with you, Opio. You are a solo artist, but you’re also part of Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics?
Yeah, you know. Souls of Mischief been doing it professionally since signing a record deal in ’93. I was with them; that’s where I started. And then, Hieroglyphics has been out for 10 years”¦ It’s not like I’m a solo artist. I’m in Hieroglyphics. I’m just putting out these projects, solo projects. I’m more well known for being in Hiero and Souls of Mischief and I’ve been down with them groups since their inception.

There were some incredible things said about your talents from other magazines. A lot of people listen to your music; a lot of people know who you are.
At this stage, when I’ve been doing it for a while, it’s just a blessing to be able to do what you love. Like the press, it’s different for me, because people who are going to listen to me, I don’t think they are swayed really to hard by what’s hot and what’s not. There’s a connection that I have with people that I’ve learned over the years. Just being consistent with the music. Some people fall off the map and don’t stay consistent.

Your new album [Vulture’s Wisdom, Volume 1] came out July 15. It’s volume one of a trilogy and you’re going to try to get all three volumes out within a year. Are they already recorded? What’s the deal?
Volumes one and two are already done. Volume three, we don’t want to overstep our boundaries and make sure that we have something that we can feel we can manipulate and want to work on it. It takes a while. Volume one was done last October, so it’s been done for a while. Volume two was done at the same time. You don’t really want the music to get old and stale. With volume three, we’re still trying to tweak it out a little bit, just off of what people say. Volume one and two we did quickly. We just had a really good creative energy and the space that we were in was really cool. I’ve worked with Architect [producer] before. Our mentality is that we want to start more of a movement than just getting people into one or two songs.

You want to try and get them to like the whole trilogy?
We’re trying to change people’s ideas about how they listen to music. Like, instead of listening to songs or a single, or trying to listen to an album and skip through every single song on your first listen. Everybody is going to skip around once you had a CD for a while, because you’ve got your favorite songs. If you’re going to pop a CD in from an artist that you like, you should want to be able to sit down and listen to it. The artist has to give you what you need as well. You don’t want to have fast-forward material. But our mentality is we’re making albums, we’re not making hot songs or a hot single that everybody can jump on and be like, “Yo, this is the joint right here.” It’s more about the whole album—more so than the trilogy. We want people to get into the album as a whole. Listen to the record, sit with it. A whole solid listening experience”¦change people’s mentality in terms of how they’re listening, at least to us.

You said you want to change people’s perspectives. What does that have to do with the album title?
The title is just coming out of conversations that me and Architect had in terms of what we were seeing in hip-hop. If you ever hear people just really disgruntled, “Back in the days, it used to be so tight, and now it’s all commercialized. It doesn’t have the same energy it once had.” That’s what people say. To me, hip-hop is just powerful. It’s more powerful than it’s ever been. Even though maybe some people are just quick to have this real apathy toward hip-hop”¦ Me and Architect still have the vision and the wisdom to see where other people see nothing, we see sustenance. They done picked away at it and left this like skeleton. But, we can still swoop in with the “Vulture’s Wisdom.” We can eat and see food where others just see nothing.

This tour that you’re currently on, The Freshly Dipped tour, it’s the 10th anniversary tour of Hiero Imperium. You’re playing with Hieroglyphics as the headliner, but are you doing any of your solo project songs?
Yeah, definitely. My album is the album that’s out right now. It’s a good opportunity for me to promote myself. People know Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics, but they don’t necessarily know me. It’s an opportunity to raise these peoples’ awareness of what I’m doing. Because, a lot of the people that been listening to Hieroglyphics and Souls of Mischief over the years, they know me and they’re in touch with me and they like my style, but it’s just kind of hard if you’ve been doing it 15-something years, all they know is Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics, they don’t really know to say Opio.