Protograffiti

Thrasher Magazine, Jan, 2004 by Mark Harvin

Domino: Part of the whole reason for the buzz in the underground we got was because of the skater love. A lot of them songs on the Plan B video are the ones that weren't released but sought after. I remember when the Souls Of Mischief were on tour, there were more people coming up to us asking about the songs on the Plan B video than damn near any song on the record So definitely, we noticed that immediately

If coming up as rappers and being successful was the childhood dream, you've obviously achieved that. So what's next?

Tajai: Enjoying the fruits of our labor. We've finally got it to where we have a large fan base and a way to get the product. Don't come up to me at a show and be like, "I downloaded your stuff man!" 'cause I'ma slap you, Just become financially prosperous so we can make other fool able to live out their dream. When we were coming up the only way you could come out was "Hey, let's go get signed to a major label and we'll have a video and be rappers." Nowadays we can do it with the H2 label. We're putting out fresh talent and people are taking to it like people are taking to the majors. It's getting our finances in order to help other people realize their dream, so we can bum real big and surf every day.

Pep: I plan on doing some reconstruction on this whole hip-hop plane we're working with, and reorganizing the matrix and getting the hip-hop thing back to how it was supposed to be in the beginning--coming with raw shows, really rocking the crowd, taking our rhymes to the next level and showing them what Hieroglyphics is really about.

Whose got to get something off their chest?

Tajai: Make sure you support not really "underground," but independent hip-hop We're really making them for people to listen to and buy. I don't care if you download them, if you get them from a pay download service. If you want to download them it's cool, I know records are expensive. But buy a t-shirt or come to the show. It's important we feel the support because that's the only way we can continue doing this. We make these records because we love making records, but of course we make them to be purchased and enjoyed. It's the same as supporting your local burger joint instead of going to McDonald's. America is all about homogeneity and pasteurized and standardized, and we're trying to be on the vanguard of different. That's what skating's about. The X-Games are OK, but it's really about street skating and pushing yourself.