Blue Scholars and Hieroglyphics

Hieroglyphics
The Oakland-based Hieroglyphics are an underground rap collective who, at their best, combine an offbeat sensibility with a strong grounding in battle rhyming, freestyling, and other hip-hop traditions.

Knobody
Born and bred in Oakland, CA, Bay Area rapper Knobody jump-started his career after affiliating with the long-running underground hip-hop collective Hieroglyphics and their label, Hiero Imperium.

Musab
An original member of the Headshots, the crew that later went on to form the respected underground rap label Rhymesayers, Musab (who was known initially, both with Headshots and then with Dynospectrum, as Beyond) first started rhyming at age nine as a way to keep himself out of trouble.

Blue Scholars
Side by side with companion Seattle-based rap groups Common Market and Boom Bap Project, the Blue Scholars led the charge in proclaiming the Pacific Northwest as a breeding ground for "true school" hip-hop.

Tanya Morgan
Though the name Tanya Morgan sounds as if it belongs to a solo female performer, it is in fact an all-male hip-hop group. The band started in 2003 when producer/MC Von Pea (who lived in Brooklyn) and MC Donwil (who lived in Cincinnati) met online and decided to make an album together.

Prince Ali
Bay Area rhymesayer Prince Ali's verbal assault combines a flaunting, B-boy-like swagger with nuances of spirituality, a strong implication of his Souls of Mischief influence. Born in Oakland, CA, but raised a few miles south in Hayward, CA, Ali was inspired to be an MC in the mid-'80s...