At the dawn of the 90’s nowhere was as important to skateboarding as the Bay Area. In San Francisco the entire scene was centered around the downtown district known as The Embarcadero and specifically in Justin Herman Plaza. Dubbed The EMB by the locals and eventually the skate world it was the center of progression and emergence of modern street skating.

Coincidentally across the Bay in Oakland there was another revolution taking place, a Hip-Hop revolution. The now legendary Hieroglyphics crew was taking form under the direction of Del the Funky Homosapien. Eschewing the contemporary producing of the day Del and Hiero helped revitalize Bay Area Hip Hop by doing things on their own terms which culminated in the creation of their own independent label Hiero Imperium.

Of course two such like minded Iconoclastic forces in close proximity would be fated to eventually come together and in 1992 they did with the release of Plan B’s groundbreaking Questionable Video. Del’s song Ahonetwo Ahonetwo was the track for Sal Barbier’s part ( remember those red shoes!) and Burnt appeared in Mike Carrolls part but it didnt end there as many of these skate/music collaborations do. In fact it was just the beginning of a career long involvement with the action sports world. I remember seeing the whole Hiero crew here in SLC around 96 or 97 and many of them were sporting Dub Wear ( a snowboarding outerwear brand from DC founders Way and Block that predated DC outerwear ).

I was recently able to ask Del a few questions about his, Hieros, and Hip-Hops long term involvement with not only PlanB but the action sports world in general.

When you broke onto the scene in the early 90s obviously there was no twitter, facebook, or wide spread internet usage. How helpful was it for your young career to have a song in the classic Planb video, Questionable?

Skateboarders, and snowboarders starting with Plan B’s Questionable set the foundation for us, after that video we started receiving major love from the skateboarders and snowboarders. We could see it more and more at shows, as well getting more offers to rock snowboarding events as well as having music in snow/skate video games ( Tony hawk pro skater 3, 8 and now Ea Skate 3)





Do you think that event helped create a loyal fan base for you which in turn opened some doors that may have not been there so early in your career?





It has most definitely opened doors, it solidified a base for us that MTV and our traditional record label marketing and promotion wasn’t as tuned in to. It’s kept us solid and in the game as we went independent. Also opportunities to be featured in the video games was big!





Skateboarding and Hip hop really have many similarities rooted in individual expression, the desire for flow, and rhythm. Is this a big reason why there is such a bond between the two?



Talking to my manager Bukue who’s been skating since 1987 he was telling me that around the late 80’s early 90’s skateboard made a big transition from primarily a vert, ramp, socal based style, into a more urban, city, street skating style. This meant that it also needed a new soundtrack, one that reflected the streets they were skating on, luckily we happened to be a part of that.That’s where it seems the biggest bond came from. Skaters and Emcees are similar, you do have different styles and combinations of tricks, different flows and cadences for sure.





Does knowing that you have this firm fan base of people who are open to experimentation and new things give you a sense of confidence to step outside and do some different projects like 3030 and working with Gorillaz when you feel like it?



Luckily for me I’ve always made what I felt I wanted to. I got to work with everyone from Ice Cube, to Dinosaur Jr. early in my career so people kinda expected something different from me anyways. Lately though, we’ve been focusing hard on the action sports, Skate/snow/bmx world. Working directly with brands like, Skull candy, Red Bull, Arnette, Osiris and Plan B, we find we can really just have fun and do what we do cause they get it. They aren’t concerned about “who’s hot” and how things should sound. They feel it and are open to new sounds, styles and deliveries.





So now theres a PlanB/Del collab board out. Its come full circle, can you let the readers in on how that whole thing went down?





Back to Bukue, he has always been skating and working steady to strengthen our bridge and availability to the skate scene. One year he was skating at soundcheck and one of the folks in the crowd worked at syndrome dist ( where plan b was) and asked him if we’d like to roll through to the factory and get some gear. We went through and they laced us up. We kept rockin their gear and letting them know that we are down to cross promote, do music for em etc. About a year later, it all clicked and we did the boards. Now I’m actually heading down to Socal next week to do some music with Danny Way. He’s a serious guitar player! Now it’s gone full circle around again, now more on a music level too. Hopefully we’ll be able to do more cross collabing, we feel their brand and their skaters.





Check out here for free Del downloads including his new album Funk Man as well as other cuts/collaborations. Tracks and news for the Hiero crew can be found here. Special thanks to Bukue for making this happen check out his stuff (yes that IS Uprok Hip Hop store in SLC in the Writaz vid) as well as more Del/Hiero news and tracks here. Finally a few Special Edition Dell/PlanB boards are still available at FTC.