I may be showing my age here a bit but the older “heads” know who DEL tha funkee homosapien is.

Del started off his career (at age 18) penning lyrics for his cousin Ice Cube’s crew called the Lench Mob. Before long he decided to flex his muscles in front of the microphone and with help from Cube released his first album “I Wish My Brother George Was Here”. This severed the Hip Hop world in terms of taste since people either got Del or they weren’t feeling his unique flavor. Feeling he could do better, Del dropped his second album No Need For Alarm… an album that still gets rotation in my CD player.

No Need for Alarm was basically a diss album calling out for wack emcees to leave the mic alone. Verses like “I cannot stand a wack emcee, step back if you please, don’t test me your history” was proof enough of that. Throughout his music Del could do no wrong with his fans and helped bring out the group Hieroglyphics and more specifically The Souls of Mischief. After being dropped from Elektra for a 3rd album that didn’t sell well, Del created his own independent label and started selling his albums via the internet.

Younger fans may know Del best from his work with Gorillaz, a production of much reading and study into music by Del himself. A book given to him by his mother during his down times led to the creation of a unique sound and the Gorillaz brought him platinum success. Del has always been a hardcore gamer, I recall a friend telling me about a Hiero concert where Del refused to go anywhere once he stepped off the plane other than an arcade that had Street Fighter 3. He is all about the gaming and the video below is a song he made a long time ago paying homage to the Dreamcast and Sega Saturn for their great production of quality arcade fighting games.

Del is the man, and you can check out his work at his website: http://www.hieroglyphics.com.