Not many hip hop artists can claim to have a mayoral proclamation on their resume. But from now on, the 22nd of December will be known as “Heiruspecs Day” in St. Paul, dedicated to the live hip-hop band that celebrated its 10 year anniversary at the end of 2007 with a collection of new material, b-sides, and live rarities called 10 Years Strong.
After the release of A Tiger Dancing in 2004, but especially after a near-fatal van accident in December of 2005, the band decided to take a break from touring and making music together. Members have worked on different individual side projects, occasionally reuniting to perform around town, as well as recording some new material here and there for a planned fifth album, some of which can be heard on 10 Years Strong. It’s obvious that the break has helped rekindle the desire to make music as Heiruspecs, as the new material on the record is some of their strongest to date.
The album begins where Heiruspecs began, as Felix spits on the new “Some From None,” the album’s opener: “Voluntary lockdown/deep inside the studio at Central.” The two original members of the band, Felix (Christopher Wilbourn) and Sean “Twinkie Jiggles” McPherson met in Red Freeberg’s recording class at St. Paul Central High, and began the group soon after. (The name is derived from “haruspex,” a term for a Roman soothsayer who predicted the future by examining the entrails of sacrificed animals.) The rest of the song consists of Felix’s reflections about where they’ve come from, their trials, tribulations, and triumphs, all with a palpable excitement in his voice and as well as in the intense, driving drums of Peter Leggett and dVRG’s synths. After “Some From None,” the band sequences the album like a good mixtape, going through material from their two out-of-print, cassette-only releases, 1998’s Live From the Studio and Antidisestablishmetabolism (2000), as well as a variety of live shows and other recorded nuggets from the band’s decade of existence.
The superior musicianship of the band, honed through years of touring, is on full display. The flexibility and versatility of the live band offers the possibility of a moving beyond the boundaries of a verse-chorus-verse structure, with subtle shifts of feel dotting their musical landscapes. Beats are heavier, the synths and guitars often darker and more distorted, as on “War Drums.” On “I Know,” the album’s finale, Felix relates his travels across the country, from spending time in Miami with Guardians of Balance MC Master Mind, and what it means to come home, riding arpeggios of piano, an almost harpsichord-like synth, and Twinkie Jiggles’ wide-ranging, but always in-the-pocket bass lines. Felix’s flow is focused, almost chant-like, a nice foil to fellow MC Muad’dib, whose vocals run the gamut from rhyming to singing and everything in between. Both, however, bring a density of metaphor and allusion to their songs. Take for instance Muad’dib’s verse on one of the other new songs, “Bright Lights,” with its churning organ, as he raps “if trees could be replaced with looseleaf/I would work words into the earth/to produce fruits of true speech.”
The youthful energy of their early work, evidenced by the prominence of battle raps of the first two records as well as the straight up funk and rock beats, has not diminished, only focused into thoughtful reflection—as Felix raps on “Some From None,” he’s “looking through a decade of hands in the air”—yet without navel-gazing. And such reflection on where Heiruspecs has come from does not translate, however, to nostalgia. This was clearly evident with the group’s pair of shows last December, the late set a 2-hour show that was easily one of the best of 2007, within and beyond hip-hop. With plans for another full-length in the future, if 10 Years Strong and their December concerts are any indication, there’s much look forward to.
