Written by Crisitna Allen | Photography by Philip Litevsky & Cristina Allen

To celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the independent hip-hop label Hieroglyphics Imperium, Hieroglyphics set out on their North American tour with Blue Scholars, which hit Toronto. This Oakland-based collective of members, each with their own separate careers, includes Casual, Souls of Mischief, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, and Pep Love, amongst others, brought on the meaning of their name and three eye-ed logo to a fan-packed Mod Club on August 6th: Though Del wasn’t part of the tour, Souls of Mischief, Casual, and Pep Love made their appearances.

With the July release of his new album, Vulture’s Wisdom Volume One, Opio showcased his material performing a number of tracks from the record, as well as playing his DVD throughout the entire set (which didn’t provide anything to the overall performance other than distraction).

Nonetheless, Hieroglyphics performance was engaging, having the crowd chanting right through the show and raising their hands up to the song Halo. In fact, one knows the show was good fun when the performers themselves were clearly enjoying themselves; members of the crew were partying through their own set. A memorable moment was when A-Plus swiped a beer or two from bystanders on stage and looked as though he was having a better time than anyone in the crowd.

The set opened up with Shift Shape, and was followed with a number of tracks from their first album as the group Third Eye Vision, that kept the crowd hyped through the entire set and into an encore in which they played 93′ Til.

A lot of credit for the crowd’s energy has to go to Seattle’s duo Blue Scholars that brought first-rate tracks, mixing classic pop songs that got everyone hyped and moving before Hieroglyphics hit the stage.

Overall, the show was dynamic and surely left a few stragglers chanting “Hiero” looking for another encore.