There’s been a big stink on the Internet lately, and it’s been emanating from www.hieroglyphics.com, the official home of the Hieroglyphics family (Souls of Mischief, Del thafunkeehomosapien, Casual, Extra Prolific, Pep Love & JBiz).
Originally printed in VIBE magazine
November, 1996
Page 132, “Tech Look”
Written by Gregg Bishop
Hieroglyphics Online is the creation of Yameen Friedberg’s StinkE Productions. Friedberg — whose nom de Web is StinkE — is an 18-year-old hip hop-loving Hiero fan who started his site in August, 1995 as a tribute to his favorite crew.
While the Web is littered with other such personalized sites devoted to favorite artists, the best many young fans can hope for is to attract a few hits now and then. What StinkE didn’t know was Tajai (Souls of Mischief) stumbled onto his site and loved it. Shortly after, Hieroglyphics baptized the site as its official home on the Net and now offer exclusive, unreleased songs and Hiero merchandise such as T-shirts and mix tapes. Now that most of the Hiero crew are unsigned and independent, the site will become the marketing backbone of their soon-to-be-released (and tentatively titled) Family Album.
So why would a college freshman stay up till four in the morning programming and maintaining the immensely popular site? “Well, I just love hip hop, and I love Hiero,” says StinkE. “It’s something that I wanted to do for them, and just them recognizing me was the greatest reward.” Hieroglyphics were apparently not the only ones checking for him; American Records wanted him to do a Chino XL page, but for StinkE, each project must be a labor of love. “I couldn’t feel his style,” he says. “And for me to promote an artist, I have to be 100 percent into him; otherwise it’ll end up wack.” — Gregg Bishop.
Reproduced on Hieroglyphics.org for educational purposes.
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