HERBILLEST Rap crew release “Propagation” to open your mind on some real Philly phunk.

Every so often an idea comes together for the sake of passion, heart. That growing entity that keeps energy flowing and music junkies heads nodding. Philly cannabis crusaders, The Herbillest, do just that. Joining forces to abolish racial divides and create a rap sound hidden from mainstream rapture, these Philly fly boys have finally given the City of Brotherly Love’s underground hip-hop community a reason to unite. Old-school, they’re not, but it’s that suave sound of hip-hop’s yester- year that controls Philly’s most original, undiscovered talent. Since the early 1990s, this group of three MCs and two DJs have been sharing the same love , even if they met miles down the roadway. Hip-hop was in their blood.

Underground only, moving away from rap radio and digging deep beneath the surface, Nick Grassmoke ” the Mr. Big of Philly’s Tacony section; Duke, a scruffy troublemaker from Trenton with an odd sense of lyrical boundaries; and Reno, an urbane poet with slippery tones ” started hitting the notebook in the late ˜90s. Like most kids growing up in South Jersey, The Pharcyde, Beatnuts and The Alkaholiks separated the true hip-hop heads from the wannabes. With their evident gift of gab, they started dropping tunes in Nick’s Jackson Street bachelor pad while centering on chronic share and puffing to “Scenario.” Somewhere between O.C.’s “Time’s Up” and Common’s “I Used to Love H.E.R.”, the crew really started writing tunes and using a MPC sampler to rock some extraordinary bass thumps to their high-on-life rhyme scheme. They even hit the Kingston Sound studios in Levittown, Pa. to rack up a number of tracks later to appear on the group’s debut record “Propagation” released last fall, including the party tune “Everything’s Nice,” featuring Jersey soul songstress Bernadette Dimeglio in the chorus.

Shortly before the onset of the new millennium, Nick made his weekly pilgrimage to Pat’s Records ” an institution of mobile DJ culture and the best spot in Northeast Philly to grab rap tapes at cost “to grab Al Tariq’s first solo joint when resident DJ Shawn O’Brick tossed his Kangol cap in the mix. Survivor of the defunct O-9 clique, O’Brick brought his mountains of vinyl, studio experience, ear for obscure samples and general knowledge of cool sounds to the table. O’Brick also brought along Tacony scratch legend DJ Slick, left over from the O-9 crew, and their cultivated bass grooves and knife-sharp cuts really started identifying the band’s current sound. “Before we met Slick, we talked about how we really needed a DJ,” Nick remembered. “I used to see him all the time walking around by his house. I’d be waiting around for my girl at the time, puffing on an el and I’d see him and we’d hang out and talk about hip-hop. “He was really happy to be down.” O’Brick was working with an interesting cat named Supe when the studio work started to become an idea again. O’Brick and Slick were making their own music at the time Kingston closed down and Nick starting looking for a place to drop some tracks. “It wasn’t the end of the world. We just didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into, Nick recalled. “It wasn’t until we started working with Supe when the group started working again. “Kingston had closed down and it was one of those situations where (Shawn) found my number and he called me.” The rest is history in a new generation of area hip-hop.

They hit Scott “Supe” Stallone’s Rumpus Sound studio in the Manyyunk section of Philly through most of 2002 and 2003 ” developing what would be the band’s current state. Stallone, a musical prodigy who played keyboards with Buju Banton’s band, was O’Brick and Slick’s studio engineering teacher at famed Ruffhouse Records. It was under Supe’s tutelage with O’Brick keeping a close eye on the sound board when the group decided to bring in live instruments while crashing head-first into politically influenced lyrical content focusing on the deregulation of pot, First Amendment ideologies and Rasta culture. Hits like “Pass It Along” is a bong-lover’s paradise, while “Philly Freedom” proves a couple of white kids from New Jersey could still represent the nation’s hungriest hip-hop scene.

Nick, who had been around the Philadelphia Phillies for most of his teen years, started handing out CDRs and tapes to the Major League Baseball’s younger stars with positive results. They recorded “Fightin’ Phils” in the midst of the Phillies National League playoff push the summer of 2003 and even recorded a video with the infamous Phillies video guru, Video Dan, in August ” featuring a live shot of Hall of Fame announcer Harry Kalas cutting on the group’s first 12-inch single “Pass it Along” The Phillies debuted the song during a sweltering August evening in what was one of the final playing days at Veterans Stadium. That night the Philly Phanatic shook his bonbon to the Herbillest anthem while sluggers Jim Thome and Pat Burrell each smashed towering home runs in a win against the hated St. Louis Cardinals. “Most people have memories of Charlie Garner running for a hundred yards or Tug McGraw jumping into Mike Schmidt’s arms after winning the World Series. My fondest memory was going there and hearing my track that I made from scratch played in front of 25,000 people,” said O’Brick, who was in attendance but had no clue the track was going to be featured. “The Phillie Phanatic smashed the Cardinals’ helmet to our song. ... That’s what baseball is all about in Philly and that’s what music is all about.” “It was definitely a going-out party for me at the Vet.” The Phillies saved the video for the finals days at the Vet ” featuring the shoot in front of a sold-out crowd the Saturday before the stadium’s final game.

Meanwhile, Nick handed out a lot of copies of Herbillest’s 18-track release in the bowels of Veterans Stadium throughout the season. With Major League Baseball honing in on Philly’s hip-hop pulse and a strong army of bass heads feeling the group’s party-all-night, smoke-all-day persona, Herbillest used their first time out of the studio to center their minds into some uplifting stuff. They joined the city’s pro-pot movement ” taking part in a December rally in front of the Liberty Bell spearheaded by Duke’s pot- smoking buddy, activist Pat Duff, and the New Jersey Weedman, Ed Forchion. Nick and Duff bought time on public radio station 1540 AM ” hosting the “Open Mind Show” in the midst of the band’s fall release “Propagation.” During their six-week stint, the group used the airwaves to preach on the legalization of pot, while using the Herbillest’s cocky hip-hop sound to attack listeners. They even brought culture legend Jack Herer to talk about his book, “The Emperor Wears No Clothes,” which has been described as a compendium for the pro-pot movement. “We are blatant marijuana activists. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” said Nick, who like many marijuana activists questions the motives of the U.S. government’s promotion of tobacco. “My motto is: Herb is superb and tobacco is wack-o.”

Meanwhile, “Pass It Along” was selected as the Dollar Holler Joint of the week at an Austin, Texas, radio station this past fall ” slammed in- between Blahzay Blahzay and Masta Killer ” with reviews of the record popping up on hip-hop Internet sights in northern Europe and Marc Emery’s Cannabis Culture magazine in Canada. The Herbillest network even extended to Philly’s Scratch Mechanic’s crew with DJ Kwestion ” whom the guys met at Kingston Sound ” featuring the single “Pass It Along” on Philadelphia 103.9’s Underground Hip Hop show this past winter. Even with a debut effort already ringing in the ears of Philly hip-hop heads, the Herbillest nation is far from explored. A second effort, Vegetation, is already cooking. In fact, half the record is mastered and picking up steam with tracks like the soon-to-be pot smoking anthem “Going to Amsterdam,” (bringing back Dimeglio’s soulful prose) the non-conformist mind-bending ditty “Against the Grain,” and anti-propaganda release “Harmless” bringing down the house at the Herbillest's often rawkus live sets. Right now the Herbillest is available for interviews, CDs reviews and concert reviews, so give us a call and set something up. This revolution should be Televised!