I spent my Labor Day at Hiero Day, the annual celebration of Hieroglyphics. For the unfamiliar, Hieroglyphics are a legendary hip-hop collective out of Oakland. They are probably best known for the classic hip hop song “93 ’til Infinity” by Souls of Mischief (a Hiero subgroup) or from individual members like Del the Funky Homosapien.
Hiero Day began in 2012 as a fan-driven celebration on September 3 (or 9/3), a nod to “93 ’til Infinity.” The celebration grew into a showcase for Bay Area hip-hop and culture. I still have fond memories of Hiero Day 2018, when the festival was outdoors in Oakland. That year’s lineup included Black Thought, The Pharcyde, Talib Kweli, and of course Hiero. This year’s Hiero Day was held at The Midway in San Francisco.
When I arrived, DJ Jazzy Jeff was spinning the usual old-school hip-hop head tracks. You know, songs from A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes and Royce da 5’9”, mixed with some Bay Area favorites like “Blow the Whistle” and “Feelin’ Myself.”
After nodding my head for a while, I went to check out the second stage. There I caught Frak, a local rapper from the Sunset District who is probably best known for his battle raps. He was performing with Afterthought and the Top Chefs, a band I’ve written about in several previous Fogline articles. Frak opened by freestyling from words picked by the audience. After the freestyle, he performed some original songs including “Golf Clap” and “Chalant.” He called the set a full-circle moment, and mentioned having attended Hiero Day every year since he was 13. He also brought out several Bay Area guests, including Passwurdz and Nef the Pharaoh.
I then headed back to the main stage to catch Mereba, a R&B singer-songwriter. I was somehow unfamiliar with her music despite her being well established, so I watched her Tiny Desk set beforehand. Her voice was beautiful live, and the live instruments from the band were a nice change of pace.
Next up was Hieroglyphics. The group clearly wanted to emphasize that this wasn’t just a nostalgia performance and that they are still very much active. They performed new music from their recently released album All Said And Done, which just came out on September 3. They also mentioned recent solo projects from individual members Casual and Pep Love.
Del the Funky Homosapien got the spotlight for a bit with a performance of “Virus” from the classic Deltron 3030 album. The group mentioned that Dan the Automator was hanging out somewhere in the crowd, but he seemed like he was keeping it low key. And of course they closed out with two of their most popular tracks, “93 ’til Infinity” and “You Never Knew.”
The evening closed with Killer Mike, who I was most excited to see. He came out rocking an Oakland A’s cap and immediately went into the hard hitting track Down By Law. He mostly performed material from MICHAEL, for which he won the Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2024. After a few songs, he gave his background singers a chance to shine with a few short soul covers before returning to more hard-hitting rap. I especially loved that he included “Kill Jill”, an absolute banger from Big Boi’s Boomiverse album that he features on.
Overall, Hiero Day delivered yet again, and as someone who loves Bay Area hip hop culture, it was a pretty good way to spend Labor Day. While I personally preferred the energy in Oakland since it was outdoors (and perhaps because we were all a bit younger 8 years ago), $35 for this lineup was a pretty good deal.
