Over Time

Album Review

A collection of hard-to-find tracks from Hieroglyphics and its members, Over Time is definitely not the album if you're looking for a best-of collection. Only two actual Hieroglyphics pieces are included, the Domino remix of "You Never Knew," and "Heat" which was released as B-side in 1999, and most of songs that will be recognizable to fans of the crew (Pep Love's "Fight Club," Del's "Phoney Phranchise" and "If You Must," the Souls of Mischief's "Soundscience") are all here in remixed form. This is fine, but a cuss-free version of "Phoney Phranchise" is not as good as the Both Sides of the Brain version, even if the new beat fits the song well. Many of the other tracks on Over Time have been found on various rare compilations (A Pluss' "Greed," Del's "Cyberpunks," Souls of Mischief's "Unseen Hands"), but it's nice to have them all collected onto one record, and shows off the impressive talent of each individual. Del, as the Hieroglyphics' founder and most visible and prolific member, is the star of the show, showing up on no less than eight of Over Time's 14 tracks, but MCs like Casual, Tajai, and Pep Love all flaunt their own verbal abilities well and effectively, and make the compilation an interesting and worthwhile investment for Hiero followers.