Founding Hieroglyphics member Pep Love has announced that he will release his first studio solo album in over a decade. Rigmarole will release March 6 on Hiero Emporium.
The Oakland, California-by way of-Jackson, Mississippi emcee told HipHopDX, “Rigmarole isn’t a progression from my last album; if anything, it’s a deviation. This album is less about what I’m saying and more about what I went through to get it done. I learned how to do for myself as an artist. This album is about the action; the outcome is determined by what the rest of the world decides. Rigmarole is just the beginning, and it wasn’t created with the intention of living up to anything else.”
Pep’s last official solo work was 2001’s Ascension, in addition to both of Hiero’s studio albums.
He explained the recording process of Rigmarole as, “I recorded most of the tracks myself, in my own little studio. Most of the album was recorded during a time in my life when the music I was making was one of the few things that was actually working. It was therapy; it made me feel better. So there was a process going on, a lot of learning, personal growth, and healing that continues to this very day. I would write lyrics and ruminate; record then ruminate again. And do it again and again. I was focused on where I was headed as a human being more so than as a rapper or recording artist. But in the process I reinvented myself as an artist and discovered my love for what I do.”
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With its curious title, Pep also broke the name’s significance. “The word ‘rigmarole’ means the necessary steps or processes that one must go through to achieve a certain end. It could also mean double-talk, mumbo-jumbo, or bullshit; like when someone is trying pull one over on you. My Rigmarole is more the former than the latter. Rigmarole speaks to the process that I go through as an individual and as an artist, and also to the greater process of cultural evolution that Hip Hop and society is experiencing.”
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