December 3rd, 2009
Hip-Hop Heroes still hammering

By SARAH STEVENS
Scene Reporter

Though seldom seen together as such recently, San Marcos Hip-Hop group Heroes’ various members still actively appear at venues around town.

Silas Parker and Anthony Berg, or Omniii and Tone of the Cosmos, along with their brethren, cover a broader spectrum of topics than one would initially expect out of local hip-hop acts. Social commentary is slipped in amongst the more trendy references to modern technology and aspects of contemporary lifestyles.

“Heroes was a collage of ideas,” Parker said. “It’s three people with lots of ideas meshing them together. Heroes formed back in 2002. We met through a friend from El Paso, Gabriel Hedrick, here at Texas State. We split ways after graduation, and each of us are on our own solo projects now, but we still collaborate.”

Said Berg, “We were all doing the same thing at pretty much the same time. We all had tiny tools to make tiny little songs, that were actually massive eight minute songs. I came out here to make a small album. Our first show was at a house party, and it went very badly. We wouldn’t have made it all these years if it weren’t for all the support we’ve gotten here in San Marcos.”

The artists in Heroes, immersed in the local scene, all draw a lot of inspiration from the musicians around them.

“The written word is, in a way, the power of self,” Parker said. “If you write the word and speak the word, eventually the word becomes real. We can’t all be politicians or police officers, but art is forever and undying and we are all art,” said Parker.

Said Berg, “I’ve had enough in life, and I’ve been through enough good times and bad times, to really be able to draw my writing inspiration from life. I have this song, Soliloquy, that people really seem to like and react to, that has been my favorite song to play lately. My favorite place in town to play used to be Lucy’s, but it’s a different place now. We used to be able to really fill that place up.”

Hip-Hop has a small, but strong nucleic following in San Marcos. Triple Crown is usually host to a lot of the different local rappers.

“San Marcos needs new venues,” Parker said. “It needs to be able to compensate for or at least match the amount of creativity and art in town. It is the San Marcos Renaissance we’re living in now. We are bringing in the rebirth of this town.”

Under the name Omniii, Parker just released an album, “My Laptop Weighs A Ton,” as a double CD along with Dusty Grin’s album, “Indigenius.”

To listen to some tracks from Heroes, visit www.myspace.com/pretendagenda.