Brand new release from the acclaimed label and online boutique – in collaboration with Uncle Howie Records – presents the 360-degree story of Non Phixion’s 2002 debut. Extensive input from all group members is encapsulated in a premium, 80-page, hard-cover liner notes book, with dozens of photos and images.

GET ON DOWN, the record label and online boutique dedicated to presenting and celebrating music with unique packaging and exclusive extras, announces one of their most impressive deluxe sets to date: Non Phixion’s The Future Is Now (Premium Edition).

Compiled and constructed in full collaboration with the group, there are two different versions of the box, whose exterior measures 7 ¾ inches x 8 ½ inches x 2 ¾ inches. Both sets – with a total print run of 1,000 worldwide – feature the following common elements:

· 2 CDs, containing the original album vocal versions and instrumentals
· 3 7-inch singles featuring original 12-inch artwork: “Black Helicopters,” “Drug Music,” and “Rock Stars”
· An 80-page, hard-cover liner notes book featuring dozens of group-sourced photos and archival images, and in-depth interviews with all group members by author Chris Faraone
· Full reproduction of the group’s press-only sampler cassette from 2000 (with early singles, demos, freestyles and promos): “The Past, The Present and the Future Is Now”
· Expanded artwork from Mear One’s original album visuals

An ultra-limited version of the Premium Edition set features all colored vinyl (each 7-inch with a different color), in a print run of only 200. Beyond the three 7-inches listed above, it also includes a fourth colored-vinyl 7-inch, “I Shot Reagan,” which was first made available by Get On Down on Record Store Day 2013 (on black vinyl).

The other 800 sets feature 7-inches printed with black vinyl. [Note: the black vinyl sets do not include the “I Shot Reagan” 7-inch.]

By the time Non Phixion’s now-monumental debut album hit in 2002, the group had been on an intense and labyrinthine journey, considering that they had originally formed in 1995. At the same time, it was somewhat fitting for a group that was as explosive and unpredictable as they were talented. But no matter how The Future Is Now had come about and what path they had taken to get there, rap fans jumped on the album at the time, and still revere it to this day.

Featuring MCs Ill Bill, Goretex and Sabac [Red] with DJ Eclipse, Brooklyn’s Non Phixion made their first waves as a group in the mid-1990s with the indie singles “Legacy” (1996) and “5 Boros ” (1997), released on MC Serch’s Serchlite Music. They fit perfectly into an era in New York City that had produced not only the Wu-Tang Clan, M.O.P. and Mobb Deep, but also underground firebrands and peers like Company Flow and the Arsonists.

Aggressive, brazen, intelligent, and never predictable, they were impossible to ignore. Not-to-be-missed live shows helped to build their legend and fanbase throughout the end of the ‘90s.

Regular Premium Edition // Colored Vinyl Premium Edition

“Keeper Of The Seven Keys” and “Eye Is King” kick things off, but it’s “Impaled Nazarene” that really settles the album in. Over a ridiculous Middle Eastern inspired track by Grand Finale, it touches upon both an altered history of the life of Christ and that of the Waco Siege, closing out on a chilling note. The psychedelic “Children of God” follows, leading into the ridiculously dope “Blood Meridian”, over a brooding track by DJ Premier protege Gem Crates. Dr. Octagon would be envious.

“Age of Quarrel” also stands out with it’s nefarious piano driven track, as does the posse cut “Metal In Your Mouth” (feat. Slaine and Q-Unique), with both tracks helmed by Jack of All Trades. But the crown jewel of them all goes to the most experienced producer of them all, DJ Muggs, on “Leviathan (The Spell of Kingu)”. Besides being one of the illest tracks of the record, it seals the deal with a classic Wu-Tang sample on the hook, which we won’t spoil here.

The music of both Jedi Mind Tricks and Non-Phixion is an acquired taste, and is not for everybody.
That said, some may find the relentless pace of the album a little overbearing, given the formula of rhymes by Bill and Vinnie, meshed with sixteen bludgeoning beats. But for those that like it raw, it’s pure satisfaction. And what else would you expect from an album called Heavy Metal Kings?

      True mix tapes may be a thing of the past, but The Green CD truly plays like one. As each song/freestyle blends into each other, the electricity of this energized crew never ceases. The childhood flashback single “Caught Between Worlds” and its commanding b-side “We All Bleed” are obvious standouts. These songs also sound like the only recently recorded ones on the CD. “Make It Happen” featuring DV Alias Khrist, for example, sounds like it was recorded in the Illmatic era, but still bangs, nonetheless. Many of the freestyles were obviously pulled deep from the vaults, but they make this collection a proper showcase of the dues Non-Phixion has paid in hip-hop. Check the “Doo Wop Freestyle” (sample lyric: “My mind frame’s like jumping backwards out of planes”) or the “Hot 97.1 Freestyle” (sample lyric: “Ask yourself: How can we obtain true equality when the value and price of life is less than technology?”) to see just how heated and militant this crew can get on the mic.

      While the energy on The Green CD doesn’t falter, the classic production heard on Non-Phixion’s album, The Future is Now, courtesy of DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Necro, and others is missed. The beats on The Green CD may be on point, but it’s the unadulterated lyrics of Non-Phixion that make this time capsule of an album truly worth your time. Until their sophomore album, Nuclear Truth, drops next fall, Non-Phixion’s The Green CD should hold the fans over just fine.  

Ironically enough, like one Nasir Jones, MC Serch also discovered these guys, and fittingly enough, they enlist many of the same producers that helped make Illmatic a classic. DJ Premier chimes in on with another classic track on  “Rock Stars”, while Large Professor delivers theme songs “Drug Music”, “It’s Us”, and “We Are The Future”. Pete Rock also shows up for “If You Got Love”, a somewhat introspective moment working as a good contrast to the overall paranoia found on Necro produced bangers such as “There Is No Future”, “The CIA Is Trying To Kill Me” and “Black Helicopters”.

These kinds of closeted fears and conspiracy theories work as the album’s main theme, kidnapping the listener and delivering them to Non-Phixion’s strange universe governed by the illuminati and the new world order. While it can be argued that we are already there, some of the album’s best tracks surround today’s social commentary, such as the post Sept. 11 New-Yorker perspectives found on “Suicide Bomb” (feat. The Beatnuts), or Dave 1′s incredible ill flip on Public Enemy’s “By The Time I Get To Arizona”, on “Cult Leader”. In a way, it’s the closest thing to political hardcore hip-hop since KRS-ONE’s Return Of The Boom Bap.

All in all, The Future Is Now is actually a return to the past, as Non-Phixion resurrects the dying hardcore hip-hop scene that Brooklyn has established throughout its history with acts like Black Moon and M.O.P. These days, despite a few acts, hip-hop is no longer a hardcore artform, but instead a circus of two extremes: slickly produced jiggy gangsters or reformed twenty-somethings trying to channel the five-boro experience into their middle-American bedrooms. But for a group who’s name is a synonym for “real”, despite the cliches that go along with the term, Non-Phixion brings it back to the period when being real was hip-hop’s main concern. With a strong album on their hands, maybe that concern will manifest again, in the future.