MHz Legacy took 15 years to release their debut effort, the self-titled MHz Legacy via Man Bites Dog Records, and so it’s no surprise that, since release, the group hasn’t slowed down a bit. Following last week’s release of the video for “Somewhere,” a single with production helmed by the group’s in-house producer RJD2, the collective, comprised of rappers Copywrite, Tage Future, Jakki Da Motamouth, and Camu Tao (who passed away in 2008 following a battle with lung cancer), are now releasing a new video, this one for fan-favorite album cut “Mass Temple.”

Atop producer Jason Rose’s keys- and guitar-laden production, Copywrite opens with something of a mission statement, not only a testament for this song but for the group, for the album. “To whom this may, or may not, concern,” he begins, “we’re here. Fashionably late, by only 14 years. Been beat up; stayed up-beat through ungodly amounts of hate… Meanwhile, we lost a brother. I lost a father, lost a mother. Almost lost my mind.”

The video, directed by Dan Gotti plays off the somber theme of the song and places Copy and Tage in front of purple sky as the two emcees trade bars back and forth, each opening up about their personal failures and successes. “I expect to win,” raps Tage. “To not try is far worse than to fail in that/ Then telling that to my unborn child.”

Today, as MHz Legacy continues to celebrate the release of their self-titled debut album, they’re taking part in the tradition of Throwback Thursday with one of the rarest songs from their vaults, “The Only Weathermen Song.” The song, accompanied here by new, exclusive artwork, stands apart as a classic from the early 2000s era of hip-hop and marks one of the only times that Copywrite, El-P, Camu Tao, Tage Future, Cannibal Ox, Jakki Da Motamouth, and Yak Ballz (otherwise known as The Weathermen) were all in one studio at the same time.

Reminiscing on the song, Copywrite says:

“Back in 2001, 2002, Camu and I where living in Middletown, New York. Cage lived there too, which is why I moved out there. We where supposed to go on a tour with all of the Eastern Conference Records artists, but Mad Skillz pulled out to vacation, so the tour fell through. Cage wasn’t too fond of Camu back then but ‘Mu expressed to me how bad he wanted to go to pursue music with me and I told him to come along. In those days, we would always drive my Ford Explorer from Middletown to Manhattan to record at DJ Mighty Mi’s spot on Lexington, and then we’d go visit El-P in Brooklyn and crash for several nights at a time. Vast Aire and Vordul Mega, of Cannibal Ox, had their own room downstairs and El’s studio was right next door, so there was always music going on.”

“This song was recorded around the time I was working on my debut album, The High Exhaulted, and Cannibal Ox was working on their album, The Cold Vein. It was a rare occasion to have Tage Future, Camu Tao, Jakki Da Motamouth, Cage, Cannibal Ox, El-P, and myself all in the same room at once, so I told them we needed to seize the moment and record something. El started pulling up beats and we all instantly agreed on this one. The beat played and we wrote – whoever had their verse first hit the mic booth, which, at that time, was El-P’s closet, and the rest is history. Camu was probably smokin’ a blunt with Vordul, so neither of them is on the song; I don’t know why El didn’t drop a verse. Back then we titled it “The Only Weathermen Song,” since it was so tough to get all of us together at the same time.”

The history of Columbus, Ohio’s MHz is perhaps one of the most intriguing stories in underground hip-hop lore. They first stepped on the scene in 1998, via a handful of vinyl only singles on Bobbito’s legendary Fondle ‘Em Records imprint. While these 12-inches hardly made them a household name, they did catch the ears of a few important figures of the time – Definitive Jux’s El-P and Eastern Conference’s DJ Mighty Mi. Friendly competition between the two pioneering indie hip-hop imprints would see the signing of solo deals for both RJD2 and Camu Tao on Jux, while Copywrite would sign with E.C. Both RJD2 and Copywrite would deliver debut solo LP’s in 2002 – both critically acclaimed – with other MHz members Jakki, and Tage Proto waiting in the wings. Camu teamed with both Cage and Metro for a pair of collaborative projects, Nighthawks and S.A. Smash, respectively; and the fusion of MHz, with many of the other Def Jux and E.C. artists, would form an ultimate supergroup called The Weathermen, who released one mixtape before disappearing forever.

During a time where crew albums were all the rage (here’s looking at you, Terror Squad) and with all of these projects happening concurrently, it seemed like the reuniting of the MHz crew was inevitable. The Ohio collective had already produced each RJD2, Copywrite, and Camu Tao, so getting everyone back together for a crew-defining LP seemed like a no-brainer. Except it never happened. Rumors of in-fighting, falling-outs, and on-again-off-again friendships between various members of the crew always seemed to keep the reunion from happening. And then something happened in 2008 that sealed MHz’s fate for good: the early death of Camu Tao.

It’s 2012, and both Def Jux and Eastern Conference Records are defunct. RJD2 has moved beyond standard hip-hop production, Copywrite has struggled with broken relationships and backlash from fair-weather fans, while Camu rests in peace after succumbing to cancer. The idea of an MHz album at this point almost seems like a bad idea… but somehow they have pulled it off.

Copywrite leads the pack on MHz Legacy, while Tage has finally moved beyond “Proto” type status, and moved into a “Future” version of himself, finally ready to stand front-and-center with his more established peers. The MHz Legacy album largely revolves around these two emcees – quite easily the best of the camp – with minor contributions from Jakki and a posthumous Camu. The album begins with “Accidentally On Purpose”, which sums up the project in one line: “This is the album that wasn’t even supposed to happen / even after mastering, we couldn’t believe the rappin’ / a story about moving out the house / from a crew with a name nobody knew how to pronounce”. (It’s “megahertz”, in case you were wondering).

The chemistry between the crew on MHz Legacy doesn’t sound forced, even with Cam’s verses delivered from beyond the grave, such as on “Spaceship”, which finds Copy and Camu sharing rhymes, alongside guest Danny Brown, who seems like he would have been a natural collaborator with Cam. There are plenty of great posse cuts in the classic E.C. / Def Jux fashion, such as a pair of RJD2 produced heaters, “Hindsight” and “Four Player Mode”, or later on “Columbus Diss Patch”, each with a sound that suggests the Fat Beats 12″ era never died out. On the solo tip, Tage gets his time to shine on the RJD2 produced “Outta Room”, while Copywrite gets his on “Obituaries”. There are a number of notable guest collabos as well, such as “Yellow & Blue”, which features guest verses from Blu over a ridiculous track by Surock, or the drug-addled “Addicitionary”, where each Copywrite, Ill Bill, and Slaine recount their personal narcotic experiences. The album takes a more serious turn on tracks like “Mass Temple” and “Y’all Don’t Know”, both of which suggest that these cats are more than just witty punchlines, and also proves they aren’t always dependent on RJD2 for the album’s more meaty, musical moments.

While some of the fat could have been trimmed from the album’s 17 tracks, MHZ Legacy is a very solid, surprising effort, one that we thought would never happen. Posthumous albums never seem to work, and crew albums even less so. But in a rare occurrence, Copywrite, RJD2, and Tage have pooled their efforts into pulling this thing together, and it is nothing short of spectacular. Despite the indie hip-hop movement having it’s best days behind it, and the idea of this album being way past expiration, the end result shows that the Columbus crew has prevailed, and the MHz Legacy will live on.