Non Phixion "The Future Is Now" (Billboard, 2002)

"Tales of Non Phixion: The Future Is Now is an appropriate title for the long-awaited full-length debut from underground purveyors Non Phixion. After making a name for themselves via independent 12-inch singles like "5 Boros" and "Legacy," the New York-based quartet of Ill Bill, Goretex, Sabac Red, and DJ Eclipse has finally released a 15-track set via Bill's Uncle Howie imprint and distributed by Landspeed. "We've been trying to get an album out there for years," Bill says. "We've been together since '95. We were signed to Geffen in '96, and we were hoping to have an album out by '97 or '98. This is really just long overdue, and it's finally popping off now. We got tired of having too many cooks in the kitchen," he adds of why the group went indie. "It just came to the point where over the years we had learned so much about the business that we didn't really need anyone else to handle a lot of the aspects of the label - we're able to make a lot of the decisions for ourselves. We had a finished label and no distribution, so we sat down with a few distributors, and Landspeed came up with the best deal." Cont'd below after the video for "Rock Stars."

"The Future Is Now features production from heavyweights like Necro, DJ Premier, and Juju of the Beatnuts. "The majority of the album was produced by Necro, Bill's brother, because that's family," Eclipse notes. "We also wanted to work with people that we grew up listening to, so when we got the opportunity, we stepped to cats like Pete Rock and the Large Professor, and then it was just a matter of timing." "We wanted to make a classic," Goretex adds. "That's why we got with the producers that we did." - Billboard, May 18, 2002. The album was released on March 26, 2002.

Non Phixion "The Future Is Now" (Deluxe Edition)

Featuring MCs Ill Bill, Goretex and Sabac with DJ Eclipse, Brooklyns 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 Serchs 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. As Chris Faraone explains in the sets ridiculously comprehensive liner notes book (featuring interviews with all four group members): Non Phixion inspired fans to simultaneously deploy their smarts, bang their heads, and throw a fist. With their small but lauded body of collective work, Ill Bill, Sabac Red, Goretex, and DJ Eclipse introduced hip-hop to a unique brand of intelligent thuggery that looked past convenient enemies, and brought heat to the terrorists in government and beyond. From the groups formation in the mid-90s, to their breakup more than a decade later, Non Phixion kicked conspiratorial science that rings even truer now than it did before the aughts … After the initial buzz in the wake of their early singles, they were signed to, and subsequently parted ways with, both the Geffen and Matador labels in the late 90s and early 2000s. After those experiences, Non Phixion decided – in true and appropriate indie fashion – to go for self. The Future Is Now finally hit in 2002 on the groups Uncle Howie Records. In addition to new songs like the singles Rock Stars and Drug Music, the album also included previously-heard tracks from the groups journey: Black Helicopters and If You Got Love. Production on the album matched the MC talent perfectly, with tracks by Bills brother and Uncle Howie label-mate Necro, with additional work by an array of legends, including DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, and JuJu from the Beatnuts. With more of a decade in the rear-view mirror, The Future Is Now Premium Edition is the perfect way for fans to finally hear the stories about the forces that made – and eventually tore apart – Non Phixion, and how The Future Is Now came about.