Tajai Massey, known by the

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Tajai (born April 21, 1975), is an American

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

and producer. He is one of the four founding members of the

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

-based underground hip hop group

Souls of Mischief Souls of Mischief is a hip hop group from Oakland, California, that is also part of the hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. The Souls of Mischief formed in 1991 and is composed of rappers A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai. History East Oakland ...

and, with Souls of Mischief, a part of the eight-person, alternative hip hop collective

Hieroglyphics Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

. He is also one half of the hip hop duo Rap Noir. He is a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

Biography

Born in

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University. The population was 21,150 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. Stanford is ...

, Massey moved with his family to

when he was 2 years old. With a professor for his mother and

sysop A sysop (; an abbreviation of system operator) is an administrator of a multi-user computer system, such as a bulletin board system (BBS) or an online service virtual community.Jansen, E. & James,V. (2002). NetLingo: the Internet dictionary. Netl ...

for a father, he was in a well-educated household where he started

computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as ana ...

at an early age. He and fellow

member A-Plus experimented with the Commodore 32,

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

Apple IIe The Apple IIe (styled as Apple //e) is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The ''e'' in the name stands for ''enhanced'', referring to the fact that several popular features were now built-in ...

, and

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

, among others. He graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1997 with a BA degree in anthropology. Massey graduated with an MA in architecture from the

UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design The College of Environmental Design, also known as the Berkeley CED, or simply CED, is one of fourteen schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. The school is located in Bauer Wurster Hall on the southeast corner of the mai ...

in 2014 and became an architectural designer for Sabi Design•Build starting in October 2014. In May 2017, he was part of a group that acquired the Hibiscus Garden Hotel in Lagartero/Santa Catalina, Panama. Massey is a father of two. He speaks English, Spanish, and Swahili.

Musical career

Souls of Mischief

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

, Tajai met fellow

member A-Plus, and the duo began their nascent

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

careers. Tajai eventually introduced A-Plus to future Souls of Mischief members

Phesto Damani Thompson, known by the stage names, Phesto and Phesto Dee (born April 29, 1974), is an American rapper and producer. He is one of the founding four members of the Oakland, California-based underground hip hop group Souls of Mischief, a ...

and

Opio Souls of Mischief is a hip hop group from Oakland, California, that is also part of the hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. The Souls of Mischief formed in 1991 and is composed of rappers A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai. History East Oakland ...

, and the group formed in

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

before releasing their debut album, ''

93 'til Infinity ''93 'til Infinity'' is the debut studio album by American hip-hop group Souls of Mischief. It was released on February 13, 1993 on the Jive label. Composition The sound of ''93 'til Infinity'' is characteristic of the distinct style explored b ...

'' on

Jive Records Jive Records was an American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary to the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, an ...

in 1993.

Hieroglyphics

After Tajai and the Souls of Mischief were dropped by Jive, the group was incorporated into the Hieroglyphics in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, at the urging of

Del tha Funkee Homosapien Teren Delvon Jones (born August 12, 1972), better known by his stage name Del the Funky Homosapien (sometimes stylized as Del tha Funkee Homosapien) or Sir DZL, is an American rapper. Music career 1988–1997: Early life and beginnings Born in O ...

. Tajai has contributed to all six Souls of Mischief albums, as well as the three Hieroglyphics studio albums. He has also produced or performed on solo projects of various Hieroglyphics' members.

SupremeEx

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, Tajai and the Hieroglyphics' then-

webmaster A webmaster is a person responsible for maintaining one or more websites. The title may refer to web architects, web developers, site authors, website administrators, website owners, website coordinators, or website publishers. The duties of ...

StinkE, formed the

concept Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by s ...

ual group

SupremeEx Yameen is an American hip hop producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. His most recent album, "Diamond is Unfadable" was released in 2017 on Rumble Pack Records. Light of Love / Sound of Fire In 2010, Yameen released an anime ...

, which released an

enhanced CD Enhanced CD is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both Compact Disc and CD-ROM players. Formats that fall under the "enhanced CD" ca ...

, '' Projecto: 2501'', and in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, released the album '' Nuntype''.

Crudo

Tajai is also a member of

Crudo In Italian language, Italian, ''crudo'' means "raw". In Italian cuisine, this word can be used with a lot of food: ''pesce crudo'' means "raw fish", and ''carne cruda'' means "raw meat", similar to steak tartare. See also * Kinilaw * Ceviche ...

, a new project featuring

Mike Patton Michael Allan Patton (born January 27, 1968) is an American singer, producer, film composer and voice actor, best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative metal band Faith No More. Noted for his vocal proficiency, diverse singing techni ...

and

Dan the Automator Daniel M. Nakamura better known by his stage name Dan the Automator, is an American record producer from San Francisco, California. He is the founder of the publishing company Sharkman Music and the record label 75 Ark. Early life Nakamura was bo ...

, who made their live debut in 2008.

Rap Noir/Trap Noir

Tajai is also a member of Rap Noir, a hip hop duo with producer Unjust from Chosen Few. In mid 2017 they released their first single "Let it Rain." They released their debut album "Rap Noir" in 2018. Tajai also collaborated with producer Harris the Know-it-all to release a remix album called "Trap Noir."

Discography

Albums

Solo

* ''Power Movement'' (2005) * ''Power Movement Remixes'' (2005)

With Souls of Mischief

*''

'' (1993) *''

No Man's Land No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...

'' (1995) *''

Focus Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film *''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore * ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...

'' (1997) *'' Trilogy: Conflict, Climax, Resolution'' (2000) *'' Montezuma's Revenge'' (2009) * ''There is Only Now'' (2014)

With Hieroglyphics

* ''

3rd Eye Vision ''3rd Eye Vision'' is the first studio album by American hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. It was released by Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings on March 24, 1998. It peaked at number 26 on the ''Billboard'' Heatseekers Albums chart, as well as num ...

'' (1998) * '' Full Circle'' (2003) * ''

The Kitchen The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founde ...

'' (2013)

As Rap Noir

* ''Rap Noir'' (10-31-2018) * ''Trap Noir'' (10-31-2018)

Collaborations

* '' Projecto: 2501'' (2000, w/

) * '' Nuntype'' (2005, w/ SupremeEx) * ''Hood Famous'' (2007 w/ Superstar Quamallah as Supastars)

Mixtapes

* ''Sleeping Giant'' * ''Machine Language''

References

External links

Discogs Profile - Tajai

Hieroglyphics
the collective's official website. {{Authority control 1975 births Living people Hieroglyphics (group) members Rappers from Oakland, California Stanford University alumni 21st-century American rappers 21st-century American male musicians