Souls of Mischief is a hip hop group from
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 ...
, 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
Tajai Massey, known by the stage name Tajai (born April 21, 1975), is an American rapper and producer. He is one of the four founding members of the Oakland, California-based underground hip hop group Souls of Mischief and, with Souls of Misch ...
.
History
East Oakland native Tajai began rhyming with future bandmate A-Plus at age 8, while both were in
elementary school.
Tajai and Phesto met later in
junior high school.
Tajai recruited his best friend Phesto in middle school and A-Plus brought Opio into the budding act 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 making its
major-label debut on
Jive Records with the group's well-received album ''
93 'til Infinity'', in 1993.
The group is part of the hip-hop collective
Hieroglyphics, along with
emcees 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 ...
, Casual,
Pep Love
Pep Love is a hip-hop music, hip hop artist and a member of the Oakland, California-based hip hop musical collective, collective Hieroglyphics (band), Hieroglyphics.
Personal life
Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Pep Love relocated wit ...
, Jaybiz, and
producer Domino
Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces, commonly known as dominoes. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also c ...
.
The group participated as full members in all three of Hieroglyphics' studio albums: 1998's ''
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 ...
'',
2003's ''
Full Circle'', and 2013's
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 foun ...
.
''93 ’til Infinity'' is the group's highest charting album to date (#17 Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums; #85
''Billboard'' 200) and, in January, 1998, was named one of the Top 100 Rap albums by ''
The Source
''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...
'' magazine.
The group stayed with Jive for one more album, 1995's ''
No Man's Land'', before being released from the label during the same year.
The group released two albums on Hiero's self-owned
independent label,
Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings: 1999's ''
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 ...
'', and
2000's ''
Trilogy: Conflict, Climax, Resolution''.
On October 30, 2006, ''Hierocast'' (Hieroglyphics' official
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
), Del tha Funkee Homosapien reported that the Souls of Mischief was currently working on its next studio album with
Prince Paul (
De La Soul,
Gravediggaz,
Handsome Boy Modeling School).
On January 6, 2009, Souls of Mischief released the ''Tour Stories'' EP produced by Domino and co-produced by Prince Paul. The song is taken from the group's fifth studio album, ''Montezuma's Revenge'', released on Hieroglyphics Imperium.
In 2013, a documentary about the band was released entitled ''Til Infinity: The Souls of Mischief''.
Produced and directed by Shomari Smith, it reflected on the 20-year anniversary of the band's debut album ''93 'Til Infinity'' and includes over 50 interviews with prominent MCs, DJs, and producers of the era.
During the
2017 NBA Playoffs,
Gatorade released a television commercial promoting Gatorade Flow, which featured
Indiana Pacers star forward
Paul George and the instrumental music of Souls of Mischief' ''93 'Til Infinity''.
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
Notes
References
External links
*
Allmusic Biography
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
Discogs.com ProfileHieroglyphics.com Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Souls Of Mischief
Hip hop groups from California
Alternative hip hop groups
Musical groups established in 1993
Jive Records artists
Musical groups from Oakland, California