Souls of Mischief is a hip hop group from

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, that is also part of the

hip hop collective Musical collective is a phrase used to describe a group of musicians in which membership is flexible and creative control is shared.Liisa Ladouceur"Collective Souls" '' This Magazine'', November/December 2004. The concept is distinct from that o ...

Hieroglyphics Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters.I ...

. The Souls of Mischief formed in 1991 and is composed of rappers A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and

Tajai Tajai Massey, known mononymously as 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 Mis ...

History

East Oakland native Tajai began rhyming with future bandmate A-Plus at age 8, while both were in

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

. Tajai and Phesto met later in

junior high school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes ...

. Tajai recruited his best friend Phesto in middle school and A-Plus brought Opio into the budding act in

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

before making its major-label debut on

Jive Records Jive Records (later stylized as JIVE Records) was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group of Companies, Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chic ...

with the group's well-received album '' 93 'til Infinity'', in 1993. The group is part of the hip-hop collective

, along with emcees Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Casual, Pep Love, Jaybiz, and producer

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. 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 called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...

. The group participated as full members in all three of Hieroglyphics' studio albums: 1998's ''

3rd Eye Vision ''3rd Eye Vision'' is the debut 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 n ...

'', 2003's '' Full Circle'', and 2013's The Kitchen. ''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 may refer to: Film and television * ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford * ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation * ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...

'' 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 An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represente ...

Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings is an Oakland, California-based, independent hip hop record label founded and owned by underground hip hop collective, the Hieroglyphics. The label was created by the collective in 1995 to publish and market the ...

: 1998's ''

Focus Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film *Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel *Focus (2015 ...

'', and 2000's '' Trilogy: Conflict, Climax, Resolution''. On October 30, 2006, ''Hierocast'' (Hieroglyphics' official

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

), Del tha Funkee Homosapien reported that the Souls of Mischief was currently working on its next studio album with Prince Paul (

De La Soul De La Soul ( ) is an American hip hop music, hip hop group formed in the village of Amityville on Long Island, New York (state), New York in 1988. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, eccentric lyrics, and contributions to the evoluti ...

Gravediggaz Gravediggaz were an American Hip hop music, hip hop group from New York. Known for their Black comedy, dark sense of humor and abrasive, menacing soundscapes, Gravediggaz blended hardcore hip hop and gangsta rap with horror elements to pioneer t ...

Handsome Boy Modeling School Handsome Boy Modeling School is an American collaborative project between hip hop producers Dan the Automator (Gorillaz, Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030) and Prince Paul ( Stetsasonic, De La Soul, Gravediggaz). The collaboration originally lasted ...

). 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 The 2017 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the 2016–17 season. The playoffs began on April 15, 2017, and ended on June 12, with the Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors defeating the Eastern Conference champion Clev ...

Gatorade Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. The drink is owned and manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was develope ...

released a television commercial promoting Gatorade Flow, which featured

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

star forward

Paul George Paul Clifton Anthony George (born May 2, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "PG-13", he is a nine-time NBA All-Star and six-time member of the ...

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 dat ...

Discogs.com Profile

Hieroglyphics.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 Underground hip-hop groups