Souls Of Mischief

Essential Festival 2000 review

If you paid any attention to 90's hip-hop then you have probably heard of Oakland's Souls of Mischief. The title track from their debut album'93 'til Infinity' was one of the last decade's classic tunes and they built up a solid reputation based on the highest of high calibre rhyme skills complementing G-funk-free beats. After their second album, 'No Man's Land' under performed commercially they were dropped by their label Zomba and they have now gone for delf on their own Hieroglyphics Imperium imprint, and are about to drop their third album, 'Trilogy', which they are touring to promote.

When they stepped on stage, one of their number, Tajai, was mysteriously absent, and in another surprise they had local turntablist Jazz T supporting them on the beats and the cuts. They started off their with the fast-paced classic 'That's When ya Lost' which got the lethargic mid afternoon crowd nodding as their energy spilled over from the stage. They benefit from a lengthy back catalogue, unlike many hip-hop acts, which meant that they were able to drop gems from the last 8 years without ever sounding stale - witness dope renditions of 'Make Your Mind Up' and 'Disseshowedo', from their debut, through to 'You Never Knew' from the Hieroglyphics album '3rd Eye Vision'. No one is ever going to front on their beats, but Souls of Mischief are particularly known as skilled emcees, and while some of their complex rhyme patterns got lost in the bassy PA, you could still hear the quality - Opio also showed that he is no slouch when it comes to freestyling either. It all climaxed with the obvious - they finished with '93 'til Infinity', people went nuts, the whole tent was yelling in appreciation and we had had our first true anthem of the day.

Basically, Souls of Mischief are a true school hip-hop crew and that is exactly what their live show was like - not boundary breaking, but a fresh breath of the real deal when so many of today's crews are recycling the same old played-out playa bollocks both on wax and live. They were super dope and that is all you can ask for.