Search syffal.com
Bandcamp Artist of the Week
Wilder ZobyThis week we focus on the song Contagious released by former Chin Chin frontman Wilder Zoby, which is co-produced by EL-P
|
Pop Cultures Collide
Loaded For Bear, an indie band from Portland, OR, cover the television theme song from The Golden Girls... Thank You For Being A Friend
|
Track Marks
SYFFAL Track Marks Volume XXVIII - The Bi-Weekly iTunes Fix for the Music Junkie
|
What's Hot
The SYFFAL Roundtable: Souls of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity
SYFFAL Roundtable Record Reviews
I still remember the very first time I heard Souls of Mischief, it was in 1993 and I was in my college dorm. We had just gotten cable in the rooms and I was watching Rap City waiting for my roommates to get back. The host was either Joe Clair or Biz Les and once they threw to video I would never look at rap music the same way again. The video was for That's When Ya Lost, the lead single for the landmark album 93 Til Infinity. It was fucking awesome. As a huge fan of Del's I Wish My Brother George was here I recognized the familiar Hiero logo, but I had no idea for what I was about to witness and the effect it would have on my life.
Souls of Mischief was amazing!
They were exactly what I wanted out of a rap group but didn't realize it until I heard it. The group consists of Opio, A-Plus, Phesto and Tajai and each of them brought an undeniable skill set to the table, that was equal parts complex, obtainable, clever, and unlike anything I had ever heard. They brought a unique flow and cadence that was both laid back and aggressive. Stylistically they were equal parts West Coast and East Coast.
Souls of Mischief had it.
93 Til Infinity is one of the albums that spawned an entire movement. I spent 12 plus years in the underground hip hop scene and I do not know a single artist that doesn't cite Souls of Mischief as a monumental influence. It was that powerful. It changed everything. 93 Til Infinity dropped the same day as KRS ONE's Return of the Boom Bap, and I rushed out to the store to buy the both. Little did I know that these albums would represent the end of one era and the start of the next. Both powerful in their own right, but only one still gets heavy rotation... 93 Til Infinity kill all that wack shit.
**Be sure to vote in the poll on the left hand side of the column for our next roundtable album**
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Tom
Album Rating:
Tom Dozois
What's the best track and why?
Live and Let Live because I love trumpets and I love that Jazzy back-beat with rolling bass line.
I recommend listening to this record while...
Shopping for IOU shirts in Merry-Go-Round. Accept no substitute! WHAT?! Merry-Go-Round went out of biznass??? WHERE AM I GOING TO GET MY Z-CAVS AND HYPERCOLORZ?!?
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
Me at 12 years old playing Street Fighter II on SNES in my friend’s basement. Chun Li Helicopter kick, Beeeotch!
Anything else to add?
93 Til’ Infinity brought me back to the day when I really liked hip hop and it convinced me that I never out grew this genre; this genre has changed. A few exceptions remain like The Roots, People Under the Stairs, etc., but overall the sound and style has gone in a completely different direction. Themes have gone from hardships to extravagance and rapper's motivations have been shifted from their music to clothing lines. Take me back to '93.
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Brandon
Album Rating:
Brandon Backhaus
What's the best track and why?
I, of course, based on notoriety want to say that ’93 ‘til Infinity, and it’s a really great song. But I have a soft spot for Never No More. This song’s initial sample just sets me off on such an enjoyable listening experience and the lyrical chops on display for the year they were released are on some beyond shit.
I recommend listening to this record while...
Dirt Hustling CD's on Telegraph. That the Bay area is in the same state as L.A. boggles my mind. You can’t have two places that are more different in terms of attitude and aesthetic.
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
Myself wearing faded slacker jeans and over-sized Wu-Tang tee, trying to grow my first real beard, and with a newly shaved dome. This record represent the days I went from hescher punker wastoid to hip hopped-out stoner.
Anything else to add?
What the Fuck happened to these guys? Del is like all drugged-out or something, Casual is fat, and Opio is Around-No-Mo. A+ still has some dope production here and there like that shit he did for Mystic a while back, but has any crew so beloved fallen so far.
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Richard
Album Rating:
Dick Richardson
What's the best track and why?
"A Name I Call Myself" - Were I not forced to decide between mint chocolate chip or coffee ice cream today at lunch, choosing my favorite song would've been the hardest call I had to make today. Let me proclaim this album is incredibly homogeneous in terms of quality. The beats on this particular track just really stick with me.
I recommend listening to this record while...
For once, this is a something you should listen to while doing absolutely nothing. My professional recommendation would be to find the most comfortable chair in your dwelling, slack your jaw open approximately 2 centimeters, and insert spicy beef jerky into said slacked jaw for the entire album's duration.
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
Bumping it in a beat-to-shit '86 Lincoln Town Car while having my friends hang out the windows and throw slices of pizza on pedestrians.
Anything else to add?
This record has helped solidify my firm stance that hip hop was at its finest point prior to 1995. Why it isn't mentioned alongside The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, or Wu-Tang Clan when peeps namedrop early 90's groups is a mystery to me.
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Del
Album Rating:
Del LeFevre
What's the best track and why?
93 Til Infinity - On my first listen I wanted to go with the jazzy title track. It kept my head bouncing for the full 4:45 and truth be told it kept going strong into "Limitations" so it is a toss up for me. Hearing my namesake Del on "Limitations" may have tipped the scales.
I recommend listening to this record while...
Cruising down down a packed main street in Santa Monica and blasting real rap past the lines of mooks and mean muggers outside of Bar Copa and Circle Bar waiting to get into a sweaty bad "club" to rock out to wanksta rap.
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
my younger self totally embracing the Del connection and infusing my life with Hieroglyphics. If I had found this album sooner how would my life be different? Butterfly Effecting head scratching shit.
Anything else to add?
It was1993 and a west coast album wasn't soaked in G Funk era 1-8-7 references and Parliament samples? Why didn't someone tell me about this sooner? I blame NWA. I wanted to duck out on this roundtable at first because my choice got bypassed...but I'm glad I gave it a listen. I owe Tim a beer I guess. This is a great album.
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Tim
Album Rating:
Tim Baker
What's the best track and why?
I have been listening to this album for almost 9 years, so logic dictates that as I grew my favorite song would change. Overtime it has been one of three songs; 93 Til Infinity, Make Your Mind Up, or Limitations. Limitations is the current favorite so I am going to go with this. Bookended by amazing verses by Opio and Casual it is a sure fire winner.
I recommend listening to this record while...
I recommend listening to this any time you take a road trip with your boys. If your boys aren't familiar with this album get new friends. Its the perfect rap along album.
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
Being in a cramped dorm room, smoking endless blunts, while wearing oversized army pants and outdoors gear. Then trying to rap and lamenting the fact that I will never be as good as Souls of Mischief.
Anything else to add?
This is the quintessential rapper album. It changed everything as far as I am concerned. It made me re-evaluate the way I looked at rap music, and what a rapper can do. It ended one era and began a new one.
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Joel
Album Rating:
Joel Frieders
What's the best track and why?
Come on. 93 'til is perhaps one of the only rap songs I would ever need to listen to again if forced to only listen to one rap track forever and everz. It's like the perfect porn video in that it's succinct (just over 3 minutes), is absolutely perfect, and you're okay watching/listening to it by yourself or in front of others.
I recommend listening to this record while...
Driving around in Paul's silver '88 Chevy Caprice hiding bowls in my socks.
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
What I used to think every hip hop album was supposed to feel like.
Anything else to add?
I would prefer this album to pretty much 88% of all music I've heard in the last ten years.
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Brendan
Album Rating:
Brendan Ryan
What's the best track and why?
That's When You're Lost. At this point in the record I needed them to run down all the Souls of Mischief members and they obliged nicely.
I recommend listening to this record while...
I pictured my old GMC Sonoma. It was red. We drove around and listened to rap records every weekend in that thing, and this was one of them
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
Listening to this record in 2011 made me really tired. It's lyrical fitness.
Anything else to add?
Nothing else to add.
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Blockhead
Album Rating:
Blockhead
What's the best track and why?
It's close but I'd say "Make Your Mind Up" slightly edges out "Never No More". The beat is absolutely ridiculous. I remember the first time I heart that opening bass line and just losing my shit. Beyond that, it's one of those songs that A-plus really murders. There are like 5 or 6 lines from that verse that go through my head on a daily possible.
I recommend listening to this record while...
Wearing a Walkman, a Columbia jacket and beef and broccoli Timbs in the winter.
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
Listening to this album just brings me back to that era. I think about my crew of friends just chilling in my room playing music and freestyling all the time. This album was very much an influence on how my friends and I approached rapping, except we were terrible at it.
Anything else to add?
A lot of times, personally, hip hop from this era doesn't age well. Really, any rapping where the rappers were trying something very different tends to hit a ceiling as it ages. But Hiero somehow avoided that. Also, the production on this album is so very slept on. The fact like 5 different dudes made all these beats yet still kept continuity in the sounds speaks volumes of how locked in these guys were at that time.
Souls Of Mischief - 93 Til Infinity - Reggie Hancock
Album Rating:
Reggie Hancock
What's the best track and why?
When this album came out, I was the biggest fan of "Anything Can Happen." I like songs that just kind of end, like "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa" by De La Soul. Today, I'd have to say that the best overall track is actually the title track, "'93 'Til Infinity." It's got a real upbeat, Northern California style beat and it showcases each member of Souls very well.
I recommend listening to this record while...
Smoking Swisher Blunts, curling the brim of your fitted baseball cap, wearing sweatshirts that are two sizes too big for you. The album is also suitable for hoo riding and gaming on females, though it isn't the best in those categories.
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
This album was my soundtrack during the freshman year of college, though I bought it during my senior year of high school. Whenever I hear it, I think of unbreakable dorm room furniture and smoking affordable cigarettes. I recall this one time I brought some friends back to my room to listen to the "That's When Ya Lost" 12" (on blue vinyl!) and woke up my roommate in the process. It made him really cranky, but I was eighteen so I didn't give a Fuck.
Anything else to add?
The album probably won't hold up well for new listeners, but as a nostalgia piece it really brings back some great memories. Mostly of being stoned. It might be interesting for a new listener to gauge it contextually: this album came out just before Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg would make gangster rap the most viable form of hip-hop, and there was no major East Coast/West Coast beef. In the early 90's, there was a lot of creative hip-hop music coming from the Bay Area, much of it owing more stylistically to the Native Tongues than to Too $hort and other local artists. '93 'Til Infinity encapsulates a sliver of time between rap genres and the increasingly common notion that rap had to be stark 'hood vignettes or it was soft. People could get over on lyrical skills instead of their criminal past, and in my opinion the music was much better for it.
Souls Of Mischief - Cryptic
Album Rating:
Cryptic of Atoms Family
What's the best track and why?
This was tougher than it should have been for me since depending on my mood I could easily pick at least 5 different tracks as my fave. With that said, the track du jour is "Never No More", jazzy, grimey, hard drums, simple hook, and the destruction of numerous proverbial imaginary wack MCs. Perfect.
I recommend listening to this record while...
Drinking an ice cold brew while manning the grill at a summer BBQ. This album just screams sunny California, and being an east coaster I can confirm that it just doesn't mesh well with our snotty nose east coast winters.
While I listened to this record, I pictured...
Myself shopping for "hella" baggy jeans that were 2 sizes too large while rambling to my boys about how I've been enriching my 3rd eye's vision by reading Behold a Pale Horse.
Anything else to add?
This was the first west coast album that I really loved through and through. Of course I liked NWA, D.O.C., Dre and other west coast staples but the beats on Soul's record had an undeniable east coast vibe that I felt more at home with. Combine that with the lyrically lyrical lyrics and a style of rhyming I never heard before and I became an instant Heiro fanboy.
Comment on this Article