Souls of Mischief

Souls of Mischief have built a career on continuity. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1991, they are a four-man operation — A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai — rooted in the Hieroglyphics collective. Their music has little interest in a single standout voice; the group trades bars among equals, each rapper’s presence bending around the others in ways that reward repeated listening.

The documented catalogue opens with No Man’s Land in 1995, four years after the group came together, and continues through Focus in 1998. Their 2003 record, Trilogy: Conflict, Climax, Resolution, wears its structural ambition in the title. In 2009 they produced both Montezuma’s Revenge and Tour Stories; in 2014 they paired There Is Only Now (Remix) with the Adrian Younge Presents edition, shifting into another curator’s frame. The 2015 release 93 ’Til Infinity (The Remixes) reaches backward, shaking one of their touchstone titles for new angles.

Souls of Mischief never chased a dramatic rupture. Across their recorded output they kept the same four members, kept the Hieroglyphics bond, and kept the Oakland base that anchors their identity. The result is a catalogue that values shared language over novelty — and shows that for this group, holding steady is its own form of movement.

Discography

• No Man’s Land (1995)
• Focus (1998)
• Trilogy: Conflict, Climax, Resolution (2003)
• Montezuma’s Revenge (2009)
• Tour Stories (2009)
• There Is Only Now (Remix) (2014)
• Adrian Younge Presents: There Is Only Now (2014)
• 93 ’Til Infinity (The Remixes) (2015)