“93 'Til Infinity is the best single album to come out of Oakland's Hieroglyphics camp… one of the most slept-on records of the '90s.”
– All Music, Steve Huey
The acclaimed Get On Down label continues to show its unwavering respect for classic hip-hop by paying tribute to an unassailable – yet underrated – West Coast classic which is currently strutting through its celebration-worthy 20th year of release: Souls of Mischief’s 1993 debut, 93 ‘Til Infinity.
Get On Down will start taking orders today via www.GetOnDown.com, and orders will start shipping on March 7th.
The jewel-in-the-crown of this masterful reissue is the “Souls Super-Bundle” – Only 500 of these bundles will be made available for purchase at this time, and they are only available via Get On Down.
It includes:
-- A “Hiero Light Box” outer case with a 4.5 inch blue LED-lit Hieroglyphics logo – activated by a hidden button on the case. The iconic ‘third-eye’ logo glows in radiant neon blue when the button is pushed. The “Hiero Light Box” also holds the “Souls of Mischief Music Book” (see below) in a distinctive slide-out drawer, emblazoned with the Souls graffiti-style logo.
-- A 2-CD “Souls of Mischief Music Book” package – A unique CD casebook that plays the song “93 ‘Til Infinity” when the cover is opened. It houses two CDs which include the full original album plus 11 extra remix and instrumental tracks (8 never before on CD, including the exclusive “93 ‘Til Infinity” a capella, which has not been previously released in any format.) This deluxe 2-CD hardcover “Music Book” also includes 36-pages of liner notes, comprised of images and group interviews by Eric Arnold (from 2013) and Joseph “Jazzbo” Patel (from 1993, from BOMB Magazine).
-- A 2-LP deluxe gatefold edition of 93 ‘Til Infinity (with the same liner notes as the “Music Book”).
-- An exclusive Souls of Mischief x Get On Down T-Shirt, available in black or white.
Order the “Souls Super-Bundle” here: http://www.getondown.com/product/item.php?id=16647
[A ‘Standard Bundle’ will also be available, which includes all of the above, except the T-shirt. The 2-CD “Music Book” and T-Shirt will be sold individually, also at www.GetOnDown.com]
Consisting of MCs A+, Phesto, Opio and Tajai (with production by A+, Domino, Del the Funky Homosapien, Jay Biz and Casual), East Oakland’s Souls of Mischief burst onto the scene in the early ‘90s with an impact that few other West Coast artists had at the time. Culminating in the release of their classic debut, they created a bouillabaisse that was full of West Coast swagger but – similar to The D.O.C. and Cypress Hill – had a sonic approach that could just as well have stepped off the streets of New York City.
One unifying force was the group’s originality and restless lyrical energy: undeniable at live shows, which also transferred seamlessly onto wax. Part of their cohesion was the fact that several group members and their extended production crew had known each other since elementary school. In the same way that siblings share both love and a sense of competition, each member was out to better the other, all the while making sure their peers succeeded.
The Souls of Mischief were a subset of what would come to be the West Coast’s most prolific and long-standing hip-hop crew – The Hieroglyphics – who continue to tour and produce amazing music to this day. Boasting family like Del, Casual, Domino and Pep Love, the Hiero umbrella was crucial to the Souls’ success. Del, who had grown up rapping with the Souls, was the first to get a major label deal (his I Wish My Brother George Was Here, executive produced by his cousin, Ice Cube, hit in late 1991 on Elektra). The cut “Burnt” (the B-side to the “Sleeping On My Couch” single) featured the entire Hiero crew, and with the subsequent buzz that Del created, labels came calling. After some industry arm-wrestling, Jive became the Souls’ recording home-base.
Put to tape in less than two weeks at San Francisco’s Hyde Street Studios, the wide-ranging album doesn’t suffer from a single freshman jitter or misstep. It’s a fully-realized effort, packed from start to finish with ridiculous lyricism – all carried out in impressive four-part, tag-team style – and backed by a wide range of musical possibilities, from hard boom-bap to ‘70s CTI-jazz-sprinkled grooviness.
Writer Eric Arnold, who has known and written about the Souls since their early days, explains in the Music Book’s extensive liner notes:
In the fall of 1992, Souls of Mischief began recording their debut. After watching Del go through the process of making an album, and having a solid legal/management team behind them (helmed by Opio’s stepfather, an entertainment attorney named Michael Ashburne), they were ready to get down to business. As Opio says, “We wanted to have an impact on people.” The Souls had demoed “4 or 5” songs before they even arrived at the studio, Tajai recalls. Once there, they wasted no time. “We were just focused,” Phesto says. “We already had a blueprint, already had a foundation laid.” The entire process took just 12 days. “It was kind of a blur,” he recalls.
Most of the production on the album was handled by A+, with additional tracks by Del, Casual, Jay Biz, and Damian “Domino” Siguenza. Domino was a crate-digging beat fiend who had been recommended to the Souls on the advice of Elektra A & R Dante Ross, who had signed Del. Despite being from San Francisco—and being a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the archrivals of Oakland’s Raiders—Domino hit it off with Tajai and A+ right away.
The album boasted three singles – “That’s Where Ya Lost,” “Never No More” and the title-track smash “93 ‘Til Infinity” (the latter would hit #72 on Billboard’s “Hot 100” pop chart) – but fans to this day could argue that the suits at Jive could have thrown a dart at any song on the tracklist and picked a winner. Overall it’s not a “fun in the sun” Cali album, despite the relative light-heartedness of the title track. Serious topics abound, and even brag tracks take conscious turns. “Live and Let Live” and “Anything Can Happen” showed the dark side of Oakland, where violence and tragedy are always just around the corner, to this day. And “Tell Me Who Profits” goes as far as “connecting street-level situations with the ‘military-industrial complex’” (as Phesto explains).
Overall, beyond the music and topics spoken upon, there was the incredible lyricism, which presented a far different side of Oakland’s approach than fans had heard with Too $hort’s plain-spoken brags (which isn’t to say that the Souls didn’t love the man born Todd Shaw). Eric Arnold explains: “The Souls raised the bar for Bay Area rap with their highly technical, tongue-twisting cadences, structured with internal rhyme patterns... ‘We were very lyrical guys,’ Opio says, who made a point of using vocabulary words no other emcees had used.”
But without worthy music, the group’s high-level lyricism could have fallen by the wayside. Digging deep into crates that other producers had yet to mine, the production crew gave the quartet exactly what they needed, with unpredictable rolling basslines, dusty drums and jazz keyboard and horn stabs and swirls. Non-singles like “Disseshowedo” (produced by Domino and Jay Biz), “Batting Practice” (Casual), “Limitations” (Jay Biz, with Del and Casual contributing verses) and “What A Way To Go Out” (Domino) made sure that the fast-forward button remained untouched.
No matter the angle from which you approach 93 ‘Til Infinity, back-in-the-day listeners and new fans will both find much to enjoy, thanks to the deluxe packaging and bonus audio nuggets for which Get On Down is known.
Get On Down is an acclaimed Boston-based record label and premium online boutique, offering an eclectic array of products, from deluxe music reissues on vinyl and CD to apparel and pop culture artifacts. Established in 2010, Get On Down’s record label boasts over 100 titles in its ever-expanding catalog. Forbes has called the label “A premiere reissue imprint” and they were given an “Adapter Award” in September 2013 by the Record Store Day organization (for “Record Store Day Release of the Year”).
The GetOnDown.com online boutique was launched in 2012 and operates with a strong “anti-big-box store” aesthetic, dedicated to carefully curating a premium product mix for independent-minded customers who span the globe. GetOnDown.com features items from the Get On Down label along with unique non-label offerings, including apparel, DVDs, pop culture artifacts and more.
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