By: Elijah Carroll
Artist: Souls Of Mischief
Title: Montezuma’s Revenge
Label: Hieroglyphics Imperium
Genre: Hip-Hop : Rap
UPC: 822497103329
Territory: World
Release Date: 12.1.09
Bay Area hip hop legends and original Hieroglyphics members Souls Of Mischief are back in action with their first full-length album in over 9 years. With the full Souls line-up, production from the illustrious Prince Paul and even guest narration from Del Tha Funkee Homosapien Montezuma’s Revenge is an instant Bay Area hip hop classic. To ensure the best possible results on their latest record the Souls took a slightly atypical approach to recording this new record.
“We rented a house near Point Reyes. We stayed in the house for at least a month,” explains Opio. “Prince Paul came out, we had no TVs or distractions, we just did music every day. It kind of seemed like he might be a slave driver, but it didn’t come to that, he just let us do our thing. We knew he wanted a highly stylized album, so we just focused on the styles.” “It was cool, because Paul was making us do stuff over, and he really did help produce the record,” adds Tajai. “He had concepts, and its good to have an outside perspective – it was a great process.”
The process paid off as Montezuma’s Revenge is on par with classics like the timeless ’93 Til Infinity. Combining lyrical skill with humorous skits and hard hitting beats the Souls are at the top of their game. From the classic sound and smooth narrative of “Tour Stories” to the more hyphy sounding and playful “Poets” the Souls clearly haven’t lost a step since their early days. On “For Real Y’All” the Souls shine at what they do best; seamlessly trading bars throughout the verses and weaving in the refrain. On much of Montezuma’s Revenge the Souls put on a clinic in the lost art of true group rapping. They even poke fun at themselves and their ‘old school’ style on “Morgan Freeman,” showing their awareness of their place in the hip hop game. From underground to mainstream, hyphy to crunk the hip hop community would do well to take a page from the Souls book.
Enjoy “Tour Stories” from the lead-up EP of the same name:
Souls of Mischief
“Tour Stories” (mp3)
from “Tour Stories”
(Hieroglyphics Imperium)
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