Stuff You Gotta Watch: Til Infinity: The Souls of Mischief
Emerging during the golden age of hip-hop, Souls of Mischief had a uniquely jazzy, fast-flowing sound packed with internal rhymes and infectious energy. The group’s members A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai might not be household names, but the four-piece offshoot of the Hieroglyphics crew were legendary enough to inspire a 2013 full-length documentary called Til Infinity: The Souls of Mischief about the making of their immortal debut album.
Thanks to a connection with Del tha Funkee Homosapien’s cousin Ice Cube (then performing with a group called C.I.A.), Souls of Mischief headed from Oakland to Los Angeles to record their first songs as young teenagers. Their demo tape made an immediate impression on both West and East Coast peers, no doubt in part to a creative flip of the Taxi theme. A major label bidding war ended with them signing to Jive, but eventually the group went independent with their own label, utilizing the then-nascent internet to sell their music.
Til Infinity was originally released to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, and it’s now been expanded with an additional hour of bonus material. Director Shomari Smith brings a clever structure to the film with its track-by-track format allowing every member of the Hieroglyphics (and some of the biggest names in rap) to share stories about their favorite cuts. Decades later, this is still how we chill from ‘93 til.
Review by Jesse Locke. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.