Souls Article--Prop$ Magazine

This Page Was Posted on December 4th, 1995

In an artform that is truly lyric-based only the most devine of poets earn a prominent place in the hearts of hip hop fans. In the last two years Tajai, Opio, Phesto, and A-Plus have dropped an album, countless remixes, and b-sides that sometimes cast a shadow over the single itself. The formula is proven, if you make music from the heart and take no shorts with your beats and your rhymes then your acceptance is never denied. Now as it seems the Souls Of Mischief have reached their pinnacle, we are on the verge of their second coming...

What's new with you guys?

A-Plus: We're working on our new project, it's called No Man's Land. Also watch out for Pep Love and Jay Biz, they gonna come in and drop some phat shit.

Now that your first album has dropped, Casual's has dropped, and Extra Pro's has dropped, what's next for Hiero?

A-Plus: Del's working on a new album, Casual's working on a new album, our new album is about to come out. Hiero is just gonna keep hitting you. We wanna get some tours for all y'all that want to see Hiero and Souls Of Mischief all together, cause most definitely we'll come to your town, wherever. We're trying to bring the music to the people.

Tajai: Our goal is to have everybody see the Souls Of Mischief show and hear the Souls Of Mischief album. Videos are dope but that's impersonal. We're rhyming to a camera. Come to the show and you get to peep the real.

How does it feel to creep on the underground for so long and then really come out big time?

A-Plus: We've been working hard and we've paid a lot of dues. We always know that there's everlasting dues to pay. We're just trying to please the fans who really like good music. That's what it's all about, we're trying to reach the fans that will appreciate us. The ones who don't, we're not really trippin' off them. It's all for the fans.

Are you guys happy with what Jive Records has done for you?

A-Plus: Jive has done some cool stuff and they also did some shit that we didn't agree with but we're doing fine. Our last album sold well and we gonna do it like that.

Phesto: We should have at least went quadruple platinum, you know what I'm saying.

Were all the singles that were picked your choices or would you have put out different ones?

Opio: All the singles were our choices, there's no way we would let anybody dictate what we do artistically or musically. They have influence in it though. If they like a single it gets pushed. You can tell, you've seen 93 Til Infinity everywhere but you probably never saw Never No More.

A-Plus: We're trying to focus on the fans. They take to it whether the record company takes to it or not. It's all hypothetical on that point. We hope it reaches you and we hope you embrace it.

Opio: We don't need to involve the fans in this, we just make this music for y'all.

When you first came out a lot of people were saying "Yeah. . . They from the west but they got more of an east coast flow..." How do you feel about that comparison?

A-Plus: That comparison is based on a bunch of stereotypes since it is a fact that most of the people that have come out of the west coast have been gangster rappers. We've shattered that little stereotype because we've been here the whole time, it's not like we popped outta nowhere. We don't have any east coast skills, we have hieroglyphical skills. No one else sounds like us unless they bit.

Tajai: You can look around now and say there's a lot of artists with a west coast sound from other places. Talking about creepin' and gats and all that other shit. We're trying to come with something real, that we've been doing all this time. We were doing it before we got signed and we gonna be doing it after we got signed. We gonna be dirty old men, just rappin'.

Opio: We're from Oakland, California. We're not even really from the west coast and all that, we are from the town. Remember that, Oakland, Oakland, Oakland.

A-Plus: All the east coast/west coast crap, I really don't care about. We're from a specific place and we're making our music outta there but it's all about hip hop.

Opio: Listen to the dialect, we don't speak in New York tongues, we speak the English language and you can tell the difference. I got straight folks out on the east coast, those are my peoples. No disrespect or nothing like that but that's not where we're coming from. It's a new year so all that other shit is out the door.

What concerns you most about hip hop?

A-Plus: Biting MC's. I see a plague of that.

Tajai: The fact that it's actually at Congressional Hearings. That's scary too. Most people that aren't down with hip hop don't know what the phukk we're saying. If they actually use their power to ban some type of music like gangster rap it will pretty much be all rappin' with curses in it. That shit is scary to me. I'll be making bootleg tapes and driving from state to state if they try to ban that shit.

A-Plus: If you really examine the situation, what's worse? Somebody playing some lyrics about what's really going on as a result of these people that are trying to ban it. You can go to a movie or watch TV and see people get blasted, blood, sex and peoples heads bursting. What's worse, something you see or something you hear?

Tajai: They try to say that TV doesn't affect you but they pay all money for all these commercials so it must affect you. They're hypocrites, they want to keep what they want and lose what they don't want.

A-Plus: I guess Dionne Warwick can forsee the future cause she's down with the Psychic Network and all. I guess she sees that hip hop is gonna make the world come to an end. I guess she knows something we don't.

Opio: If you don't involve yourself with the music, and don't even make an attempt to understand the music or what the message is, you can't really speak on it. It's for the youth, these people are from a whole other mind state. Why is that they're (gangster rappers) saying this? When they were young nobody ever spoke of these vile things. It wasn't happening, crack wasn't even around. This is some new shit, you have to come to grips with that. Don't deal with music.

A-Plus: Don't deal with music that is expressing the problems, deal with the root of the problem.

What do you think you've learned businesswise since a year ago?

A-Plus: Too much to even say in an interview. Basically shit is shady.

Tajai: If you work for a record company you are making a contract with Satan, or one of his minions. If you look around Hip Hop even families is gankin each other. Once it becomes a business you get to the cutthroat part of it. You gotta watch out for that because everybody is trying to jerk you.

What's one piece of advice you would give to kids on the come up?

Tajai: Keep your publishing!

A-Plus: Have a good lawyer and a good manager. People that look out for your interests.

Now that you've traveled could you break down some of the differences in the scenes around the world?

A-Plus: When we were on tour we were going from city to city and shit was like a blur. The Hip Hop community is universal wherever you go. Hip Hop just creates a certain energy and the people who are attracted to that are Hip Hop fans. You see that shit everywhere. It's all universal.

Is there anything you want to say but never get asked?

Opio: I pretty much speak my mind. Peace to all the people that support real hip hop. We're just trying to get better and improve for all the fans. We love you all.