Words By: Michelle Swami
Photos By: Brendan Lee
Wednesday August 22, 2013 – Hiero shirts along Granville Street? Not your typical Thursday night on the famous Vancouver strip, unless Souls of Mischief are involved. The prolific Oakland based group – which also makes up about half of the legendary Hieroglyphics crew – decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their seminal album ’93 to Infinity’ with a North American tour stopping on all major cities, including Vancouver, which they played opening for De La Soul & A Tribe Called Quest back in 1994 at the now defunct Starfish Room. And now, 20 years later, at a very sold out Venue, Souls of Mischief is back in Vancouver on the Still Infinity Tour.
Ill-Legitimate started things off with a big crew much like Wiu-Tang Clan and Odd Future, to get the crowd hyped for the rest of the night. Emotionz was up next and he was doing his regular MC duties along with fresh material from his collaboration with Stylus Beats to an amazing beatbox routine that got the ever growing crowd to it’s feet.
A blink-and-you-miss-it moment, the crowd was packed and ready to go for Souls of Mischief. The very sold out show was anxious and ready as soon as Opio, Phesto, and Tajai hit the stage. Straying away from doing the album in its entirety, in order, SOM started things off with ‘Never No More’ which got the crowd hyped. In between banter about Canada and how hip-hop has changed, Opio and Tajai did free styles which got the crowd’s attention. Going through their discography which included ‘Rock It like That’ from No Man’s Land and a big shout out to legendary hip hop producer Prince Paul. They stopped a second to shout out all the Heiro tee’s in the audience. They couldn’t finish their set off without a Opio rap to ‘Opio’ and the Hiero classic’You Never Knew’. No Del appearance in sight, SOM went on to play 93 to infinity then eventually to end things off with ‘That’s When Ya Lost’
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