A documentary on the legacy and impact of The Bay Area hip-hop pioneers has resurfaced.
Back in 2013, Souls of Mischief toasted to 20 years of their debut album, 93 Til Infinity, with a career-charting documentary, featuring the whole of the Hieroglyphics crew.
Aptly titled, Til Infinity, the doc is directed by fellow Bay Area local, Shomari Smith, who tracks the group’s come-up from local to global fame through interviews and testimonies from admiring contemporaries (including Yasiin Bey, Talib Kweli, Sway, Bobbito Garcia, Dante Ross, Alchemist, Redman, the late Phife Dawg, and more,) along with archival footage and photos sourced from the group. Beyond the Souls of Mischief backstory, Til Infinity analyzes the group’s influences and impact on a pivotal moment in hip-hop’s history, transitioning from Big Beat and duos to dusty jazz samples and a broader collectivized approach. In the years since it was initially released, the doc vanished from the web and reappeared on Qello some years back. But for those who may have missed it in the first rounds of circulation, the Bay Area rap legends have shared the documentary in full and more than an hour of bonus material on their Youtube page to watch for free.
Though members of the group have released solo material over the last five years or so, the last Souls of Mischief project arrived in 2014 with the Adrian Younge-produced album, There is Only Now. It featured appearances from Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Snoop Dogg, amongst others.
Watch the Souls of Mischief documentary, Til Infinity, below.