SOULS OF MISCHIEF ALBUM RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
SOULS OF MISCHIEF
SINGLE PROPER AIM 25th January 2010
ALBUM "MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE" 8th February 2010
PRODUCTION Prince Paul, Domino, A-Plus
LABEL Hieroglyphics Imperium
Nearly 10 years since the last Souls of Mischief album, "The Trilogy : Conflict, Climax & Resolution", the group who first came to fame in 1993 with their massive "93 Til Infinity" are back with a bang on the new album "Montezuma's Revenge".
While on Jive Records, "93 Til Infinity" debuted at #14 on Billboard's r&b charts, while their follow up "No Man's Land" charted at #27 in 1995.
In 1998, group members A-Plus, Opio, Phesto and Tajai joined forces with Hieroglyphics members Del, Domino, Pep Love & Casual to form the label Hieroglyphics Imperium which has since released many group and solo albums including Tajai's "Power Movement" (2004), A Plus' "My Last Good Deed" (2007) and Opio's Trinagulation Station (2005) & Vulture's Wisdom Volume 1 (2008).
Now back as a group, Souls of Mischief have teamed up with legendary producer Prince Paul and Hieroglyphic Domino for the new album and the results reflect the careful planning that went into the making. Having known Prince Paul since touring in the early days with A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, it was on the more recent "Handsome Boy Modeling School Tour" that they hooked up again.
Opio explains " He came at me like "Im a big ass fan of SOM and I'd like to do a record with y'all". I wanted to just ask him for some beats but on the last day of the tour he said "I'm hella serious about doing the record" so I told the rest of the crew and we got it arranged."
The recording process took them into the lab from beginning to end.
Tajai recalls "We rented a house in Point Reyes and stayed there at least a month. Prince Paul came out, we had no tv or distractions, we just did the music every day. We knew we wanted a highly stylized album, and Paul was making us do stuff over and really helped produce the record. He had concepts and it's good to have an outside perspective, it was a great process".
On the album title he continues "The house was in Montezuma Street, and was called Montezuma House, so that became the working title initially. The deeper meaning is this album will make you crap yourself !!!"
With illustrated cover art by Steve Lopez (Erykah Badu) , the result is an 18 track album displaying the best in classic hip hop beats, wordplay, metaphors and storytelling. Having completed an extensive west coast and European tour schedule in autumn 2009, the first UK release is the single Proper Aim out on 25th January 2010, with the album dropping in digital and physical format on 8th February 2010.
It's been a long time coming, but "Montezuma's Revenge" will prove to be well worth the wait for old and new fans alike.
The campaign launched on 9th November 2009, when the group broke into their European Tour to visit London for the day, with extensive in person media interviews including key press, radio & online tv. Within hours, online filmed interviews had gone live. The day ended with a rare live performance in the city's Carhartt store which had been extensively promoted in advance by UEP, and resulted in a lock out situation, with queues round the block from Earlham Street onto Shaftesbury Avenue.
The event itself was filmed by various online stations, footage going live within 24 hours, and more to follow.
The single Proper Aim is now being promoted to press, radio & clubs, while the accompanying video, still in production, will be serviced to all key satellite and online stations on completion. The release date of 25th January is followed soon after by the official UK release date of 8th February 2010 when the album will be available in digital and physical format
A UK tour to coincide with the release is being discussed and involving various tour management and retail outlets as part of an overall package, which would also take in some European territories
Extensive early media interviews will go live in the immediate to medium and longer term period, with the servicing of radio & tv ensuring a consistent level of exposure throughout, building to the product release date
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
