“No Need For Alarm” was Del’s follow-up to the Ice Cube-produced “I Wish My Brother George Was Here” and ended up being his final album on Elektra, who unceremoniously dropped him just prior to the release of “Future Development”. Del continued to get progressively more brilliantly freaky with his independence, developing his distinctive trippiness that led to his stellar collaborations in the Dan the Automator-related projects Deltron 3030, Handsome Boy Modeling School (with Prince Paul) and Gorillaz (with Damon Albarn).

In celebration I’m going to post a series of these songs over the next week or two.

It seems fitting to start with “’93 till Infinity” from Oakland’s own Souls of Mischief. As a student at Skyline high in Oakland (the alma mater of Opio from Souls) it was hard to escape this track’s influence. This was coming out of every car stereo and kicking off every house party that year.

Souls of Mischief had just been signed to Jive records and were set to blow up along with their Hieroglypics labelmate/mentor Del tha Funkee Homosapien. This track is a perfect snapshot of a young and hungry band with an eye on world domination. Though no longer on Jive, Souls of Mischief and the whole Hiero crew have been churning out amazing work for over a decade and building an impressive DIY music empire. Souls of Mischief are about to release “Montezuma’s Revenge” with acclaimed producer Prince Paul at the helm.

Sit back, relax and soak in Oakland hip-hop at its blunts and backpacks finest.