By 2014, Souls of Mischief had been out of the studio as a group for nearly a decade. The question — the one hip-hop fans always ask about legacy acts returning — was whether the fire was still there. There Is Only Now answered that question so definitively that it made the skepticism feel slightly embarrassing in retrospect.

This is one of the best hip-hop albums of 2014, from a group that had made one of the best hip-hop albums of 1993. That span of quality, across twenty-one years, is almost without precedent in the genre.

The Production: Adrian Younge

The single most important decision behind There Is Only Now was the choice of producer: Adrian Younge, the Los Angeles musician and producer who had built his reputation on cinematic, live-instrumentation soul records for artists including Ghostface Killah (12 Reasons to Die) and Jay-Z and Kanye West (sampling work).

Younge recorded the entire album live — real musicians, real instruments, analog tape. No samples. No digital drum machines. The approach gave There Is Only Now a warmth and physicality that most contemporary hip-hop production, however excellent, can’t replicate. When the drums hit, they sound like a person hit them. When the keys come in, they sound like they were played in a room.

The sonic result is a record that sits in a strange and beautiful temporal location: it sounds like the early 70s, it sounds like 1993, and it sounds like 2014. All at once. That’s a difficult trick, and Younge pulled it off completely.

The MCs at Their Sharpest

Tajai, A-Plus, Opio, and Phesto don’t sound like they’re trying to recapture something. They sound like they’ve been writing in their heads for a decade and finally have the right canvas.

Tajai‘s verses are politically acute in ways that reflect someone who has been paying attention through two terms of Obama, the Occupy movement, and a deepening national conversation about systemic inequality. The consciousness that was present on the debut is more sophisticated here — more targeted, more earned.

A-Plus brings the technical display that’s always been his signature, but with a control that only comes from decades of practice. The syllabic complexity is present but never feels like showing off; it’s integrated into the emotional content of the verses.

Opio‘s soulfulness is at a career high. His verses on There Is Only Now have an emotional weight that makes you stop and rewind — not because they’re clever, but because they’re true.

Phesto, who has always been the most understated of the four, delivers some of the album’s most quietly remarkable verses. The structural intelligence that defines his style is fully mature here — every syllable placed with purpose.

The Themes

The album’s title is a philosophical statement: the only moment that exists is the present one. For a group operating in hip-hop’s nostalgia economy — where legacy acts often trade on past glories — committing to presence rather than retrospection was a significant choice.

The content follows that commitment. There Is Only Now doesn’t spend time celebrating the Souls of Mischief legacy; it’s too busy adding to it. Political critique, personal reflection, craft celebration, Oakland pride — all present, all engaged with the moment rather than the past.

Legacy

In the decade since its release, There Is Only Now has aged into one of the clearer demonstrations that hip-hop artists can continue growing across their careers rather than peaking early. The Souls of Mischief who made this record are better rappers than the teenagers who made 93 ’til Infinity — which doesn’t diminish the debut, but says something important about what commitment to craft looks like over twenty-one years.

Stream Souls of Mischief on Spotify. Buy There Is Only Now directly at hieroglyphics.bandcamp.com.