Consistency is always the key to success, and no one knows that better than Souls Of Mischief. The 4-man group has been around since 1993, which coincidently is the same year that sparked their cult hit ’93 Til Infinity.’ Throughout the years, they have fed their fans with tasteful morsels of metaphors, punch lines, and their quirky Bay Area accents. Some of the Hieroglyphics crew members have ventured off to pursue their own solo projects, but they always manage to make their way back home. One of the MC’s that’s taking another journey for ‘self is Opio, making his second go-around returning with Vulture’s Wisdom Vol.1.

The album is entirely produced by Architect, leaving Opio to solely focus on the lyrics that have been paying his bills for the past 15 years. The album gets underway with an intro track titled ‘Guilty As Charged.’ He warms his vocals up with lines like, “Burstin’ through, no cesarean section/since I came out the womb, my cousin’s carrying weapons” before getting into the rest of the album. The production behind ‘Chaotic Erotic’ is a revamped version of Gangstarr’s classic ‘Soliloquy Of Chaos’ but Opio does the track justice, rhyming about his romantic escapades.

‘Original Lyricist’ is just how it sounds, an MC with lyrical dexterity having his way over an outstanding track. Fi ttingly, he goes with a Rakim voice sample as the hook and drops lines like; “Me and my fellowship represents intelligence/in the championship, I’m sick like Bill Belichick/another chin to check/you can catch me on the Internet/Google me up—see I’ve been a threat.”

His content continues to shine through on ‘Vice Versa,’ but the production is light years behind, leaving his witty word play to carry the song from beginning to end. Beat and lyrics come together once again on ‘I Need A Money Tree’ where Opio rhymes over a mellow Snoop Dogg-ish type of track while talking about his everyday adventures in Oakland, California. He also strikes gold with ‘The Prize’ which includes slick talk like, “I shoot with both hands, so I’m ambidextrous/the way I flex the stage, makes women have sex and kiss Kimberly/while Kim is feelin’ Joanne.”

‘To The People’ also includes clever metaphors like, “You would think they flossin’ when they lyin’ on the scene/lookin’ corny rapping like Brian Austin Green.” The rest of the album contains solid lyricism throughout with songs like ‘Don Julio,’ and ‘With Or Without You,’ being strong contenders while contributions like ‘Stop The Press,’ and ‘Cali Girls’ could’ve used a little more assistance production-wise.

In the end, Vulture’s Wisdom Vol.1 is a solid effort with Opio managing to overshadow some of the production miscues with his lyrical ability. And as aforementioned, that’s the same prowess that has helped to keep him in the game since ’93.