As USA Today instructs, "Grab a seat, ladies and gentlemen: Souls of Mischief has a story to tell." The legendary Hieroglyphics sub-group is proud to release their sixth studio album, There Is Only Now, today in four formats: CD, digital, picture-disc vinyl, and cassette tape. The concept album is a collaborative effort with acclaimed producer and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Younge. It features the Souls at their finest, showcasing a level of dedication, discipline, and skill rarely seen in hip-hop today. Following the release of their recent Noisey premiered single "Finally Back," from which the outlet confidently claimed, "The legendary hip hop crew from East Oakland are here to fuck your shit up," the group has constructed a harrowing narrative throughout the album, detailing a near-fatal incident involving Souls of Mischief early in their careers. "We were hanging outside of a club, at a party, and a guy walked up to us pulling a ski mask down, telling everybody to get down, and as he said that, a shot went off," recalls Souls of Mischief rapper Tajai to The Wall Street Journal.

 

There Is Only Now was recorded much like a blaxploitation film and details a storyline full of love, loss, and revenge. Ali Shaheed Muhammad narrates the unfolding tale as the DJ for a fictional local Oakland radio station. Busta Rhymes makes an appearance as the story "s villain, Womack, on the track "Womack "s Lament." William Hart from The Delfonics lends his falsetto, Snoop Dogg adds his perspective on young love on the title track, and Scarub from Living Legends plays the role of Stoney, who is dating a character named Miriam, whom Womack is trying to steal away. Along with the Okayplayer debut of their lyric video for the track "Ghetto Superhero," the jazz-tinged single "Panic Struck," which premiered via The Wall Street Journal, and the Billboard premiere of Snoop Dogg featuring lead single/video, "There Is Only Now," the album has everything in it needs to become a hip-hop classic.