Mtulazaji “P.E.A.C.E.” Davis, a founding member of the influential Los Angeles hip-hop group Freestyle Fellowship, has died. The information was shared on the group’s social media pages. “Relaxation effectively brother P.E.A.C.E,” the band wrote. “You had an awesome coronary heart and also you have been genuine. One among West coast Hiphop royal treasures. You may be certainly missed my pal. 💔💔💔💔.” A explanation for loss of life was not given.
Within the Nineties, Freestyle Fellowship helped additional the West Coast’s tackle frantic, back-and-forth freestyling between rappers, serving as California’s jazz-inspired reply to New York’s personal renaissance with Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and A Tribe Known as Quest within the Native Tongues collective. The hip-hop quartet—based by P.E.A.C.E, Aceyalone, Myka 9, and Self Jupiter—continually pushed every member to remain on his toes throughout his profession, with P.E.A.C.E. usually punching up his verses with additional enunciation and velocity in incessantly missed methods.
Born Mtulazaji Davis, P.E.A.C.E. grew up in Dallas earlier than relocating to Los Angeles, the place he funneled his creativity into enjoying quite a few devices. Whereas attending highschool within the Nineteen Eighties, he took to hip-hop and commenced rapping, ultimately turning into an everyday at Good Life Café, the South Central Los Angeles cafe whose open mics grew to become a hotspot for town’s underground rap scene. P.E.A.C.E. bonded with cafe regulars Aceyalone, Myka 9, and Self Jupiter and the 4 determined to kind a correct group.
Freestyle Fellowship launched their debut album, 1991’s To Whom It Could Concern…, with a give attention to how exuberant and quick-witted they have been as a bunch. Whereas their friends have been engaged on the makings of a jaded, gangster-focused facet of hip-hop, Freestyle Fellowship launched themselves as a conscientious act, with P.E.A.C.E. staking his personal floor on “Bodily Type” and “For No Motive,” specifically. (A particular Thirtieth-anniversary reissue of the LP went on to earn a Best Historical Album nomination at the 2023 Grammy Awards.)
Though Freestyle Fellowship upgraded their manufacturing and pushed themselves additional lyrically on the follow-up, Innercity Griots, that 1993 album can be their final throughout their authentic run, because the group went on hiatus when Self Jupiter was incarcerated. In 2001, Freestyle Fellowship reunited for the album Temptations and adopted it with the Shockadoom EP the following 12 months. Self Jupiter returned to jail for a second sentencing, and it wasn’t till he was launched in 2009 that the group might correctly get again collectively within the studio, which they celebrated within the type of 2011’s The Promise.
