Biography
In the early 1990s, Los Angeles alternative rap outfit Freestyle Fellowship, made up of Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter, started assembling their unconventional wordplay. Their debut album To Whom It May Concern appeared in a restricted pressing of 300 vinyl copies and 500 tapes yet helped cultivate a dedicated audience. Emerging from the jazz-oriented, countercultural atmosphere of Leimert Park, the quartet stayed at the periphery of a rap landscape dominated by West Coast gangsta rap, whose approach stood in near-total contrast to the group’s layered soundscapes and associative rhymes. They issued just one further album, 1993’s Inner City Griots, before dissolving amid Self Jupiter’s imprisonment.
A lone 1998 performance signaled their first return, followed by scattered 1999 appearances that included benefit shows and a contribution to the ensemble single “Mumia 911,” created to generate support for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. The same year brought a CD reissue of the debut album and a Celestial Records 12-inch featuring producer O.D. on the track “Can You Find the Level of Difficulty in This?” Their third album Temptations arrived in 2001 with guest contributions from Abstract Rude and RBX; Version 2.0, a career-spanning remix collection, also surfaced that year.
Most members concentrated on solo work through the 2000s, especially Aceyalone and Myka 9, yet the Freestyle Fellowship name resurfaced only for the 2002 EP Shockadoom. The group’s fourth album The Promise finally appeared in 2011 on Decon.
A lone 1998 performance signaled their first return, followed by scattered 1999 appearances that included benefit shows and a contribution to the ensemble single “Mumia 911,” created to generate support for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. The same year brought a CD reissue of the debut album and a Celestial Records 12-inch featuring producer O.D. on the track “Can You Find the Level of Difficulty in This?” Their third album Temptations arrived in 2001 with guest contributions from Abstract Rude and RBX; Version 2.0, a career-spanning remix collection, also surfaced that year.
Most members concentrated on solo work through the 2000s, especially Aceyalone and Myka 9, yet the Freestyle Fellowship name resurfaced only for the 2002 EP Shockadoom. The group’s fourth album The Promise finally appeared in 2011 on Decon.
Albums
