Mtulazaji “P.E.A.C.E.” Davis, a founding member of the influential Los Angeles hip-hop group Freestyle Fellowship, has died. The news was shared on the group’s social media pages. “Rest well brother P.E.A.C.E,” the band wrote. “You had a great heart and you were authentic. One of West coast Hiphop royal treasures. You will be surely missed my friend. 💔💔💔💔.” A cause of death was not given.
In the 1990s, Freestyle Fellowship helped further the West Coast’s take on frantic, back-and-forth freestyling between rappers, serving as California’s jazz-inspired answer to New York’s own renaissance with Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest in the Native Tongues collective. The hip-hop quartet—founded by P.E.A.C.E, Aceyalone, Myka 9, and Self Jupiter—constantly pushed each member to stay on his toes across his career, with P.E.A.C.E. often punching up his verses with extra enunciation and speed in frequently overlooked ways.
Born Mtulazaji Davis, P.E.A.C.E. grew up in Dallas before relocating to Los Angeles, where he funneled his creativity into playing numerous instruments. While attending high school in the 1980s, he took to hip-hop and began rapping, eventually becoming a regular at Good Life Café, the South Central Los Angeles cafe whose open mics became a hotspot for the city’s underground rap scene. P.E.A.C.E. bonded with cafe regulars Aceyalone, Myka 9, and Self Jupiter and the four decided to form a proper group.
Freestyle Fellowship released their debut album, 1991’s To Whom It May Concern…, with a focus on how exuberant and quick-witted they were as a group. While their peers were working on the makings of a jaded, gangster-focused side of hip-hop, Freestyle Fellowship introduced themselves as a conscientious act, with P.E.A.C.E. staking his own ground on “Physical Form” and “For No Reason,” in particular. (A special 30th-anniversary reissue of the LP went on to earn a Best Historical Album nomination at the 2023 Grammy Awards.)
Although Freestyle Fellowship upgraded their production and pushed themselves further lyrically on the follow-up, Innercity Griots, that 1993 album would be their last during their original run, as the group went on hiatus when Self Jupiter was incarcerated. In 2001, Freestyle Fellowship reunited for the album Temptations and followed it with the Shockadoom EP the next year. Self Jupiter returned to jail for a second sentencing, and it wasn’t until he was released in 2009 that the group could properly get back together in the studio, which they celebrated in the form of 2011’s The Promise.
