Underground San Antonio, Texas duo Mojoe independently dropped their debut classic.ghetto.soul years ago and it became so popular it was picked up by Music World/Universal-Fontana and remastered for wide release.

Popular on the local concert circuit and backed by the Mojoe Family Band, Easy Lee (Charles Peters) and Tre (Treson Scipio) describe their style as “The Roots meet OutKast over dinner with Marvin Gaye at D’Angelo’s house,” and combine a smooth mix of hip-hop, spoken word, blues, R&B and jazz.

“Mojoe has a couple of different meanings,” explained Easy Lee. “More than the average joe is what it stands for, but it also means that we’ve got something spiritual and magical. It means that the best of what we can do is the foot we put forward. And there’s, ‘Got My Mojo Workin’,’ an old blues term and song. So it alludes to the fact that we make old school music with a new school style.

“We also hope to bring some light to the fact that San Antonio has a rich blues history and not just a Tejano history,” added Tre who uses legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson as an example of the city’s blues legacy.

Originally recorded in a rough home studio (which moved from the closet to the bathroom to the bedroom), a few of the set’s tracks were recorded as far back as 2001 before being released locally in 2003.

The Mojoe Family Band consists of members Funky Genius, Cooley High, D-Maddness, The Carter, and Nookie Coltrane, and along with Mojo, they’ve wowed local audiences who’ve voted them “Best Hip-Hop Group” for four years in The San Antonio Current newspaper.

classic.ghetto.soul will drop September 12. Check out two tracks from the set and tell us what you think.

AUDIO:

“3rd Coast Anthem” - Windows|Real|Quicktime
“Yesterday” - Windows|Real|Quicktime

Official Mojoe site
Myspace