The Hip Hop community is mourning the passing of Mtulazaji “P.E.A.C.E.” Davis, a visionary emcee, cultural craftsman, and founding force within the legendary Freestyle Fellowship and Project Blowed movements. Known for his lyrics, voice, and cadence—all charged with dynamism—P.E.A.C.E. moved fluidly between rapid-fire bursts and a smooth Texas drawl, always laced with unmistakable California cool. A fearless improviser and one-man theater of rhyme, he fused mind-bending wordplay with sharp lyricism, often steeped in burn-yo’-shit-down sentimentality. P.E.A.C.E. was a cornerstone of L.A.’s underground, a scene that helped reframe the narrative of West Coast Hip Hop.
More than an emcee, P.E.A.C.E. was a griot: a truth-teller and cultural guardian who used rhythm and rhyme to document history, reflect his reality, and pass knowledge to those coming next. He transitioned on October 24, 2025, at the age of 51, leaving behind a powerful body of work and a legacy that continues to inspire lyricists, and freestylers worldwide. The outpouring of respect and reverence across the Hip Hop community speaks to the depth of his impact.
P.E.A.C.E. rose from the fertile creative soil of South Central Los Angeles, where Hip Hop wasn’t just entertainment—it was a lifeline. In the early ’90s, while commercial radio flooded the airwaves with G-flows, a different current emerged from the Good Life Café, a modest health food store turned open-mic sanctuary. There, young emcees like P.E.A.C.E. reimagined the art form, not by denying the raw truths of their environment, but by elevating the tools used to express them.
The Good Life became an arena for artistic innovation, giving rise to a wave of forward-thinking artists and groups, including Medusa, Of Mexican Descent, Abstract Tribe Unique, Volume 10, The Nonce, Chillin Villain Empire, the Grammy-nominated Skee-Lo, and young members of the Atban Klann, who would later evolve into the Black Eyed Peas. A strict no-cursing policy and high standards for originality pushed artists to sharpen their craft and raise the lyrical bar, leaving an imprint that continues to shape underground scenes today.
This cultural moment is powerfully captured in This Is the Life (2008), a documentary written and directed by Ava DuVernay, herself a former Good Life regular. The film chronicles the brilliance, community, and creative rigor of that era. It was more than a venue—it was a workshop, a proving ground, and a living archive of Black innovation and resistance. For P.E.A.C.E.’s musical genius, it was a perfect home.
As a founding member of Freestyle Fellowship, alongside Aceyalone, Myka 9, and Self Jupiter, P.E.A.C.E. helped redefine the possibilities of Hip Hop. Their landmark debut, To Whom It May Concern… (1991), recently Grammy-nominated for its reissue, was self-released, uncompromising, and urgent. It was a declaration of artistic independence. In addition to the four emcees most often credited, key contributors like J. Sumbi and M.D. Himself helped shape the sound and ethos of the group. All were forged at the Good Life Café and later became pillars of the Project Blowed movement.
Freestyle Fellowship’s follow-up, Innercity Griots (1993), is widely hailed as one of the greatest underground Hip Hop albums of all time. With polyrhythmic flows, layered narratives, black empowerment and spiritual depth, it offered a blueprint for generations of emcees searching for something more profound than surface-level storytelling.
While his work with Fellowship was foundational, P.E.A.C.E. also carved out a lane entirely his own. His 2000 debut Southern Fry’d Chicken captured the raw spontaneity of his live presence—humorous, densely packed, and rhythmically complex. He followed with Megabite in 2004, a deeper dive into abstraction and introspection. Though not widely known in the mainstream, both albums are respected in underground circles for their originality and fearlessness. They were not made for easy listening, and that was never the point. P.E.A.C.E. wasn’t about convenience. He was about exploration.
He stood out for his voice—both literal and artistic. His verses bent time, language, and expectation, delivered with sharp humor, a jazz musician’s ear, and a poet’s command of phrasing. His flow was shape-shifting and unpredictable, yet always in control.
What truly set P.E.A.C.E. apart was his presence; his technical skills. His ability to stack syllables, flip cadences, and pivot mid-bar was legendary. But it was how he embodied the moment that made him unforgettable. When he stepped into a cipher, he didn’t just rhyme. He opened a channel. His freestyles were more than routines. They were rituals—acts of communion between rhythm, breath, and divine timing.
To witness P.E.A.C.E. rhyme was to see someone channel the unknown, summoning bars from the ether with the ease others draw breath. He freestyled with tone, gesture, and energy as much as with words. His performance was a kind of intense meditation, a surrender to the now. Even if you never met him, the lesson was clear—in every grainy video, battle tape, or bootleg freestyle. He taught through presence, courage, and craft.
He wasn’t just a rapper. He was a messenger of vocal style. A cultural artisan grounded in values that birthed Hip Hop: truth, expression, community, resistance, joy, and discipline. He thought differently, moved differently, rapped differently. He never watered down his vision for mass appeal. He never chased industry relevance. And yet, his presence echoed in ciphers around the world. In every spontaneous verse where language is honored over volume and soul outweighs trend, his influence lives on.
In just 51 years, P.E.A.C.E. came through, broke ground, and transcended, leaving behind an impeccable body of work and a constellation of song features and freestyle cipher memories. Without question, we’ll be digging back through archives, dusty tapes, and scattered uploads, still chasing the rhyme lessons he left behind.
But we can no longer catch this Master of Ceremonies live. With that mischievous grin you can hear in his recordings, P.E.A.C.E. mockingly reminds us: “You’re out of time — I’m already gone… Already.”
In the spirit of 206 Zulu and our mission to uplift the artists and architects who shaped this culture, honoring those who stood in the cipher—today, we remember P.E.A.C.E.
Rest easy, emcee.
You can donate to support P.E.A.C.E.’s family here.
An epilogue: Mic Still Warm
For me, and for many, one of P.E.A.C.E.’s most unforgettable public moments came at Scribble Jam 1999, then one of the most respected freestyle battle tournaments in the country. That year, he faced off against two formidable emcees: Dose One and later Eyedea, in battles that would become etched into the collective memory of freestyle heads everywhere. Eyedea ultimately took the crown, but everyone knew the most dynamic clashes happened on the road to the top.
That’s where two future friends, P.E.A.C.E. and Dose One, went head-to-head. Here’s the play-by-play:
The crowd? Electric.
The DJ drops the needle on Gang Starr’s “Full Clip.”
The stage? Set.
In his battle against Dose One, P.E.A.C.E. put his full mastery on display: the lyricism, the theater, the good medicine. Those who’ve witnessed his freestyles often say he had a way of ramping up — strategically, intentionally — envisioning the end of the verse before the first bar even dropped.
And from the jump, his strategy was clear.
Knowing Dose One was a fan of West Coast underground, P.E.A.C.E. threw the first jab:
“…You’re not Busdriver…”
Invoking one of Project Blowed’s fastest and most unorthodox emcees.
He planted the seed. Then closed his round with a smirking challenge:
“You been standing up here, doing what you done did, all this first round rap… (pause) it ain’t shit. I’ma save mine for later, just to explode — so come with that old fast rap so I can take it out of control.”
Dose One took the bait.
Matching pace for pace, he dove straight into P.E.A.C.E.’s terrain — rapid, intricate, breathless.
At the time, Dose was riding high with the Anticon collective — a crew known for eating emcees in battles and redefining the edges of experimental Hip Hop. He held his ground, then capped his verse with a theatrical jab:
“…kiss my ass.”
But by then, it was clear:
P.E.A.C.E. wasn’t just battling — he was tracking Dose One.
Setting tempo. Laying traps. Commanding the energy.
He wasn’t just in the cipher.
He was holding the fire.
His second round?
Part comedy. Part commentary. Part performance art.
Rhyming at near-incomprehensible speed, he absorbed Dose’s energy and flipped it — then dropped this line:
“Listen to me man, I can do it on American Bandstand, I can do it without a band, I can do it without a mic in my hand…”
And then —
He threw down the mic. Rapping loudly so the audience could hear:
“…and I can still keep rapping, and keep fucking you up.”
The crowd erupted.
He picked the mic back up without missing a beat. Still rhyming.
A few bars later, he pointed into the crowd and told Dose One he belonged.
“I don’t think so…(inaudible) … the birds in the trees…”
“…leave you lying on your back like this G!”
And then —
Boom.
P.E.A.C.E. dips flat onto his back.
Arms and legs sprawled and lifeless.
The room exploded.
Dose One’s face said it all — part disbelief, part joy.
He knew he was in the presence of something rare.
And then — P.E.A.C.E. got up.
Dusted himself off.
Mic steady.
Rhyme unbroken.
It was a masterclass
in timing,
vulnerability,
and command.
Irreverent.
Instinctive.
Alive.
He showed us
what it looks like
when irreverent art
and spirit
meet onstage.
Now, in the light of his passing,
that moment feels transformed.
What once felt like performance
now reads like poetry.
A metaphor for life.
The mic drops.
The body falls.
And yet —
the flow continues.
That moment
was a kind of surrender.
A reminder
that sometimes,
not even a microphone
can hold the weight
of what we carry.
P.E.A.C.E. gave his whole body
to the moment —
and kept flowing
to the next world.
Respect.
Sources:
- Complex – Hip-Hop Legend P.E.A.C.E. of Freestyle Fellowship Passes Away
https://www.complex.com/music/a/markelibert/hip-hop-legend-peace-of-freestyle-fellowship-passes-away - HipHopWired – Hip-Hop Mourns Passing of Freestyle Fellowship’s P.E.A.C.E.
https://hiphopwired.com/playlist/hip-hop-mourns-passing-freestyle-fellowship-p-e-a-c-e/ - HotNewHipHop – P.E.A.C.E. of Freestyle Fellowship Passes Away
https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/955035-peace-freestyle-fellowship-passes-away-hip-hop-news - NewsBreak / Complex Syndication – Hip-Hop Legend P.E.A.C.E. Dead, Group Confirms
https://www.newsbreak.com/complex-312611388/4315572179557-hip-hop-legend-p-e-a-c-e-of-freestyle-fellowship-dead-group-confirms - Yahoo! News (UK) – Hip-Hop Legend P.E.A.C.E. Has Died
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/hip-hop-legend-p-e-223445690.html - Lipstick Alley Discussion Thread – Community responses to the announcement
https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/hip-hop-legend-p-e-a-c-e-of-freestyle-fellowship-dead-group-confirms.6010647/ - MSN Music – Hip-Hop Legend P.E.A.C.E. Dead, Group Confirms
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/hip-hop-legend-peace-of-freestyle-fellowship-dead-group-confirms/ar-AA1Pf5f9 - Suggest.com – ’90s Rap Favorite Has Died: Group Announces Death of P.E.A.C.E.
https://www.suggest.com/a-90s-rap-favorite-has-died-group-announces-death-of-p-e-a-c-e/2903199/ - Tribune Content Agency – Syndicated obituary
https://rss.tribunecontentagency.com/websvc-bin/rss_story_read.cgi?resid=202510271834TMS_____COVMEDIA_article_1692861_0_20251027 - Pitchfork – Freestyle Fellowship Rapper P.E.A.C.E. Has Died
https://pitchfork.com/news/freestyle-fellowship-rapper-peace-has-died/ - AllHipHop – Hip-Hop Mourns Freestyle Fellowship Rapper P.E.A.C.E.
https://allhiphop.com/news/hip-hop-mourns-freestyle-fellowship-rapper-p-e-a-c-e/ - Siccness.net – P.E.A.C.E. of Freestyle Fellowship Has Passed Away
https://www.siccness.net/wp/p-e-a-c-e-of-freestyle-fellowship-has-passed-away - iNews Zoombangla – Freestyle Fellowship Co-Founder P.E.A.C.E. Dies, Leaving Legacy in Underground Hip Hop
https://inews.zoombangla.com/freestyle-fellowship-co-founder-p-e-a-c-e-dies-leaving-legacy-in-underground-hip-hop/ - PEACE vs Eyedea (Scribble Jam 1999) – Reddit archive/discussion
https://www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/92w28j/eyedea_vs_peace_scribble_jam_1999/ - PEACE vs Dose One (Scribble Jam 1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FlITr1z_8M&list=RD4FlITr1z_