Before deciding to form a collective, DJs Rob, Wido, Sabbo, and Shimmy Sonic were each respected in their own right in their native Israel. DJ Rob, born Eyal Rob, was also a respected music writer and blogger in Israel, and Shimmy Sonic (Michael Emet, also known as Shimi Sonic) taught sound design at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel's national school of art, while DJ Wido (Ido Saar), was also a writer who went to work for VP Records in the early 2000s, and Sabbo (Ronen Sabbo) was Mad Decent's Tel Aviv correspondent, leaving briefly to work in Jamaica with Stephen and Damien Marley. Together, though, known as Soulico, they began to throw weekly parties in Tel Aviv, which soon got big enough that they released a mixtape, Masabacha, in 2004. Masabacha,, which mixed hip-hop with traditional Israeli songs, brought the group attention around the Middle East, as well as from Aaron Bisman, co-founder of New-York's JDub Records, who was so impressed by what he heard that he tracked down the group and quickly signed them. Soulico released their debut full-length, Exotic on the Speaker, which featured vocals from Rye Rye, Pigeon John, Del tha Funky Homosapien, Ceci Bastide, and Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface in the fall of 2009. ~ Marisa Brown