Mike Mictlan is a native to Southern California and a current proud resident of South Minneapolis. His style has roots in both scenes. In his delivery, he’s a rapper’s rapper and a technician. He can stick fast stuccato runs, flip a pattern, and freestyle long after everyone else has gone to bed. But he’s also a writer who doesn’t shy from big themes and personal narrative.
Mike met the founding members of Doomtree during his junior year in high school. In response to his delinquent streak, Mike’s parents had sent him from their L.A. home to live with his uncle in Minnesota. (No, the Fresh Prince storyline is not lost on us, please save your letters.) Living with his uncle and attending Hopkins High, he met P.O.S, Lazerbeak, MK Larada, and Paper Tiger. Although Mictlan soon returned to L.A., the Doomtree family tree had taken root. As the collective gained momentum in Minneapolis, Mictlan received more and more phone cal...
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Mike Mictlan is a native to Southern California and a current proud resident of South Minneapolis. His style has roots in both scenes. In his delivery, he’s a rapper’s rapper and a technician. He can stick fast stuccato runs, flip a pattern, and freestyle long after everyone else has gone to bed. But he’s also a writer who doesn’t shy from big themes and personal narrative.
Mike met the founding members of Doomtree during his junior year in high school. In response to his delinquent streak, Mike’s parents had sent him from their L.A. home to live with his uncle in Minnesota. (No, the Fresh Prince storyline is not lost on us, please save your letters.) Living with his uncle and attending Hopkins High, he met P.O.S, Lazerbeak, MK Larada, and Paper Tiger. Although Mictlan soon returned to L.A., the Doomtree family tree had taken root. As the collective gained momentum in Minneapolis, Mictlan received more and more phone calls urging him to move to the Midwest. Five years later, he got off a plane with 2 duffel bags and a footlocker, ready to go wherever Doomtree was headed. In his debut collaboration with Lazerbeak, Hand Over Fist, Mictlan employed his understated poetry to epic effect. The album goes by in a pageant of imagery: of fire and flight, long odds and close calls.
A lot has changed since Mike Mictlan released Hand Over Fist, his first full-length album in collaboration with Lazerbeak. He’s played a key role in helping Doomtree, his rap crew for over a decade now, steadily climb into the national spotlight; touring the world over again and again, playing major summer festivals (Lollapalooza, Paid Dues), and winning over critics the likes of Pitchfork, MTV, Spin, and Rolling Stone off of their collaborative 2011 release No Kings.
In October 2014, HELLA FRREAL, the 10-track album featuring Mike’s rapid-fire lyrics over larger-than-life production from Cecil Otter, RedVelvet Beats, 2% Muck, 1990, Mike Frey, JuanL, and Lazerbeak, with guests Greg Grease, Ceschi, and Aby Wolf all along for the ride, was release.
Mictlan has long been known as a spitter; he writes technical patterns and can deliver them at speed. He's also a natural performer--never plainer than when he takes center stage at First Avenue and ignites the entire room with a dance, a look, a gesture--he knows just how long a pause will springload an audience so it's primed to erupt at the next punchline. On HELLA FRREAL we hear the Mike we know, harder and sharper. We hear a new Mike too--we're let behind the curtain for a few earnest moments that were harder to find on his previous releases.
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