With mainstream appeal, surgical precision, and unshakable crew love, Mike Mictlan is an unparalleled force in the underground. His live show is a spectacle of sweat and laughter and fury and communion. You could search every venue in every city, but you will not find an emcee in rap music with more heart than Mike Mictlan. No hype, just a simple guarantee. He believes in the music, the movement, and in his crew of friends. To see him in person, and to hear his voice, makes it hard not to believe it too.

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. In his latest collaboration with Lazerbeak, Hand Over Fist, Mictlan employs his understated poetry to epic effect. The album goes by in a pageant of imagery: of fire and flight, long odds and close calls.

Mike met the founding members of Doomtree during his junior year in high school. In response to his deliquent 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.

Mictlan now tours with the group and as a solo performer, making converts and fans in every city.