#Mike sixpress

[lord-kurama]

And another one

[dbthe]

War In My Pen x MIKE

Alt Cover by Z

[kristinpowell]

A blessed night in Queens by Kristin Powell

2017 

[defjux]

How you feel about earl's new album?

I think it’s incredible. Definitely a top album of the year for me, and exactly what i had hoped for/expected after hearing the recent loose tracks & everything that he’s been performing live. Earl seems hyper-focused on this concept of brevity, whittling down his music into the most potent and concise form that he possible can to make the most of his time. I also appreciate the way the album is structured/sequenced too, and how each track transitions into the next before any idea or thought is able outstay its welcome. There’s an immediacy to SRS that I really dig, and he’s managed to fit more into 25 minutes than a lot of artists are able to do with albums twice that length. No fat to trim, minimal filler, barely any hooks - just raw, honest raps over these warped, hypnotic jazz & soul loops, amounting to an album so densely packed that it seems much longer than it actually is. Really don’t want to ramble too much here but one thing i noticed that I wanted to comment on - Earl touches on the inevitability of death or “sand falling out the hourglass” at multiple points on here. That’s morbid enough on it’s own, but learning that the album, aside from the last two songs, has been done since last year & was meant to help him reconcile with his father who passed away before getting the chance to hear it makes the whole thing even more haunting. Not to draw a direct comparison or anything, but the last album I heard that ended with such a lack of closure was Has-Lo’s “In Case I Don’t Make It” from 2011.Honestly I haven’t paid too much attention to how the record was received, but from what i have seen a lot of the criticism (even some of the praise) towards the album regarding the mixing seems to be coming from people who aren’t aware that lofi hip hop even exists or what the appeal of it is. Personally I wouldn’t change anything about the record sonically though, and I really don’t see why anyone who is familiar with the artists Earl’s been building with/influenced by (MIKE, Medhane, Mach, Navy Blue, Sixpress, KNX, Dilla, DOOM, Madlib, etc) would be surprised that SRS sounds the way it does. Overall I love the album, can’t really think of any complaints at the moment aside from wishing some of the unreleased songs that have been floating around for a while, possibly hat trick, mothership, zelda’s lullaby, or head heavy, made on here but that’s about it.

[cruisinwithjah]

BLACK HISTORY MONTH MIX / HOUSEHOLD MIX VOL.2 FT : MIKE, SIXPRESS, RASHEED DIXON by SLUMS NYC on #SoundCloud

[cenonyc-blog]

SLUMS

SLUMS

Brooklyn’s own sLUms features MIKE, Darryl, Ade and King Carter, making honest music about the people around them every day. 

Name: Mike

Age: 18

From: I stay in Brooklyn

“i make raps and beats”

Name: Ade Sayyed AKA Sixpress

Age: 19

From: The Bronx

“I am working on being humble“

Name: Derrick

Age: 21

From: Brooklyn, NY

“I am simply working on creating a better world not only for myself but for others.“

Name: Rueben

Age: 19

From: Live in Chelsea

“I make noise and stay lowkey“

Name: Darryl 

Age: 19

From: Brooklyn

“i got the glock...Nah jk im a producer”

[musicisthelife]

Rare photo of Earl, MIKE, and Medhane (taken by Sixpress / Adé posted on his twitter, link in comments) via https://www.reddit.com/r/HipHopImages/comments/cee6gs/rare_photo_of_earl_mike_and_medhane_taken_by/?utm_source=ifttt

[nate-sims]

MIKE - ten toes prod. sixpress

[tinymixtapes]

Column: Favorite Rap Mixtapes of November & December 2018

With a cascade of releases spewing from the likes of DatPiff, LiveMixtapes, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud, it can be difficult to keep up with the overbearing yet increasingly vital mixtape game. In this column, we aim to immerse ourselves in this hyper-prolific world and share our favorite releases each month. The focus will primarily be on rap mixtapes — loosely defined here as free (or sometimes free-to-stream) digital releases — but we’ll keep things loose enough to branch out if/when we feel it necessary. (Check out October’s installment here.) Soooooo many dope mixtapes these past two months that even as TMT’s year-end coverage wrapped up like gifts bursting from Santa’s sack, our squad still jumped at the chance to pile on some final blurbs of 2018 before the ball-drop. “Overbearing?” Maybe. “Hyper-prolific?” Definitely. Multiple puns in that first sentence? Two for the price of one, hon. To that, before we get into our November and December favs, here are some “honorable mentions” that didn’t get a write-up below but are no less deserving of a spin this New Year’s Eve: Semiratruth - WAIT!, Demahjiae - Ghetto Blessings, SPNDA x Kae Tea - Mosaic EP Lil Durk - Signed to the Streets 3, City Girls - Girl Code, The Diplomats - Diplomatic Ties, Roc Marciano - Pimpstrumentals, Grimm Doza & SpaceGhostPurrp - The Haunting in New Jersey, Wiardon - Numba1Viktim, Chris Crack - Just Gimme A Minute and Thanks Uncle Trill, Bloodmoney Perez - Time is a Motherfucker, CL King - Waiting 4, and Defcee - A Mixtape As God Intended, Vol. 1 … also, three (!!!) Young Thug leaks. –Samuel Diamond --- Red Daughter, Trap Funk & Alivio - Red Funk Alivio 2 [STREAM] It’s mixtapes like this one that have us quietly missing the days when the word “rap” wasn’t in this column’s title. W/o wasting too many words justifying this tape’s inclusion, let’s just say rap is a big part of it. But so too are Afrocentrism, feminism, indigenous pride, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Brazil, baile funk, Jersey club, house, footwork, and many more elements than an admittedly limited worldview can readily identify. One hesitates to revisit clichés like the dance after the revolt or “if this doesn’t get you moving, you’re already dead,” but, well, while Google Translate tells us that alivio is Portuguese for relief, our ears, eyes, and noses tell us that the club is flooding with oppressor blood. If you missed the first drop, catch up. –Samuel Diamond --- Tommy Genesis - Tommy Genesis [STREAM] We the undersigned/unwashed jabberers at TMT have a tastynasty habit of measuring years out in loosely-themed song mixes. I bet some super astute comment section glob thinks it’s an arbitrary habit. I humbly submit that when we cycle artifacts through a series of spaces, patterns emerge. Assumptions get split. Moods and usages cross and swerve. The exceptional artifacts fit every space. Tommy Genesis, the Vancouver rapper’s debut album, pumps blood and caresses muscles like GYM, cycles want until it subsumes self, a party in the VOID. “Drive” flecks acoustic strings at the CLIFF’s edge and Charlie Heat’s ballast production on “Play With It” turns the ALLEY concave, sends come-on invocations city-wide, supercharged fuel for the COUPE. Tommy Genesis sounds like a whole damn year — wanting more is loving living. –Frank Falisi --- Peewee Longway - State of the Art [STREAM] A glaring omission from our Favorite Cover Art feature (putting him at two for the year), State of the Art finds Peewee Longway rapping as well as he ever has, retaining his distinctive style while adapting to the ever-evolving sound of the moment. Longway’s sound has always tracked the mainstream not directly but as a point of divergence; while likely not distinct enough to make him anyone’s absolute favorite rapper, he’s well-positioned for the reliable production of quality, personable raps. State of the Art is split between showpieces for relatively stock guest spots from the likes Gucci or members of Migos, and far more idiosyncratic one-offs; “Lets Be Real” (with Maxo Kream) is a Molly anthem reminiscent of some of Longway’s stranger inclinations, while “Top of the Bank” marries an Otis Redding interpolation and a cooing, celebratory hook without either seeming out of place. Longway’s more likely to retire from rap (yet again) than blow up any time soon, but State of the Art is more than enough proof that the roundest rapper working has got plenty left to give. –Corrigan B --- Adé Hakim - On To Better Things [STREAM · DOWNLOAD] In a year of SlumsNYC triumphalism — see the series of landmark releases by navy blue, King Carter, MIKE et al., culminating with Earl Sweatshirt’s Some Rap Songs — Adé Hakim a.k.a. Sixpress has been like a silent partner to the movement. Featured on most of the aforementioned and having released a couple of short but no less notable mixtapes on his own this year, Hakim closes out an already-headway-making 2018 with his most complete and progressive work to date in the aptly titled On To Better Things. Low-key, high-impact beats, rhymes, and life insights from the birthplace of hip-hop coalesce here in a freely collective but clearly self-defined gestalt. Where do we go from this? Just listen. –Samuel Diamond --- AJ Suede - Darth Sueder II: Goth Marciano [STREAM] Don’t let your current intake of “lo-fi” hip-hop begin and end with Earl’s latest album. Rapper/Producer AJ Suede has perfected his own take on the subgenre with his latest tape, Darth Sueder II, chopping lightly treated soul samples to set his seasick verses adrift on a lemon-lime sea. What he’s doing sonically isn’t boundary-breaking or avant-garde, but his ear for memorable loops that settle into the backdrop is impeccable. On “Lovable,” a meandering organ shuffles against hi-hats that eke out what should be an un-rappable rhythm; somehow, though, it’s the perfect vehicle for Suede to wax romantic about autumn leaves before launching into asides about gentrification and white people who are too quick to call the cops. Ideas are scattered throughout the brief tracks, but each one’s focused, bridged by some of my favorite punchlines in recent memory (“I was in that county fair/ Like that kid apparently.”) If you’re not scared off by references to esoteric Christianity and MK ULTRA, give Goth Marciano a spin — it’s a fresh take on minimalistic East Coast hip-hop, especially for someone often entrenched in the distorted cloud rap favored by his brethren in the Underground Dust Funk collective. –Jude Noel --- Big Twins - Grimey Life [STREAM] Although Big Twins f.k.a. Twin Gambino has experienced something of a second life thanks to today’s boom-bap revival, one need look no further than the guestlist on this tape to recognize his Infamous Mobb credentials. In addition to features from fellow Infamous rappers Godfather Pt. 3 and Ty Nitty, as well as Mobb affiliate Big Noyd, Grimey Life includes a posthumous appearance by Prodigy, which finds the late icon far from phoning it in, with lines such as “I handle bars like lifers or motocross bikers.” For those keeping track, Havoc also lends a verse (to Knxwledge-produced eulogy “Memories”), and The Alchemist produces the fittingly ghostly “Phantom of the Opera.” In spite of these bigger names and many other features, the project is first and foremost a product of Big Twins whose often imitated but never duplicated voice remains the unmistakable audio definition of grime — inflicted pain inflected. –Samuel Diamond --- Bbymutha - Muthaz Day 3 [STREAM] The cover art of Muthaz Day 3 is a photo of Bbymutha with her two sets of twins all dressed in red robes, surrounded by candles and sitting on what appears to be a pentagram. You’re in her domain now. Welcome to a world full of sinister instrumentals and trap beats that slither underneath the Chattanooga rapper’s spellbinding flow; a world where a single mom with two sets of twins doesn’t have to be bound by the traditional ideas of what a parent should or shouldn’t be; a world where confidence is the lifeblood of all things. On Muthaz Day 3, Bbymutha continues to champion her independence and forge ahead on a path that she’s laying brick by brick, all by herself. –Sam Tornow --- DaBoii - Neva Lookin Back [STREAM] We should be thankful that this was even made into a playlist. For a little over two years, the members of Bay Area juggernaut SOB X RBE have operated as an essentially YouTube-only outfit; while enjoyable, both recent albums (GANGIN and GANGIN II) scan more as fulfillments of label obligations than as faithful documents of the group’s most essential, often online-only work. As obsessives were left to parse the steady stream of loosies from individual members and all possible combinations thereof, there were few safer bets than a DaBoii solo track. DaBoii raps with purist appeal, his style a charismatic but unornamented amalgam of the Bay’s long history of singular rap figures. The videos, courtesy directors Tyler Casey and BGIGGZ, are often as entertaining as the songs themselves; Neva Lookin Back corrals three of DaBoii’s best from the past year (“Ridin’,” “Onna Gang,” and “Sum it Up”) alongside a further nine new tracks, offering an imperfect but better-than-nothing document of DaBoii’s 2018. Still, it’s probably best to rip your own copy of this while you still can. –Corrigan B --- Curren$y, Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist (Fetti?) - Fetti (Roma?) [STREAM] A tangential anecdote that bears repeating: in a recent interview, rapper Milo reminisced about driving around Chicago with rapper Serengeti, listening to Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s Piñata, which Milo recalled inspired ‘Geti to say, “I don’t know if it gets better than this.” Word. Although pairing with the Mad Liberator might’ve made Gibbs your favorite rappers’ favorite rapper, heads have been waiting for a Gibbs-Curren$y-Alchemist album since the trio first came together on 2011’s “Scottie Pippen.” Thankfully, Fetti does not disappoint nor does it rest on the laurels that the three artists have received independently of each other in the seven years since. Which brings us to another point not yet fully addressed in this tape’s coverage to date: none of the three artists’ names appear on the cover, yet the word “Roma” does, leading one to believe that it might in fact be the title to this, the first release by a rap supergroup named Fetti. Fingers crossed, lighters up. –Samuel Diamond --- Warhol.ss - Chest Pains [STREAM] Has it really been two and a half years since Warhol.ss dropped “Speed Racer?” Although it feels like little time has passed since the Chicago emcee broke into the SoundCloud mainstream, the platform’s predominant ethos has experienced so much change it’s easy to forget the potential that brief track packed. Surfing Brentrambo’s undulant percussion, Warhol.ss stood out with a gruff cadence and unflinching confidence that offset the bubblegum aesthetic that overtook 2016. Despite a handful of collaborations with tastemakers Pi’erre Bourne and Cole Bennett, he’s yet to recreate his initial brilliance — an understandably difficult feat for someone so ahead of their time. On Chest Pains, we find Warhol.ss exploring the lanes that lead him back to prominence: he’s at his most accessible muttering plosive-tinged one-liners on the Kenny Beats-produced “Bird’s Nest,” but “War Ready” proves to be the tape’s most fascinating venture. Kick drums stumble over bars as Warhol lines the off-kilter rhythm with a nimble collage of triplet flows. It’s difficult to wrap your head around, but it’s hypnotic if you can. This new crop of cuts doesn’t include an obvious hit, but it does appear to be a step toward something greater. Trust the process. –Jude Noel --- Black Josh - Yung Sweg Lawd [STREAM] Is it acute homesickness or latent agoraphobia that causes some people to become physically ill every time they leave their old stomping grounds? Or maybe just plain, ordinary travelers sickness? My brother, who works in an airport, told me that a few months back a flight touched down with every passenger and crew member sick, like vomiting sick… quarantine sick. Yung Sweg Lawd is that sick, bro. It’s dark. Absent a better frame of reference (my fault), it’s Wu-Tang on Tim Westwood in the 90s, blacked out, using the words “dark” and “horrible” as slang praise, having likely just learned it. Pharma-grade smoke clouds billowing like factory stacks, it’s the acid rain; Black Josh a climate-change centaur moving (in) packs. –Samuel Diamond --- The-Dream - Ménage à Trois: Sextape Vol. 1, 2, 3 [STREAM] Weird times that we’re living in when an artist can release a three-volume, 42-song mixtape and it’s not anticipated or received as their magnum opus. In fact, I don’t even think that R&B heavyweight The-Dream announced Ménage à Trois beforehand beyond hinting that he was working on something. Thus Ménage à Trois, thematically billed as a three-part “sex tape,” with album art to match, lands as another long project from another major artist (which is the standard in The Age of Streaming), but it’s one worth sifting through if you like R&B even just a little bit. Singers-turned-rappers and/or rappers-turned-singers are a dime a dozen nowadays (i.e., that Drizzy-/Ty Dolla-esque hybrid style, which, make no mistake, I do enjoy), which is to say: for all the suave-crooning purists like myself, R&B proper has seen better days on the charts. Luckily, The-Dream gives us 2.5 hours of sultry singing (mostly) sans rap harmonies here while still delivering much stylistic variety. Think The Weeknd’s Trilogy except every song is about sex, with a modus operandi that overall seems to be downtempo and lush. Dig through this behemoth until you find something to cuddle up with — there’s bound to be stuff you’ll have on repeat. –Alex Brown --- Boosie Badazz - Boosie Blues Cafe [STREAM] From the Thanksgiving release date (announced two days prior) to its very concept, the actual existence of Boosie Blues Cafe was far from certain until the moment we had it in our hands. Not that expectations were tempered to match, of course. While not “bluesy,” per se, the cathartic baring of the soul has always factored heavily into Boosie’s work; he’s the man with a song for everything, a Baton Rouge legend off his ability to speak directly to the city’s youth. The prospect of him stepping fully into the region’s other musical tradition, then, was immensely appealing, if less out of optimism than sheer curiosity. It works OK — with the exception of absolute slapper “I Know How to Have a Good Time,” most of the tracks are identifiably Boosiean to a fault; Boosie’s got such a long history of rapping this stuff in a compelling way that translating it to a blues idiom can feel a bit rote. A worthwhile experiment, however; Boosie’s passion projects are by default a thousand times more interesting than someone else’s re-hashing of the very crowded Rap Caviar lane. –Corrigan B --- Sir E.U - Merry christmas my nigga! / Thc / To This Day / Cries for help [MCMN · THC · TTD · CFH] Earlier this year, I was talking to an artist who shall remain nameless about the inclusion in this column of a tape by another artist who shall remain nameless. The artist I was kibitzing with took issue with the included work, saying something to the effect of “If you throw enough shit at the wall, eventually some will stick, but that doesn’t mean it’s any good,” which is more than fair. To be honest, my understanding of noise sets and DJing in general isn’t nearly adroit enough to tell if Sir E.U’s massive output over the last two weeks is an example of the aforementioned criticism or of a mix master purposely and methodically laying waste to two-turntable fundamentals. Either way, though, the shit bangs. And the sheer quantity of his year-end sound dump is something to behold. Dig in. –Samuel Diamond http://j.mp/2GM5GfC

[fornowrecords]

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

[ricardosousalemos]

Sixpress: “thats how thats why” [ft. MIKE]

Sixpress is a member of sLUms, a clique of young rappers recasting underground New York hip-hop in their own DIY vision

[likewater-radio]

"MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE" -- Album art by Sage Elsesser https://mikelikesrap.bandcamp.com/album/may-god-bless-your-hustle ~ MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE 1) Somebody Please (prod. Slum Rugglers) 2) Hunger (prod. Navy Blue & Austin Williamson) 3) Armor (prod. Navy Blue) 4) Pigeonfeet (prod. MIKE & Slum Rugglers) 5) GREED w/ Standing on the Corner 6) GREEDY ft Jesse Brotter (prod. MIKE) 7) 100% ft King Carter (prod. Sixpress) 8) FOREVERFINDFLIGHT (prod. Sixpress) 9) BRICK BLUES (prod. Sixpress) 10) 10k ft. Joygill Moriah (prod. Sixpress) 11) STANDOUT ft. Wiki & Chip Skylark (prod. Tony Seltzer) 12) Paul ft. Johnny U (prod. Tony Seltzer) 13) A Walking Harlem ft King Carter (prod. MIKE) 14) Years/Alone (prod. MIKE) 15) Victory Lab ft. King Carter & Mal Devisa (prod. MIKE) 16) Rockbottom / Peace to Come (prod. MIKE) special thanks to mama, my papa, my sisters, isaac, max, nicky, jesse, max bucks, thebe, sage, christine, boolie, king, ade, joygill, aint-wet, medhane, standing on the corner, mal, epton, letter racer, ecdub and all of yall who have been there for me and shown me what it means to be in a community. I love and appreciate yall, I promise its all for yall.

[tapesoul]

https://soundcloud.com/wastedareas/black-history-month-mix-household-mix-vol2-ft-mike-sixpress-rasheed-dixon

[defjux]

since so many people seemed to appreciate the giant list of a producers i posted a couple weeks ago after someone asked me for recommendations, i figured it would only make sense for me to post one for rappers as well. i didn’t want to make it too long so i intentionally left out some artists who are more well known, or that haven’t been active lately, but it still ended up being pretty long so i apologize to anyone who is inconvenienced by this appearing on their dash. hope this doesn’t discourage people from sharing it, ha. anyway, here’s a bunch of the current hip hop artists/groups that i check for.  clicking an artists name will take you directly to their bandcamp page so you can download/preview/purchase their music. i even bolded some of my favorites. hope you find something here that resonates with you. have a great day, peace. A7PHA (Mestizo & Doseone) Airospace Al.Divino Armand Hammer (Billy Woods & Elucid) Awon Beans (of Antipop Consortium) Big Kahuna OG Blu Brothaz Bent (aka Arch Druids) Busdriver Cappo Captain Murphy (Flying Lotus) Cavalier Chester Watson Children Of Zeus Chris Crack Cities Aviv Clipping. Codenine CRASHprez Crimeapple Cunabear Cunninlynguists Curly Castro CZARFACE (Esoteric & Inspectah Deck) Dälek Daniel Son Danny Watts Deca Defcee Denmark Vessey deM atlaS Deniro Farrar Diamond District (Oddisee, yU, & Uptown XO) The Difference Machine Dillon Distantstarr Dope KNife Doppelgangaz Earth Gang Ed Scissortongue Emay Epidemic Estee Nack Fly Anakin & Koncept Jack$on Freddie Gibbs Ghettosocks Googie (of Karma Kids) Grandmilly  Hail Mary Mallon (Aesop Rock & Rob Sonic) Has-lo Henry Canyons H.I.S.D. Homeboy Sandman Ichiban Hashface Illingsworth Illogic Injury Reserve Insight Ivan Ave Jalal Salaam Jakprogresso Jam Baxter Jean Grae Jehst Jeremiah Jae J.I.D. Jonwayne JPEGMAFIA J’von Ka K.A.A.N Kashmere (of Strange U) Kemba Koreatown Oddity Kool A.D. Lamon Manuel Lando Chill Lee Scott LeZeppo LoDeck lojii Lorde Fredd33 Louis Mackey Lucid Optics Lukey Cage Lushlife Lute Mach-Hommy Mattic MC Paul Barman Medhane Melanin9 Metasota Methuzalah Michael Christmas Michael Millions Mick Jenkins MidaZ The BEAST MIKE Milo (Nostrum Grocers w/ Elucid) MindsOne Moka Only Moodie Black Moor Mother Moses Rockwell Mr. Key Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire Navy Blue Nickelus F Nnamdi Ogbonnaya Nocando Nolan The Ninja Noname Noveliss (of Clear Soul Forces) Onry Ozzborn (of Dark Time Sunshine / Grayskul) Open Mike Eagle Ozay Moore Paranom Pete Flux Phonte (of Little Brother) Pink Siifu P.O.S (of Doomtree) Premrock Quelle Chris Red Pill (of Ugly Heroes) Roc Marciano Rozewood Sammus Sampa The Great Sean Shakespeare Secret Circle (Wiki, Lil Ugly Mane, & Antwon) Serengeti Shabazz Palaces Shad Shahmen Shirt (aka T-shirt) Signor Benedick the Moor Sixpress Skech185 (of Tomorrow Kings / War Church) Skyzoo Spark Master Tape Stik Figa Tanya Morgan (Donwill and Von Pea) Teknical Development.IS (of Obba Supa and Omniverses) Thavius Beck Thirtyseven (aka Wombaticus Rex aka Humpasaur Jones) Tom Scott (@peace, Home Brew, Average Rap Band) Tree Uncommon Nasa Unsung Versis Vic Spencer Wally Clark Willie Evans Jr Yikes The Zero Your Old Droog Yugen Blakrok Zeroh (Holy Smoke w/ Jeremiah Jae) Zilla Rocca

[7eventytwo]

Talking with MIKE from [sLUms] after an incredible performance at 7eventytwo’s first show of the 5-borough tour at Silent Barn in Brooklyn.

Hey Mike, you and the whole [sLUms] family are natural born performers. How do you personally get in the mindset to perform? Do you psyche yourself up or just take the energy available at the given moment?  

It's always weird getting in front of people and performing live, I get these really weird butterflies in my stomach. It's a really nasty ass feeling. I perform best when I got my friends and family with me, they help me calm down a lot. Before I perform I always try to just remember who i'm doing it for and put my heart in it and from there i just get lost in it you know.

When you’re lost in it, are you still the same Mike you woke up as, or have you become a different persona on stage called MIKE?

Mike and MIKE are the same people, just like I'm really shy when i’m not on stage or if I’m not rapping so like being on stage or recording always gives me my time to be confident and I want people to feel how I feel for once you know?

For sure. The other thing about your live performances that has always interested us is the way you all feed off each other.  On Valentines day you were in the front row rocking out to 6press and his incredibly emotional / charismatic performance. You knew you were going to have to follow that up and to top it off have Jazz Jodi coming up right after you with a killer set of his own. On some level that must be difficult. It’s clear you guys have such a positive supportive vibe with each other. It makes everyone on the outside really get behind you, but I’m still wondering if you also feel competitive with each other. Is there an aspect of one-upmanship to your group performances?

Sixpress did like the most beautiful performance I ever seen him do and it’s because it came from his heart and his true intentions you know. It was really heart-felt, and i don't think its ever about someone doing better than the other. We do group sets to show that this is for all of us. To show people what [sLUms] is even though we represent it as individuals. I think it's okay to say that we all feel different things but we have a gift when it comes to how we say it and our spirits are just aligned. It's definitely a more feeding off each other type of thing then competitive. Like when bad energy is there, I always do a crappy set just cause it throws me off terribly. Also, Sixpress, Booliemane, Jazz Jodi, King Carter and DJ Masoon are like my brothers. We've gone through some embarrassing ass moments, super struggling moments and mad good ones. We all been through a lot together. We became brothers beyond music, like we genuinely got love for each other.

You’ve been getting some attention lately in the mainstream music press. We saw you in the New Yorker and Pitchfork in the same month.  Has that changed anything for you?

Yeah, it definitely changed a lot. Really quick. Attention is cool but sometimes it can be overwhelming, especially when it’s not asked for or expected. I appreciate it though, I can definitely see my life changing for the better. People change all the time so it really doesn't mean anything to me, I just didn't like when people were acting like I was doing something new. Like, I been working this hard, been putting in this much from the start. People like to act as if they didn't know, but it’s whatever. Shoutouts to the writer who fucked with me heavy though, I appreciate it a lot man.

I know we were thrilled to see you get some recognition that you clearly deserve.  It was cool for us to learn more about Silent Barn at the last 7eventytwo show, they are a collectivist venue without bosses and so their decision-making process was pretty fascinating.  What about [sLUms]? You guys are a collective too, right?  How do you make group decisions?

We don't really have a position of powers, the whole idea is to be collaborative. We're like brothers besides music. We probably spend more time bonding than we do making music, but it all counts at the end. We bond and the music gets better, you know? We go through disagreements but we believe in each other and everybody's insight so we've never really taken a loss when it comes to that. We have deep discussions a lot about how we wanna go about things.

In the [sLUms] documentary you said it takes a village to raise a boy, and [sLUms] is your village, but it seems like when it comes to [sLUms] its more like it takes a village to raise a village. What do you think?

Yeah it’s definitely like that, or it’s just like building a house. You gotta start with a foundation and the different pieces of the houses have to connect in order to be strong. We all learn from each-other and use each others resources to grow.

Are [sLUms] are growing in number? How would you decide to take in another member?  

Nah, [sLUms] isn't growing in numbers. People who book shows and write about us always try and add extra people into the group. It's me, SIXPRESS, KING CARTER, BOOLIEMANE, DJ MASOON, JAZZ JODI. I doubt we're gonna have any new members.  

How did you guys come together in the first place?

We all just met through each other like one by one. I met Ade on Soundcloud and we found we live like one street away from each other and just started kicking it from there. King and Boolie I went to High-School with and we was doing music shit during school a-lot, so I just had them by my sides all the time. King was like my big homie and Booliemane was like my other big homie when King left outta school. Me and Booliemane was listening to all the same shit but he was always ahead of the game when it came to music. Sixpress had introduced me to Jazz Jodi at this basketball park in Chelsea and then he started spitting and I was like damn this nigga nice. He was really just barring out in the park like it was nothing and you kinda tell he never really made a song before but just made verses and shit. Then Jazz Jodi introduced me to Mason because we was looking towards starting to do live shows and shit and none of us knew how to DJ. Mason had been DJ'ing for a while, his pops was a pretty big DJ back in the day.

After you guys won the 7eventytwo battle of the bands last spring, with a truly legendary finals performance, you guys got the chance to do some recording at Brickhaus studios with engineer Daniel Lynas. What was that experience like? Has anything from that session been released yet?  

Daniel Lynas is a super cool dude yo. He made the recording experience super relaxed and whenever we went to record with him it was always a good time you know. We actually recorded the whole Friends Of Ours tape with him.

You recently started making your own beats too, what has that experience been like for you?  

I've been working with beats since like last September/Late August. Beginning was really stressful because I expected the program I use to do everything for me but I learned I had to do some work myself. I've definitely gotten a lot better from my old pieces. It's very cool making your own stuff because it feels mad good when you make something that truly reflects you.

Do you read the newspaper or news sites or anything? How do you stay informed? Are you freaked out by America right now? What kind of politics do [sLUms] advocate?

I don't really read newspapers or go on news-sites but I learn a lot about whats going on by listening to friends, discussions, just interacting with people. I prefer judging society based on interactions with the society instead of reading newspapers or watching the news. I mean, I highkey been freaked out about America before Trump. Black people overall been freaked out by this country. Donald Trump just represent the type of people we try to pretend are not alive. I mean like, 5/6 of Slums are literally political beings. My existence is a part of politics today though, you know? So it's not really advocacy but its fighting our lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters.

Has anything changed for you since Trump has taken office?

Not really, I still live the same life I use to. I always compare it to like when the Great Depression happened, like ain't nothing happen to black people accustomed to America's bullshit so, yeah. I mean like now, it's harder to do basement and house functions cause these conservatives been out here snitching ever since that Oakland thang.

To listen to MIKE and the rest of Slums go here: www.slumsnyc.bandcamp.com