In 2018, Earl Sweatshirt released an album titled Some Rap Songs which split his fanbase and imprinted on the world a more jazz influenced, experimental style of hip-hop that scratched an itch in my brain I was formerly unaware of. It left me wondering where else I could find music in this same vein of hip-hop, so I took the hint left on “The Mint” where he raps “Evidently it was written like Nas, I was in the kitchen with that n**** Mike.”
So, after going through at least three eurobeat and pop artists named Mike on Soundcloud, I found a 50 minute song called MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE by MIKE. It was a sixteen track album that admittedly moved me to tears within 5 minutes. Over a soulful blend of haunting, gritty, and uplifting beats, he wore his heart on his sleeve with deeply introspective bars and clever wordplay to weave together a masterpiece of an album at the age of 18.
I could instantly feel I’d been missing out on something special happening in the NY rap scene, and I began to explore the work of his contemporaries and collaborators. He was a member of the rap collective “sLUms” including other talented NYC producers and rappers like Adé Hakim and King Carter. These were some of the experimental artists who influenced Earl’s style on Some Rap Songs as well as his music since.
Nevertheless, even among this crowd, MIKE’s sound is unmistakable. There’s a hospitable intimacy in his music which creates an aura of warmth even in his bleakest tracks. His fervorously monotone delivery in tandem with his tendency to spend an entire verse in the same rhyme scheme can quickly leave you spellbound with your guard down. Even after six years, I experience this disarming feeling just as I do when I eat comfort food like black rice & beans.
Witnessing MIKE’s growth as an artist over the past six years has felt almost like watching a protagonist’s character development. He’s used music as a means of processing grief, anxiety, romance, joy, and everything else under the sun, but in his more recent work it has been genuinely inspiring to hear the palpable weight that’s been lifted off of his shoulders.
He’s always been gifted in transcribing his emotions into music, hence why songs like “scarred lungs vol. 1 & 2” sound exactly how depression feels. This is also why you can tell on a more recent song like “THEY DON’T STOP IN THE RAIN” that the spirit fueling his music is no longer a languished one. MIKE has served as living proof that one cannot reach their full artistic potential without first taking the steps to confront their trauma.
While naturally sharpening his pen through the consistency of his craft, his ear has matured and evolved his already high creative capacity for music production, which I personally find to be the most impressive dimension of his growth. He’s never had a hard time making a soulful beat to hypnotize you into bopping your head, but the timbre of his music now is authentically MIKE in a way that can only be achieved through the boundless consistency he has exhibited.
This brings us to his most recent album Burning Desire, which many—myself included—consider to be his magnum opus as it stands. At 24 tracks and a 50 minute runtime, this project now reminds me a lot of the Yayoi Kusama art exhibit “Infinity Mirrors.” It’s an art piece created with the purpose of immersing you in an out-of-body experience within an infinite world, making you feel like the artist herself.
In this same way, Burning Desire is an expansive world that is thoroughly and unapologetically MIKE. Despite tackling some of the same issues he’s faced throughout his career, his confidence and often ebullient energy are infectious. The production, which he did the vast majority of himself, is both dense and relaxed, sobering and entrancing. I still often find myself realizing I never allowed myself to register all the lyrics to some songs.
The subject matter of this album isn’t meant to be felt and wholly understood by every listener. On track 1, Intro with Klein, singer Klein describes the album as “a dark, romantic horror with a comedic twist! It tells the tale of a fire so deeply rooted in revenge, and devastation that was masked with an intricate beauty.” Nonetheless, after exposing this album to numerous friends from different continents and backgrounds and receiving exclusively overwhelmingly positive reviews, I can safely say that if you’re a fan of art in any form, this is worth a listen.
Admittedly, recommending MIKE to even friends has often felt like a leap of faith. He’s probably not someone you’ll listen to in your free time if you don’t have a place in your heart for hip-hop and/or jazz. But if you’ve read this far, that place in your heart exists whether you know it or not.
