Mikey J - a rising new star of hip hop in the interview chair

Please introduce yourself to my readers.

First of all I want to thank you Steve for your interest interviewing me and I apologize for the wait. But I go by Mikey J (birth name - Michael John Rayner) and I’m an independent artist from Madison Heights, MI.

The music genre that I work the most on is Hip Hop but I collaborate into the Pop, R&b and Rock scene as well. If you knew me personally you’d know that I give 110% into everything I do and I’m always focused and dedicated to my work. I’m really outgoing which makes promoting my music easy because I like to get out and network with others who take the business as serious as I do.

How did you start writing poems and songs?

I was 16 years old when I started writing poems, which was 4 years before I wrote/recorded my first song. The first time I actually picked up a pencil and decided to write was after I read the book “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac Shakur. I never liked to read at all but in some classes in high school it wasn’t an option so I figured I’d read a book by an artist who I liked to listen to. His outspoken words and meaningful thoughts in his poems made me think that the best way to get stuff off your chest when you don’t really have many people to talk to is to write them down on a piece of paper. Which is why I started writing poetry.

Along those lines of writing is where I started being rhythmic with my words and developed a different kind of flow that I wanted to take off the sheet of paper. That was when I went to Best Buy and bought myself a $10 microphone that hooked up to my computer and used sound recorder to get my voice out there. Which is funny because I remember “sound recorder” would only allow you to record up to 30 seconds at a time and although it was hard to keep up with it was the only way I knew how to record.

As time went on I collaborated with other students in my school which gave me a boost and a different feeling towards writing music. I remember doing a song over Cutting Crews - Just Died In Your Arms Tonight instrumental and it got a lot more attention then I thought it would.

Everybody was telling me that I needed to find a way to get that out there so that others could listen along as well and that’s when Myspace came up. I put like 3 or 4 songs on a music page on Myspace and before I knew it, I was getting more attention from them then I’ve ever gotten in my life. The support from others and many people on the Myspace network is was gave me a certain drive to start taking music serious which made me want to push it to another level.

So I scheduled my very first studio session in early 2008 and started making better quality songs which made my network grow at an outstanding rate. Having up to 21,000 friends and 200-300 plays a day on Myspace gave me that local celebrity feeling. After a year I knew I had to do something that would make me record music 100 times more than I already did, so I invested into a home studio which I currently use and edit all of my own music. The greatest investment you can make is into your self, so never regret the money and time you spend into doing what you love.

What have been your greatest achievements so far?

In the 2 years that I’ve been making music, I’ve built up quite the resume. I honestly don’t think that I could put my achievements on a scale though because every time I succeed in something or a reach a particular goal they all mean a lot to me. I’ll share some with you though. May 10th, 2009 I was in FM 98 WJLB’s top 50 cd critique. August 7th, I ranked #1 on a music review contest on Want2Bdiscovered.com.

August 12th is the first time one of my songs were played inside of club in downtown Pontiac and is now I’m in the mix at about 10-15 clubs/bars in the MI. September 21st was my break into the radio world when Detroit’s channel 95.5 (WYLD 955 club nights) played my song for the first time. September 23rd I was ranked #2 best artist out of 517 on LOUD.com Leaderboard.

Currently ranked #20 out of 50,000+ artists on WeMix.com (Ludacris’s Website). November 1st my live performance of my video/song “Stuntin” ranked #1 in the Hip Hop stage on Famecast.com out of 843 performances which later on gave me a spot into SPIN Magazine (March 2009 Issue). Also I just put out my very first mixtape a couple months ago and passed out 500+ copies.

Who are your musical influences?

I’m definitely influenced by Tupac Shakur, not just as a musical influence but as a true artist. If it wasn’t for his poetry and his music I probably would have never started making music. I’m also influenced by Ludacris because of the way he can take a verse and just explode with energy and creativity like you’ve never heard before.

I can’t say I can relate to a lot of Eminem’s songs but I am influenced by his drive and motivation to become what he is today. He came from what I would recall a poor way of living into one of the most popular and demanded human beings in the world. I know that some artists look up to me and the extent I go to, to promote my self but I hope that one day in another artists interview such as this, I’ll be somebody’s musical influence as well!

Copyright © 2010 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

Your future plans?

Just like any other independent artist trying to make music a career, I would like to ultimately get a record deal and share with the world the gift that god gave me. I see myself as a writer that just happens to rap, so I’d also like to write a book of poetry and one day get that published as well.

Anything else you'd like to add or promote here?

I just finished my very first Mixtape not to long ago titled “On Deck” which involves a lot of industry instrumentals on it but you can download it here for free at the hotnewhiphop site.

Some of my poetry can be read at: http://www.myspace.com/mikeyjayay/blog/325615394