Black Mikey is an OG in the San Diego rap game with roots going back before anyone even knew that San Diego rap existed. Having recently gotten out of jail, he’s now risen from the grave and seems as ready as ever to rejuvenate the San Diego rap scene. Thankfully, Black Mikey took some time out first to school us on San Diego rap history. When you’re done, continue on to part 2 of the Black Mikey interview here.
SDRaps.com: How’d you get into hip-hop yourself?
Black Mikey: Honestly, I didn’t get into hip-hop, it got into me. I won’t even actually say what song. It was a number of songs that I could point you to that started me in that direction. But it was music in general that fascinated me from the gate. I didn’t even know anything about rap music until …… Fuck it, if we’re gonna be honest, I’m like a grandaddy in this shit anyway. 1978: “Rapper’s Delight” came out. I was like 8-9 years old. When it came on, I was like, “I could do that shit.” I started doing it and then evolved as it evolved.
But back then, we didn’t give a fuck about no record deals, contracts. All we cared about was fucking a motherfucker up in the hallways who had the hottest 16. Whether you could beat on your chest and spit your verse or if you read it off paper, you had to do away with your foes in the hallways and then it got talked about it and it exploded out into the streets after school. And then we were doing dances like the Jackie Robinson. All the YMCA’s and Boy’s Clubs in the area. A lot of us that are gang members now were breakdancers and pop-lockers and DJs, spray painting on walls and all kinds of shit, first. Everybody’s neighborhood got breakdancers, pop-lockers, DJ’s, beatsmiths, emcees, graffiti artists that’s still from their hoods and reptable. Hip-hop has kinda ingrained itself into the underbelly of Southeast San Diego as well.
SDRaps.com: You’re from San Diego right? Because I think most rappers not from New York got up onto it later.
Black Mikey: In all actuality, a lot of us used to try to say we were from New York. When we were younger, we used to try to watch the “Wildstyle” videos. Prince Whipperwhip used to come through here. It’s a military city. So a lot of dudes from the East Coast was from the military and was related to a lot of dudes that was in the game on the East Coast, from Chicago, from Down South. So with San Diego being a military city, we was open, directly networking with these type of people by nature.
Because we had 4-5 Park. Back in the days, DJ’s used to call my boy, Silky C–a blind DJ–they used to come DJ. They’d have booths, they used to sell food, dance contests, everything used to go on at this park. But by this being the place where a lot of people in the military hung out, it was all walks of life running through here. People from the East Coast, the West Coast, Down South, from outside the United States–it was like a conglomerate. And it circulated. So we got all of the music–the BLS, KIIS 98.7 tapes–from back then with Chuck Chillout, Red Alert, Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack. A lot of that shit was going on, we was getting that shit. When Faizon Love wasn’t Big Worm, when he was just Faizon with the kangol on and the fake “Faizon” name belt, rocking the Lee jeans.
And it was fun! We used to play the game, “Yeah, I’m from New York, son!” A lot of used to do it and we used to emcee like them. And then …… a new dawn came. And we started saying, “Shit, well maybe we can sound like ourselves.” Read more of this post
