Mykill Miers

You named yourself after Michael Miers, the masked slasher known from John Carpenter’s “Halloween”. What fascinates you about this character?

The name was actually a nickname given to me because my birth name is Michael and my birthday is on Halloween. I changed the spelling to make it stand out more.

Your first album was entitled “It’s Been A Long Time Coming”. It might be interesting to get an insight into your efforts to achieve a breakthrough before you released this record…

Well I’ve been rhyming since ’94. I use to always be on The World Famous Wake Up Show featuring Sway, Tech and DJ Revolution. From my frequent appearances on the show I gained a lot of buzz and attention. I also used to be down with a crew called The Western HemisFear and we toured the country and opened for some of the biggest names in hip hop at the time. From that I got a lot of attention from label execs and took a few meetings, but nothing panned out. So I got hooked up with Ill Boogie and the rest is history.

After the release of “The Second Coming” you kind of retreated from public. Didn’t you feel like there was the necessity to keep up the buzz – with more music?

After “The Second Coming”, I went through the death of my first born, a nasty divorce and my label going bankrupt. I took some time off to see if I still wanted to do music. So I came back and got a few jingles and national radio commercials under my belt started licensing some of my music off of my 2 albums and finally made some real money. I licensed music to VH1 for Behind The Music and Driven documentaries. Such artist like Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Christina Aguilera and Megadeth. Also MTV used a lot of my music for Making Of The Band Season 2 & 3 as well as Road Rules and The Gauntlet. So I’ve been working I just been behind the scenes.

Your third album “The Truth” is due to be released at any time. I think you should give up a comprehensive description of the record. Is there already a fixed release date?

The next album is going to be called “The Trials Of Job”. I decided not to use The Truth. We are looking at an early 2006 release. I’m actually recording now, got some songs recorded with Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas, Akil from Jurassic 5, Kamil The Musical Temptress my new artist. I have sessions scheduled soon with Anthony Hamilton, Stevie Wonder. Common Black Thought is being sought as well.

In view of some of your songs it’s very hard to distinguish between reality and fiction in your music. How do you set the disposition?

A lot of the more graphic songs like the Killin’ Spree’s are more metaphors or battle rap metaphors, but songs like Best Friends/Strangers, Somethin’ To Prove & Payback are either personal experiences or witnessed personal experiences.

What can you tell us about your reference to Alfred Hitchcock?

Alfred Hitchcock was a director/writer that I admired. I love a lot of his films; North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Family Plot. Those are some of the films that I liked and on some of my demos or joints that didn’t make my albums for various reasons are really deep and suspenseful stories. That’s where that moniker came from friends of mine called me The Hitchcock of Hip Hop. That was then this is now. I’m just Mykill Miers writer/producer/business man.

I recently read a review in which the writer estimated that you’re “close to the average gangsta rapper” (on www.rapreviews.com). What do you state in response?

I respect that writers opinion, but I firmly disagree. There is 2 reasons why I disagree. 1) Before NWA were a gangsta rap group they were a hip hop group who talked about gangsta activity. Due to there popularity they became a gangsta rap group a phrase coined by corporate America. I guess because I don’t sound like Dilated Peoples or whoever it is some people think underground hip hop artist should sound like I have to categorized as gangsta. 2) I feel whatever it is you do, wherever you’re from, whatever you talk about if you put it in rhyme form and speak it, it’s hip hop, it’s just your interpretation. So the music I do is my interpretation of hip hop. So when people say I’m a gangsta rapper I wonder what there criteria is, because I’m not a gangsta never claimed to be nor talk about gangsta thing in my music. So you be the judge. As for average, I don’t know too many rapper that have achieve what I have with what I got.

If you had to pick one of your lines – which would characterize your music best?

“See I’m a rap for the love of it / and hope God blesses me with whatever I make because of it”. from “It’s Been A Long Time Coming”.

You founded your own label abNORMAL Records back in 2002 – what have you been doing on this label so far and what can we expect for the future?

Since we started in ’02 we have been putting together a entertainment company. We have put together a west coast college tour. We have our own night club and have been writing and performing jingles as well as national radio and television commercials. We have done commercials for such companies as Old Navy, Target, Reebok, Gatorade, Degree Deodorant and Bud Light. As for the immediate future we plan to release my album, Kamil’s album, a sitcom is being consider by 2 networks and a satellite radio station. So we got a full plate for 2006.

If you could go back in time to the days of your old crew “Western HemisFear” – which (business) move would you make different now?

I wish we would have stayed together and tried reach our goals and dreams as a unit. I really wouldn’t change to much because that experience molded me and made me the artist I am now. I learned a lot from those days and wish them all the best. Greed and jealousy ruined our crew.

Rumors worked a circuit that you wanted to tour through europe earlier this year. What’s the deal with that?

Yeah I had a toured planned. Akil from Jurassic 5 and I were set to go and due to a bad promoter and scheduling conflicts we could not pull it together, but I just recorded a mixtape with a rapper out of harlem name Bathgate for some German producers, X-Ray and Phrequincy along with DJ Ben Kenobi so hopefully from that I can generate enough buzz to rock some shows in Europe.

You hail from the city of Carson/California. Do you have a mentionable underground-hiphop-scene in town?

We used to, but things in Southern Cali ain’t the same when it comes to hip hop. LA is dog eat dog so it’s hard to do some hip hop functions because people here a so territorial it’s hard for everybody to operate without stepping on the toes of competitors. No hip hop spots like there used to be. Bigga B R.I.P.

Asides playing the rapgame, you’re working as a middle-school teacher. How do you combine these totally different activities?

I used to teach and be a probation officer, but now I’m all music business. The two worked hand in hand, the respect I got from my students had a lot to do with my ability to relate to what they were going through. Just a genuine respect for one another. I was like their uncle or big brother, so they respected me and the fact that I did have music out and on the radio made them respect me more because I was down to earth to them.

Was there alot of antagonism by the parents?

Not really, I generally got a lot of love and respect from parents. They knew that I was a big part of their child’s development so they respected me because I respected and cared for their child like he/she was my own.

Do you have any shoutouts or rather last words to our readers?

Hip Hop is not something you can bottle up and keep for yourself. Hip Hop is a movement that will forever spread and grow. Hip Hop is only 25-30 years old and like a human that is 25-30 years old it still has time to grow and blossom. Hip Hop has not finished developing yet, there’s still so much room for growth. We can’t segregate, west coast from east coast and south from mid west rap Hip Hop is Hip Hop just has many different interpretations. Peace and love shout out to my fans and friends and those who appreciate real music.