MIKEY D of Sleeping Bag / Paul C / Main Source fame

From The Horse's Mouth by Mikey D

In the early 1980's I began my hip hop journey, after hearing the classic Kool Moe Dee vs. Busy BEE battle. I was instantly attracted to the new sound that would soon be the biggest thing in the music industry. The first rhyme I wrote was “Kim”, it was one of those female drama rhymes inspired by Grand Master Caz's “Evette”. I had a lot of rhymes but no where to spit them. Johnnie Quest, my childhood homey, got some equipment for Christmas right around that time and it was on and poppin. We would make tapes just about every day. Making tapes every day started to bore us after a while so eventually we stepped up our game and introduced ourselves to the park jam scene. Nervous as hell, I did what I do now and ripped it. Word got around fast. Quest and I were definitely coming up. Of course battles came with the territory, I would bounce from hood to hood instigating battles with who ever, known or unknown.

One particular battle that was supposed to occur never took place. This battle would've been me against a cat named J-Ski. He was the nicest in his high school and I was the nicest in mine. This battle would've represented Springfield vs. Jackson. A mutual friend of ours got us to meet up at a roller rink in Elmont, Long Island. This was neutral grounds for both of us. When we met before battle time, we spit for each other and compared notes. We couldn't believe the similarity in our styles and voices. We became instant boys, instead of battling we rocked together and started hanging tuff. One day Jay called the crib talking about changing his name. The next day he came around the way with a brand new name and that name was Cool J. In those days everybody had a nick name, for instance we had Everlovin’ Kid Ice, Loveable Little B, Romantic Lover Snow, Loverboy TC and I was Playboy Mikey Dee. I told J maybe he should try a nick name so I suggested Ladies Love. That's how the L L in his name was born. Eventually we split paths and in the mean time I continued doing my thing.

I went through a few labels in those days. My first deal was with Reality Records back in 1985-1986. Dougie Fresh/Slick Rick had a hot song out at that time called “The Show”. Being that I was a master of parody with street tapes like “You Drawers” from T La Rocks “It's Yours” and “Big Head” from Whodini’s “Big Mouth”, the label thought it would be a good idea to do a parody of “The Show” being we were on the same label. I thought it was cool so I wrote “No Show” for my home girls the Symbolic 3 and featured myself. The song got a lot of play outside of N.Y.C. So we traveled a lot. The money from the shows we did was cool, but what about the royalties from the sales and airplay? …Exactly. So obviously we bounced from that situation.

The next stop was another independent label called Public Records. Quest and I was on top of our game as usual. However there was one thing missing… original music. Around that same time the members of the Clientele Brothers (my first real established crew) wanted me to meet an up and coming producer. They took me to a small garage on 226th St. in Rosedale Queens. You could hear the music bangin before you even got through the gate. What I heard from outside was that shit I needed. When we went inside and I met him my mouth dropped, I couldn't believe the shit I was hearing was coming from a white dude. This guy would soon be known to hip hop as Paul McKasty aka Paul C. We instantly hit it off and the chemistry was crazy.

Immediately Paul, Quest and I hit the lab and began recording. The first joint we banged out was “Bust a Rhyme Mike”. It was hot but it wasn't commercial enough to be an A side of a 12”. The song “My Telephone” was the A side because what could be more commercial than a young dude spittin about what people use more than the bathroom. We even threw a bonus track on the single called “Dawn” featuring my boy from H.S. the Godfather of Noize Rahzell (formally of the Roots). The label wanted us to come up with a name for the crew. So we came up with Mikey D and the L.A. Posse. And no the L.A. doesn't mean California. It stands for the hood I still rep in Queens and that’s Laurelton. We released this single back in 1986. In 1987 we followed up with another double sided single called “I Get Rough” backed with “Go for It”. If you listen to the last verse of “I Get Rough”, I said "I don't even have to practice for the seminar." I must have been psychic because I said that in 1987 and in 1988 it came true.



After the deal with Public Records was up we signed a deal with Sleeping Bag Records. This label was the home of E.P.M.D., Just Ice, Mantronix, Joyce Sims and others. We recorded “Out of Control” and “Coming in the House” for them. The label was extremely excited when the found out about my battle abilities. So excited they entered me into the 1988 New Music Seminar Battle for World Supremacy. And just like I said the year before I didn't even practice. I just stepped in the place with the hunger of a Cambodian in an all you can eat buffet. The competition was crazy but that's what battles are about.

After winning the belt there was supposed to be a friendly demonstration with the last year’s champion which was Melle Mel (Furious Five) and the new champion which was me. Well that demonstration wasn't too friendly. Obviously Mel couldn't accept this young Queens dude on the same stage as him so he wanted to turn it into a battle. At first I was like fuck that, I ain't battling this nigga, for what? He's one of my influences. But the crowd amped me up and it was a rap…Literally. We went two rounds. In the first round Mel started doing pushups in the middle of the stage. I guess that was supposed to intimidate me but it only pissed me off. Instead of rockin to a beat I dissed this dude off the beat of his own pushups. The crowd went bananas. Mel must have been embarrassed because He threw his belt on the floor and said if I was a real champion I would Battle for the belts. At first I wasn't with it but once again the crowd amped me up. I looked at Mel, then I looked at my belt, then I looked at his belt on the floor, then I looked at the crowd chanting "GO MIKEY". Then I looked Mel in his eyes for a few seconds, slammed my belt On top of his and the crowd went crazy. As I was spittin’ my venom, my other influence Grandmaster Caz was behind me picking up both belts. After I clearly won the battle Mel and Caz were already walking off the stage with both belts. At that time I was kind of shocked because those were two of my idols. After a few days the Seminar hooked me up with a new belt. That was good looking out.

Meanwhile, back at Sleeping Bag, Paul, Quest, and I went back in the lab starting to record a album. We came up with a bunch of bangers that would never be released, not only because of the untimely death of Paul, but a few issues between us and the Sleeping Bag as well. After that deal, my next stop was Miami. Miami was hot and the whole music scene was different. I mean the beats were mad fast and the rhymes to me were wack. The N.Y. flow wasn't really poppin in Miami at that time so I tried to bring some new flavor to the table. My man T.C. and I got together and put some N.Y. flow over Miami tracks and called our crew No Strings Attached. We signed to a label called Magnum Records and put out a single titled put “Your Body in Motion”. We even got a nice budget video for it. We did lots of performances but that was that. Miami just wasn't the place for me musically. That was from 1989 to 1991.

When I returned to N.Y. I continued writing but stayed on the low for a few years. During those times I hung out at Hush Productions (Melba Moore's X-husbands label). There I met R&B singers Freddie Jackson and Jeff Red. I would just drink 40s and freestyle all day. One day Jeff Red told me that he knew a well established group that needed an emcee, and was I interested?...Of course. He didn't tell me the name of the group, he just gave me an address and directions to meet with them. When I rang the bell a dread answered the door. As soon as I saw him I knew who he was. It was K-Cut of the group Main Source. Large Pro had broke out from the group do to certain issues I would eventually face myself. K and Scratch asked me to spit some freestyles for them. After I spit the first joint I was in. In the days to come I would meet the whole Wild Pitch Records staff, from the messenger to the C.E.O. (Stu Fine). They all welcomed me with open arms. About two weeks later we were on our way to Toronto, Canada to begin recording an album. I was excited at first but those feelings quickly changed. That nigga Scratch was like some type of warden or some shit. I mean this dude didn't want me to hang out or nothing. He was always over my shoulder, 24-7 he just wanted me to write. If you know me, then you know that shit gets on my nerves.

After a week of lockdown in the crib, I began to venture out on my own. I was trying to catch a vibe that would inspire me to write. But it was a difficult task because the people in Canada were too polite and I needed that N.Y. ra ra to unleash that lyrical beast inside of me. I met a few cats that spit but none of them inspired me. Time was ticking and I just couldn't catch that vibe. Just about every other day we would record but that fire just wasn't there. We did a whole album out there but Wild Pitch wasn't feeling it, and neither was I. So it was back to the lab. I was so home sick I was about to go AWOL. Right at that time someone suggested that we record in N.Y. Now that's what I’m talking about. That next week we were on the road back to N.Y.C. As soon as we got home I instantly got my mojo back.

About halfway through the album K-Cut came up with a hot track and wanted to do a joint like live at the bar-b-que. I was with that so I recruited my brother Lotto and the illest Queens female emcee, Sha Queen aka Ma Barker (Kool G Raps wife). But we needed a few more emcees on the joint. Someone wanted us to hear these cats from right above the Bronx. I forgot whose crib we met up at. But all I know is that these two niggaz was fire. Straight off the back I wanted them on this track. The next week we hit the studio and recorded “Set It Off”. This song featured the original Lotto, Sha- Queen (Ma Barker), myself and the Warlocks now known as the Lox. I never met Styles P but Sheek and Jadakiss put it down on the track. And this was before they were signed with Bad Boy records, 1994 to be exact. We completed the album and Wild Pitch loved this one. The album was titled “Fuck What You Think” because that's how we felt at the time. The first single was titled “What You Need”. We had a hot video rockin on B.E.T and M.T.V. We even did Soul Train in 1995. That was a real good look.

As time went on we began drifting apart because I’m a real dude and these niggaz was fake as hell. First of all those two are brothers and their mother was the Manager. So between them and their mother, they weren’t really trying to break bread with an outsider, but that was fine. That's why I left them Dead in the dirt, just like Large Professor did. That was around 1996.

After that I just stayed underground doing shows and hood hopping. Now, exactly 10 years later your boy is about to resurface. After recently signing a distribution deal with Red Line… shits about to get ugly. Soon as the New Year (2006) hits, we will be re-releasing the classic L.A. Posse Material. This album will include a few never heard before tracks produced by the late great Paul C. The album will be titled “Better Late Then Never (In memory of Paul C)”. Also, we will be releasing a documentary DVD with A bonus CD of the classic Queens Park jams. The title of this project is “Let The Truth Be Told”. I'm currently in the lab recording my next project called Throwback 06. This album will feature a lot of rappers from back in the day that still spit that hot shit. Be sure you stay tuned because history is about to repeat in Two Thousand Sick (2006).




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