One of my current favs, Chicago rhymesayer Mikkey speaks to the camera about his day job, music how Kanye helped his career & kicks a few bars as well.
Props to Drew from FSD for the heads up.
Previously Posted — Mikkey Halsted - “The Liquor Store” Video | “Ready Rock.”
Posted in GENERAL, SMOKE BREAK, Videos — Tags: Mikkey Halsted, The Last Shall Be First, UnCrowned King, VIDEO, Vimby
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10 Comments
Ha(l)sted..got a meeting at the Liquor Store.
One mo’ final manana.
Why the hell did he sign with Cash Money in the first place?
@ Amp: He was originally signed to Kanye’s “Kon Man Productions” but dipped when Cash Money came recruiting him and Ye’ together. Ye’ was on the verge of signing with Birdman but at the last minute went to the Roc, and the rest as they say is history, Mikkey was left on Cash Money.
In Mikkey’s own words (http://fakeshoredrive.com/2008/05/fsd-interviews-mikkey-halsted.html):
FSD: Didn’t Cash Money offer a deal to you and Kanye at the same time?
Mikkey: Yeah, this happened through one of my connections, a street dude named Patrick White. Patrick White hooked up with Cash Money because he signed a white pop group through them that never came out. They approached Patrick White about doing a Cash Money Midwest, almost like a Bad Boy South type of deal, and that was the thing they were selling us on. Cash Money heard our music through Patrick, and Pat came back to Chicago and told us that Baby loved our shit – I mean loved our shit. So Kanye flew down to New Orleans to meet with them first, even though they were into to my shit the most. So when Kanye was down there all they kept asking was “Where is this n*gga Mikkey, bring Mikkey, what do we have to do to sign Mikkey?” Since they heard the stuff I did with Kanye, and loved it, they wanted to bring Kon Man Productions over to Cash Money. You know GLC, and everybody else who was with us at the time – and I say everyone because EVERYONE was with us at the time. At one time, Kanye had everybody in his Mama’s house in that little bedroom of his – whether it was Shawnna, Me, Christina, GLC, Rhymefest, Twone Gabz, Boogz, B Miller – man everybody. Every time I see another Chicago rapper coming out I be like “Ahh man, he was in Kanye’s bedroom too”. We had a sick, sick, sick click.
So I thought they were going to sign everyone to Cash Money Midwest and they were going to hire Patrick to run it. But Patrick was a street n*gga, and a reformed gang-banger. However, I have ties to him, my family has ties to him, so I knew him, and I wasn’t intimidated by him– but Kanye was. Patrick did and said a lot of intimidating things to Kanye, because he was still on that gangster mentality at that time, so that’s why Kanye kind of got away from that situation. But at that point in my life there were so many things going with me personally, that the pressure was on me.
So once I realized that Kanye wasn’t going to sign with Cash Money, I was kind of upset because, you know, Kanye was my guy, and I never have ever wanted to do music with anyone else besides No ID and Kanye West, period. I knew they were all that I needed to take over the world. But you know what, I said “Fuck it”. They offered to give my sister, Christina, the same deal, so I said “fuck it”. At this point I had family issues: drug abuse in my family, bills were late getting paid, threatening to lose our home, people are starving, cousins need things, and this was after we moved from 116th and Morgan to Country Club Hills! Everything was falling apart while we were in the suburban part of Chicago. My family life was in turmoil, so I needed the money, so I signed the deal – and it was the wrong decision.
Cash Money told me they were going to put my album out three months after I signed, and that since Juvenile had just left, I was the one that was going to take his spot. So I signed the papers, and after I did that, everything changed. It went from Kanye producing my entire album, to Kanye getting no tracks. They were mad that Kanye didn’t sign, so they didn’t want to pay him to do any tracks on the album. They wanted Mannie [Fresh] to do it all. And at that point I told them, “I don’t care what you do with the contracts, because now, I quit. I’m going to quit rapping if Kanye can’t get tracks on my album.” So I walked out the office. If they weren’t going to let Kanye, who gave me the confidence to do what I do, to produce on my album, then I was going to walk away from rapping. So they finally changed their mind, and they bought a handful of tracks from him – that’s the money he actually used to move to New York when he finally left Chicago.
Here’s the follow-up questions:
FSD: On Kanye’s “Last Call” [from College Dropout] he’s talking about you, right?
Mikkey: Yep – that’s me. But we still used to talk everyday. Like when I’d come to New York, I’d go up to Bassline to see him, and we’d go get some jerk chicken and shit, or go chill and kick it or whatever. He’d play me a lot of his tracks and share his ideas, like how he wanted “Workout Plan” to be his first single, and I told him not to do it. Then all of the sudden things started taking off, so I wanted Cash Money to do a song deal with Kanye, so he could get some more money before College Dropout came out. I wanted them to give him this deal, so they could all get something in return for letting Kanye produce my whole album. I mean, I love Mannie Fresh, but I wanted to get back to my roots. So I’m threatening to quit every other day, me and Baby are getting into it and I feel like my back is against the wall. There’s a bunch of bullshit going on while we’re on the tour bus - I’m starving, not getting paid for my services, n*ggas was acting funny, so I had to put one dude in the hospital. That’s when I finally just left. I realized that they were snakeish in their ways and they were using me to suck up their energy. I was tired of teaching their artists how to write songs, and teaching them patterns. Baby’s using my energy so he can become an artist on his own, and he still couldn’t do the shit right (laughs).
So I was just hoping that they would put my album out, since it was done and just sitting there. But after I beat dude up, I just quit.
FSD: What happened with that situation?
Mikkey: Well, dude just kept saying slick shit, you know, “oh you think you better than us because you have a college degree, you think you’re smart, and your album is never coming out, blah, blah”. So I got real frustrated and told him not to say shit else. He said something slick, so I gave him what we call a “Chicago Pumpkinhead”, where his head swelled up like a pumpkin. I looked at him while he was laying on the ground unconscious and I initially thought he was dead, so I was thinking “Man, this dude is dead, now I gotta go to jail”, so then I just left. I knew that was one of their guys, so it was time to get out of there, because I know how they play. Baby wouldn’t be man enough to act like he wanted to fight me – even though we have almost come to blows about three or four times. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was living in hell, and I was missing working with No ID and Kanye, so I knew I needed to get back around my element before I lose everything that I have.
I still haven’t received any of the my publishing money from all of the writing that I did while I was there, but I still have a good relationship with a lot of the people who were there at the time, like Stone and Lac and even Lil Wayne. Those are people that I love and have love for to this day.
Wow!
Good ish Rosey!
haha fo sho amp-geezy..
I really appreciate in the second post I put up from the interview where he talks about threatening to knock Birdman upside the head and give him a “Chi-town pumpkinhead” …ahahaha, that’s some classic shit.
Simply Red - Sunrise
http://www.zshare.net/audio/525434584fd78138/
Simply Red aka Jon Gruden’s little brother.
He did have a grip of pieces in his video though, especially that one by the pool…cot’ damn (c) Roscoe P. Coldchain
Yo I need the link to that Foolish Game joint. I have “Who Am I” already.
Mikkey is a really good rapper, but I still wonder at times if what he tries to bring to the table will have that mass appeal. He is probably gonna have to get Mr. West to produce and feature on his first single.