MIKE's Pinball: Notes from the ghost of Hip Hop present
Where a rapper like Earl Sweatshirt, or other contemporaries like Navy Blue, might expertly “ride” the beat, MIKE melts into it.
Few Hip Hop collectives can claim the level of influence and acclaim that Odd Future had in the 2010s. When I think about the state of Hip Hop today, I always think back to the blueprint Odd Future's Tyler the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt created. The role they played in Rap’s transition from the early internet era into the contemporary internet era, (or the meme era), cannot be understated. In their heyday, they reached unprecedented levels of virality. It was weird though, because they weren’t making pop appealing music at all. They were about as raw and off putting as you can imagine. In a lot of ways, Odd Future, are the quintessential “you couldn’t get away with this now” group. However, a deeper dive into the Odd Future catalog is a post for a different day.
Tyler the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt were inarguably the biggest members of the Odd Future rap collective, and both represented fundamentally different approaches to Hip Hop and artistry in general. These approaches provide an important context for a deeper understanding of how I see Hip Hop today.
Tyler the Creator represents a more maximalist approach. He’s a producer just as much as he’s a rapper, and a student of Pharell Williams. As he matured from his abrasive beginnings he began to represent a wave of Alternative Rap that pulled heavily from Neo-Soul and Pop. 2017’s Flower Boy was a profound sea change for him, and the follow-up IGOR was even more significant. It was clear that Tyler was no longer content with just being a “rapper”. He was doing something bigger, pulling from a more distinct sonic palette. IGOR is a tasteful, serendipitous Pop record with some Hip Hop flavor. Even when Tyler made a subsequent return to rap with the Gangster Grillz accompanied CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, the tastefulness and maximalism remained.
Earl Sweatshirt is the opposite side of the coin. His approach has always been much more minimal—much more cerebral. Tyler’s music went to great lengths to expand what Hip Hop meant and could accomplish. Earl’s music stuck with the traditional Hip Hop formula and stripped it way back. Slow flows with heady lyricism have always been Earl’s approach, but paired with the skeletal production of 2015’s I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside carved a specific lane in Alternative Hip Hop, a lane many rappers would soon follow. As Tyler grew more popular, Earl sank deeper into the underground, stripping his product back even more. Adopting the Abstract Rap stylings of Billy Woods, 2018’s Some Rap Songs felt like a triumph for Earl. It was proof that he could indeed sink lower than the depressive miasma of I Don’t Go Outside and deliver something that felt like an even bigger statement. The production felt more ghostly, grimy and hollow. The sampling on that record is fantastic too, it’s an unparalleled musical experience.
This brings me to one of my favorite rappers today, MIKE. Hailing from NYC, Michael Jordan Bonema, aka MIKE (all caps when you spell the man’s name), started catching steam in the underground with his 2017 album MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE.
As much as Earl Sweatshirt appears to be one of MIKE’s many influences, we shouldn’t ignore the importance of MIKE’s influence on Earl. In my preparation for this post, I returned to MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSTLE, and the similarities between that record and Some Rap Songs are pretty strong. The main difference between the records is commitment. MIKE bounces between various styles while Earl is more than content to wallow in the gloom.
Readers of some of my older posts might recall this isn’t my first time talking about MIKE. In fact, his last album Burning Desire was my 6th favorite album of 2023. That’s a record I still return to, and I imagine I will continue for the foreseeable future. I think it would be fair to say it’s MIKE’s best record yet, but that’s a debate I’m still working out in my head. A lot of it is self-produced, which is impressive on its own, and it shows MIKE reaching new levels of sonic and self-exploration. We’ve seen many examples of MIKE being able to blend his style of rapping and style of production into a project, but how does he handle letting someone else take the production duties for a record?
This brings me to Pinball, MIKE’s most recent project, a collaboration between him and producer Tony Seltzer. Before this record, I’d never heard of Tony Seltzer. I later found that I had missed the project he had done with the rapper Wiki, another frequent MIKE collaborator. All I can say is, I hope we get to hear more from Tony in the future because I love these beats. Tony Seltzer is somehow able to create production that feels both retrospective and futuristic. It’s difficult to describe, so I recommend you check it out to see what I mean. I feel like Seltzer can accomplish this feeling because of his ability to fuse styles. With each beat, you get the sense of several specific Hip Hop regional styles being fused into one. This becomes the perfect platform for a multifaceted rapper like MIKE to shine.
One thing I like about MIKE, especially in the context of the other big names in “Underground” Rap, is that he isn’t as easily defined by his geography. Sometimes geography can be a useful thing. For example I think the Griselda guys benefit a lot from their geography. However, as Hip Hop continues to evolve, geography has diminished in importance. Tony’s hazy, somewhat cloudy beats, allow MIKE to mold his voice in a variety of new and interesting ways. He’s trying new flows, incorporating more melodic sensibilities, and deliberately under-enunciating his words to perfectly match the energy of the track.
This record doesn’t just prove MIKE is more versatile than he’s been given credit, it also shows what makes him unique among the rappers in the Earl lane. He’s an underrated lyricist, sure, but he’s also a perfect musical chameleon. The way he raps over Setzer’s production is uncanny. Where a rapper like Earl Sweatshirt, or other contemporaries like Navy Blue, might expertly “ride” the beat, MIKE melts into it. He isn’t just handing you bars, he’s challenging you to hear lyrics differently.
My favorite songs on this record are easily the Chief Keef-esque “Yin Yang”, “On God” featuring Earl Sweatshirt on the hook and Tony Shhnow, and the epic “2k24 Tour” featuring up-and-coming Florida rapper Niontay.
MIKE gets in his aggressive bag for “Yin Yang”. There’s some menace behind his deadpan delivery when he says, “couldn't post it and never display, yeah, I could be payin' the tribe/The day that I go, the day that I shake, nigga, that'll be the day that I die.” Having Earl do a hook for the song, “On God” was really dope. He doesn’t sing or anything, just delivers some bars in a faintly melodic cadence. The Tony Shhnow feature is incredible too. During his verse he delivers one of my favorite lines of the project, “She gon' do Chane'-ne', I'ma do the belt, Louis Vuitton/I'm pourin' Don Juan, take it like a Migo, told her, ‘I'm the one.’” Before I heard this album I wasn’t familiar with Tony Shhnow, but I’m super glad that I am now. Imagine if Wiz Khalifa’s enthusiasm for smoking weed switched to crack cocaine, that’s Tony Shhnow. He’s got a project with Robb Bank$ called I Can’t Feel My Face Too which is total gas. Another rapper I wasn’t familiar with before was Niontay. I feel like Niontay is exactly what the underground needs right now, a rapper who can appeal to both Street Rap sensibilities as well as the Underground Rap folks. My favorite bar from him is, “I'ma pull up with my nigga Mikey B/Ask if I'm high, like, bitch, I might be/Feel like Gucci '06 in my big white tee.” The Gucci Mane reference was slick. His solo project from last year, Dontay’s Inferno is also amazing.
Over the years, as Tyler and Earl went their separate ways in the industry, I found things to enjoy from both of their approaches. Critically, the two artists are still at the top of their game, but the same year Tyler won the Grammy, Earl was digging himself deeper into the underground. His 2019 record FEET OF CLAY still stands as the grimiest and most off-the-wall record he’s ever released. It was at that point that the Earl approach truly won me over. I became less obsessed with Tyler and the people he continued to work with, and I began to admire the various creatives Earl Sweatshirt was putting on. MIKE not only embodies the Earl approach to Hip Hop, but he expands upon it. He opens the door for today’s Underground or “Abstract Rap”, as it is often called, to grow beyond the message boards on RateYourMusic.com. No, he’s not approaching Earl’s lyrical level, but he’s doing stuff that pushes Earl and the other artists around them to evolve. As MIKE himself puts it in “Thug Anthem” with Wiki and The Alchemist, “We know the spittin’ ain’t enough”. The result is a wave of Alternative Rappers that embody a wider variety of sounds and styles. I don’t think Pinball is MIKE’s most introspective or thoughtful project. I wouldn’t say it’s his best either, but more than any other record in his discography it makes me feel like MIKE is embodying the Hip Hop present better than anyone.
For want of y’all to stop selling ‘em phones that’s wired to the federal government,
LEWIS