iCON the Mic King

By now iCON the Mic King is surely a name that is either on the tip of your tongue or the bottom of your fingers. Brewerytown North Philadelphia native Michael King is the last of a dying breed. iCON’s music combines the principles of yesteryear with the cutting edge of progressive lyricism while maintaining its soul. That statement in and of itself may be hard to swallow but with the context of his influences (Pharoahe Monch, WuTang Clan, and the Lyricist Lounge-era) it becomes clear that this torchbearer for upper-echelon emceeing is everything he says he is. Whether solo or with ex-DMC/ITF champion and veteran party-rocker DJ Cue Two the work ethic and the need to impress translates to the stage. iCON’s stage show has allowed him to make headway in this saturated market keeping fans talking from Philly to Australia and most locales in-between. No stranger to the grind, iCON has hit the road on Greyhound buses with $5 in his pocket just to prove his name belongs in your mouth and has rocked stages with: Jay-Z, Ludacris, Ghostface, GZA, Raekwon, KRS ONE, Nice & Smooth, RJD2, SoulPosition, Jedi Mind Tricks, El P, Immortal Technique, Aesop Rock, C-Rayz Walz, OneBeLo, Hangar18, QN5, Illogic, Jean Grae, Roosevelt Franklin, J-Zone, Louis Logic, Apathy, Mr. Lif, and continues to leave crowds in awe in any locale that allows it. DeathCabFan's interview gets only but a glimpse into the world of Icon the Mic king. Interview by DeathCabFan of Machine Material.

DeathCabFan: So tell me Icon, what is your real name? And how did you get your emcee name? Icon the Mic King: My government/slave name is Michael King. I got the name iCON from a comic book when I was looking for a new graff tag. Dude was the black Superman. I was either gonna be Statik or iCON...I went with the illest four letter word. When I started rhyming I was just one of those dudes who free styled forever so it become the acronym "I Come Off Nonstop". DeathCabFan: What crews are you in/were in? Icon The Mic King: Shit. I've been in a lot of crews....Anonymous INC fo' life though bitches! That...Fallen Angelz and Gully Bears is what I'm reppin these days. I used to be in Soundmindes, Level X, Ladder Day Saints....uhh I think that's about it. DeathCabFan: How'd you start rapping? Icon The Mic King: I started rhyming in '95. I had purchased "Tical" by Method Man and I started thinking "hey I can probably do that!" and they had me living in Connecticut to go to high school so it was a way to still feel connected to the urban feeling of being from Philadelphia. Really though my boy DJ Trends (who I also went to high school with) was just like "yo I freestyle" and in high school you lie and tell people you do certain things to be down with them. So I was like "yeah I do that too - I'm ill!" and then I just kept practicing to myself until I could really do it.

So it is safe to say that the rumor of Ceschi teaching you how to rap is false? If anything it's the other way around. I convinced Ceschi he should rap. Ceschi got me recording. I had been rhyming for like 8 months by the time Ceschi convinced me to do some shit. Funny thing is when I first met Ceschi...other mutual friend Ryan and I had gotten in trouble for doing some ill shit on the library computers at school and we blamed it on him. It's wild that we ended up being such good friends and that he had such an impact on my life as far as introducing me to recording...but yeah he had wanted me to do some reggae shit with him and David back at the end of our Freshman year. Instead we ended up doing a cover of Redman's "Can't Wait" with my boy Kofi aka Impakt... What is your relationship with Ceschi Ramos? how in the hell did you guys hook up? My relationship with Ceschi....Ceschi and I went to high school together. He is the first person to take me to a studio or get me recording period. Initially he was trying to get me to do reggae over the music he and David were making. I told him I didn't do that...I just rap. In fact I had just started rapping that year. I used to freestyle whole songs over their music. I sucked. He was always a musical prodigy. I was the first person to convince him to rap and show him how. We have been friends for over 10 years. We've had various groups over there this time...made a lot of songs. Him more so than me because he is a very prolific Leo and I'm a very calculating Virgo. Other than that we have done a lot of mischievous things together like graff, pillaging, loitering. Ceschi is my buddy and my pal. I would shoot somebody in the face for Ceschi. Friends til the end dude!!!! Who's your insperation in music? You really need to invest in a spell checker son. No one inspires me now. I got inspired more by beats or by situations. I get inspired by being challenged or by being an underdog. I got inspiration from books and movies. Other rappers really don't have the ability to do it anymore. At this point there's nothing anyone else can do with rap that I can't.

'Independent', or 'mainstream' label-which of these would you choose to be on? Every rapper wants to be on a major label. Every rapper wants to be heard by as many people as people. Every rapper wants to have a video with girls like Esther Baxter. Every rapper wants to live off their passion. The ones that say they don't are just salty because they realize they'll never achieve that dream. They'll never be a "real" rapper. They'll always have to explain they work at Pizza Hut" and why you have to ask the record store to special order their album. I'd love to be famous and mainstream, but I'd have to do it my way and make the music I like. So I want the best of both worlds. If you get me on a big indie with a 50K budget and a video that gets at least MTV2 rotation that's peace or we could do the mainstream thing but I want absolute creative control. Has there been any offers from any big labels yet? I was once offered a deal by Ruff Ryders back in my "independent as fuck!" phase. Needless to say I didn't return their calls. Epic tried to sign four members of the Fallen Angelz.... A couple heads didn't want to do it because MANiFEST's manager was a freemason. Who have you work with so far? C-Rayz Walz, Immortal Technique, Killah Priest, Poison Pen, Blockhead, Blue Raspberry, Illogic....I'm on this new MF Doom record....uhhhh......Ceschi and David of course....I'm on U God from WuTang's new album.....PackFM, Tonedeff, Cunninlynguists, NOBS, Dos-Noun, Jus Allah (formerly of Jedi Mind Tricks). Who was the best to record with? Ummm... Blue Raspberry. It was ill she just came in vibed to the track for like 5 minutes. Didn't write anything down...she just went in and killed it. She does a lot of tracks when she lays vocals and she did like 40 tracks she only threw out 3 takes. I like working with Ceschi and David a lot too because I don't ever feel like I'm pressured to do anything we're just creating art. I also liked working with Jus Allah. We vibe real well.

Okay, I know you won battles but I am not totally sure how much or what/where etc. enlighten me please. Ummm...most of the battles I won aren't really relevant to dudes anymore...uh.....like Scribble Jam Legend and NYC Braggin Rites Legend or something. 2000 Hookt Cyberclash Favorites battle (NYC), 2000 HU Verbal Armageddon Champ (DC), 2000 Ericos Mic Fight 2peat Champ (DC), 2000 Uh-Oh Entertainment Round Series 2peat Champ (DC), 2001 BETs MC World Cup Finalist (NY), 2002 Seattles Brainstorm2 Finalist (WA), 2002 BET/Burger King College Tour Battle Finalist (DC), EndoftheWeak Philly vs NYC Emcee Challenge (PA) as well as a classic rivalry with Jin. Scribble Jam Prelim battle host 2 years running. Scribble Jam emcee battle finals judge 2004. The word 'early', you sure say it a lot. What can I say? Philly run shit! EARLY!!! Philly do you love it? You no....living there? English class is definitely one you skipped. Philadelphia is the best city on the planet. EARLY! Where's the best place in Philly to eat? My favorite Cheese steak spot is Ishkabibbles on 4th & South. Do you know Will Smith? Nope but I watched and listened to know enough Fresh Prince that I feel like I do.

I was fuckin' with you kid. But anyways, that would be cool if you did a song with him, huh? Yo heads sleep on Fresh Prince. First of all he and Jazzy Jeff are some of the best performers ever. They're albums was tight and one time some cat was dissin him on Power 99 (the radio station) and he called up like "oh word? I'll be there in 30 minutes" he showed up and served this cat. Do not sleep. I was stilling fuckin' with you, but cool. I did not know that. And I am sure Hawaii needed to know all of that. No really! We did. I here you used to dabble in 'graffiti'? Tell us about it. Are you still in the world famous INC crew? Yeah that's another thing I got heads into. I had been writing since 7th grade....93? I think. This cat VIEW had gotten me into it. In turn I got most of the cats we rolled with in high school down. Wasn't nothing to do in CT so we'd go racking mad paint at Sears Hardware or tag scandalize some shit from Wal-Mart or Caldor’s and go bombing. Ceschi and STAR were the illest out of us. I was never that good....no real can control...I was kinda nice on paper though. I mean I could bomb and what not but my pieces were weak. INC I still rep it if I was to go bombing. I quit writing right before I went to college in DC cuz I figured it'd be a federal crime there and that was the height of the 3D shit - I felt like heads were getting to good and I just couldn't keep up at all. A lot of muhfuckas that's rapping need to adopt that philosophy. So you came to Hawaii some time last year with Xololanxinxo of Project Blowed/ Of Mexican Descent. How did you feel about the islands and its people? And rocking shows with one of L.A. finest emcee....Xololanxinxo? I had a lot of fun. The people for the most part were cool. Especially Nabahe's Mom and his immediate friends. I felt like I was in another country...it was a working vacation. Y'all had great weather. We got crunk. Learned about the different cultures. It was an all around good time. I'm looking forward to coming back and topping it. I liked being out of my element. I hadn't had a vacation in years and it just felt good to go to someone else's world and chill, just see new stuff. Oh it was tight runnin up in Fisherman's Wharf...the bol Ion Myke made me feel like a celebrity. I also enjoyed performing on top of the bar at the Wave (no homo). [Xololanxinxo] Was cool. Put on a good show. I had heard a lot about him from Ceschi, David, and Tommy V. It was nice to finally put a face with the name. What up wit the Booze Cruise son?!

Booze Cruise is the shit! Early!...Did I use it right? Nah. Not really. I mean yeah but not really. So you must really be looking forward to the up coming shows with NoCanDo and DJ Handprints? Absolutely. I know NoCanDo from battles like Scribble Jam and shit. Son is mad nice. He improved so much since I first saw him...I don't want to say improved...he is showing a more effective facet of his style since I first saw him. I haven't heard any of his music and I know Handprints from a show I did in LA. So I'm real interested to see what they are gonna come with. Other than that I'm looking forward to coming out to Hawaii again having fun. Hopefully more people will come out and have fun with us. Any last words, shout outs, etc. Icon? Shout out to Nabahe's mom, Nabahe, his whole crew, LightSleepers, Cissy, Josh and Black Sqaure. Unity Crayons, Ceschi, David, everybody. Hawai'i I love y'all muhfuckas. I'm bout to come back and we're gonna have fun. Beautiful women you can hit me up on myspace (myspace.com/iconthemicking) and we can act like we care to know more about each other until I get there ;)..........Police the new records. Call 911 with a loud shootout scene in a movie blaring in the background then tell the cops I told you to do it when they show up. Yeah I know it's not right but it'll be great publicity for the shows. EARLY!!!! For more info check out his websites: www.iconthemicking.com www.myspace.com/iconthemicking See iCON the Mic King Friday, May 26th at Detox and again Saturday, May 27th at Detox in an Emcee Battle.