| Myka 9 | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michael Troy |
| Origin | Los Angeles |
| Genres | Hip hop Alternative hip hop |
| Years active | 1990-present |
| Labels | M9ENTERTAINMENT.COM FAKEFOURINC |
| Associated acts | Freestyle Fellowship Haiku D'Etat Magic Heart Genies |
Myka 9 (born Michael Troy) is a musician/rapper from Los Angeles.
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Originally known as Microphone Mike, in the 80s he was a member of the MC Aces with Aceyalone and Spoon Iodine. As one of the founding members of Freestyle Fellowship, Myka 9 was instrumental in the scene at the Good Life Cafe in the early 90s. (Timetable contains some of his live recordings from the Good Life Cafe open-mic.) As one of the most stylistically advanced rappers at the Good Life, Myka 9 has had a profound influence on L.A. underground hip hop and freestyle rapping in general. Discussing the influence of Myka 9's song "7th Seal," released in 1991 on Freestyle Fellowship's To Whom It May Concern, Ellay Khule said, " '7th Seal' blew everybody's mind for at least 2 years straight. People studied that shit backwards and forwards -- even we don't know all those words. That made everybody say like 'I gotta get a tape out' or 'I can't rap like so-and-so no more. I can't be in 80s, now we movin' to the 90s.' That totally transferred our musical thought." Drummer and producer JMD said, "Mike was like the Charlie Parker of all these motherfuckers."
He is known for rapid-fire, jazz-influenced, melodic rapping, often incorporating singing and occasionally scatting into his songs. Myka has said of his style, “My rhymes take the direction of a jazz trumpet or sax solo, like Miles or Trane, if I was to rhyme in the same meter as those notes . . . that’s my concept.”
His style has been an influence to musicians far beyond the West Coast and to also add to the point above, an excerpt from an interview with Pigeon John: "For me Mikah 9 was like Miles Davis. He was a tall good looking dude, the girls always liked him and this dude just went on stage and there was no effort in him. He was a genius in what he did. He effected and influenced so many people in hip-hop including Mos Def, Talib Kweli, that whole scene. Years before Leaders of the New School, there are stories where Freestyle Fellowship, when they first came out and they went to New York. That whole shouting stuff, they had this ingenious way to do it and they had a backing jazz band before Digable Planets. Busta Rhymes ran up to him (Mikah 9) afterwards and said “dude what kind of style is this,” and then low and behold Leaders of the New School came out. So there’s plenty of stories like that, but that’s just like a taste of how potent that scene was at the Good Life." [1]
Recently, Jose James has been gaining a lot of attention and acclaim for performing with a full orchestral backup, Myka's classic track, "Park Bench People".
Released in 1993, Freestyle Fellowship's second album, Innercity Griots, is one of the landmarks of L.A. hip hop, and their videos for "Inner City Boundaries" and "Hot Potato" brought them to the attention of a wider audience. Myka 9 was also featured on two tracks on the Project Blowed compilation in 1994. In the late 90s, Myka 9 came together with Aceyalone and Abstract Rude to form Haiku D'Etat. In 1998, Freestyle Fellowship reunited to record Shockadoom.
In an interview, Myka Nyne stated that he ghost-wrote two tracks on N.W.A.'s debut album N.W.A. and the Posse (1987). He has also worked with artists such as the Wailers Band, Prefuse 73, Daddy Kev, Busdriver, Blue Sky Black Death, Existereo, and many others. He has worked extensively with producer and trumpeter Josef Leimberg, who produced the majority of It's All Love, A Work in Progress, and Freestyle Fellowship's Temptations.
Known for years as Mikah 9, in 2003, with the release of A Work in Progress, he changed the spelling to Myka Nyne. In his 2008 release Heartifact, he is credited as Myka 9.
Myka 9 also occasionally produces his own songs. He has produced songs such as "This Ain't the Song" (from his Work in Progress), "Battle Prone" (from the Project Blowed 10th Anniversary album), and Haiku D'Etat's "Purgatory" (Calicomm 2004), among others.
Myka 9 is featured in the award-winning 2008 documentary This Is the Life, chronicling the music movement that was birthed at The Good Life Cafe in South Central Los Angeles. The Good Life is the open-mic workshop where he first performed with Freestyle Fellowship in the early 1990s.
He was also featured in the documentary Freestyle (2001).