By Odeisel

In our second part of the interview, we take a look at the current state of Hip-Hop and whether it’s time for the younger rappers to finally assert themselves as the dominant product. We look at Drake and B.o.B, as well as looking back at some of the influences in Mickey’s career.  We also take a glance at his upcoming album and what we can expect.  The Actual Factz. Part 2.

Planet Ill: Drake just dropped his album a couple weeks ago.  He got some good numbers.

Mickey Factz: What were his numbers?

Planet Ill: 468,000, which I think is great.

Mickey Factz: Yeah that’s pretty good!

Planet Ill: Especially in this market.  You have some people who are calling him a flop. As a young guy coming up in this game how do you handle the pressure from people who are resistant to change?

Mickey Factz: You gotta look at it like your parents. Remember when you was younger? You’d listen to music and your parents was like, “Cut that music off!” They didn’t want you to listen to that music. They did the same thing with their parents; they didn’t want their children listening to that music. It’s all about change; you have to get used to it. My mom did that with me but now she loves my music.

You just gotta keep working.  As long as you keep working, I think, the change will be evident. And the progress I don’t think it’s something that you can force; I don’t think it’s something that you can tell somebody face-to-face. You just have to work.

Planet Ill:At what point does the younger generation put on the stranglehold? 40 year old rappers can’t KEEP coming out with albums and KEEP being in the forefront. At what point do the young marshall their forces and say this is how it’s going to be?

Mickey Factz:I don’t particularly think that we should kick the 40 year olds out.

Planet Ill: Not kick them out, but usher them to the point where [they aren’t in the front].

Mickey Factz: I feel like every artist that’s above a specific age should take an artist under their wing and kinda show them the ropes. You know how Jay-Z is doing with J.Cole. I think that’s an amazing situation. I feel like a lot of these older artists, they still want that spotlight that they had, and there’s nothing wrong with that, I think that’s something everybody goes through. But you gotta remember, even Michael Jordan, when he came back a second time, they were like, “Okay bro, you’ve had your place in history; you’ve had your time, but you know, you aren’t playing at that same skill level. We will always love you, we will always appreciate you but I think it’s about that time for you to give it up.”

Now I’m not saying that a rapper should stop rapping at 40, no. I think rappers should keep rapping until they 60, 65. It’s not like it’s an athletic setting; it’s a poetry setting. Once you continue to do that you should do that; keep going. As long as you don’t try to..you know, Hip-Hop is a young man’s sport.

But I appreciate my pioneers. When I see Big Daddy Kane, and Slick Rick and Rakim, I show them the utmost gratitude, respect and love because I grew up on them. They are amazing artists to me and I will always love them for what they did and what they continue to do. Especially if they give us jewels. That’s amazing.

Planet Ill: What was the last album you heard that made you jealous?

Mickey Factz: B.o.B. I really liked his album. I’m very good friends with his manager B. Rich. I’m very good friends with B.o.B. we’ve done some records together and musically, he’s just “there.” It’s like wow. The brother plays the guitar, he plays the piano, he sings, he raps and he has two hit records already.

So to me, when I heard his album, I was like wow he has more hit records than I thought he did. And I heard his album before it came out and I’m like, “Yo I gotta work harder.” I’m pleased with it.  That was the last album I heard that I was jealous of.

Planet Ill: We talk about being creative and executing that vision of an album. How intense are you in the album creation process? Do you have one producer and you craft a home sound? Are you farming your album out to different producers? How is the album being constructed?

Mickey Factz: My album is 75% produced by Precise, which is like my brother. He’s literally like my brother from another mother and we’ve created our own sound. There’s like three other producers on there that we might use, but I really wanted my own sound; I wanted something nobody could emulate. I don’t go hard in the studio for the album, I just relax. I’m very easy going. When I did a lot of the music for this album, I was just in another place. I was thinking about love, I was thinking about life I was thinking about success, I was thinking about failure.  And it kind of made the songs that are classical to me right now and I’m very excited about that. I’ve very excited about it and I couldn’t have done it without Precise.

Planet Ill: What were the songs that inspired you growing up?

Mickey Factz:“Beat It.”  “Beat It” was a song that just took me there. The video alone was amazing. Damn you ever get the feeling with so many songs running through your mind?  I can name songs all day. “Juicy” by Biggie Smalls. “C.R.E.A.M.” by Wutang Clan. “Never Shall Forget” by John P. Kee. “Get At Me Dog” by DMX and “Pull It” by DMX. Even the first Hip-Hop song I ever heard, which was Big Daddy Kane, “Ain’t No Half Steppin’” These are the songs that I think relate to me. I feel like it’s the struggle and it’s the love of Hip-Hop. Growing up, that’s what I fell in love with: Michael Jackson, Hip-Hop, John P Kee. Had to add the gospel and the pop and the Hip-Hop.

Part 1