By Odeisel

In the late 80’s early 90’s, Hip-Hop was less rigid with its segmentation and you could appreciate skills without being labeled a backpacker. Outside of the controversial cloud that followed the wave of gangster rapppers like N.W.A during that era, a movement took form in Los Angeles of free-flowing open mic sessions that all but transformed the landscape of Hip-Hop on the Left Coast. Out of that movement came groups like the Freestyle Fellowship and emcee Myka 9. Planet Ill sat with Myka to talk about that movement, his new project Mykology, the current status of freestyle and his connection with N.W.A.

Planet Ill: there are two eras in LA underground Hip-Hop: Before and after the 7^th Seal.  What went into making that record and how do you think it changed the landscape?

Myka 9: Digging deep into myself spiritually, digging in the crates from the Billy Cobham duo. Al Mustafa and some isley Brothers stuff in there too. And we were putting together a project for emcees that were frequenting places like the Good Life. And so I came to ____ with my ideas and my records. He helped me loop it up because he had the cables and some stuff and equipment and then he triggered something when he tried to plug the quarter inch pathway into the  back of the four track and it was like a mini trigger but what it created was like a lower cycled sub  that he ended up using later to get more of that low end bass out of that original independent cassette tape from just the four track and it ended up working to our benefit.  When we did it, it came out nice; tribal.  I just remember getting off on the shit.

Planet Ill: How important is fluidity and movement to freestyling?

Myka 9: It depends on the track but it’s equally important as a rigid stone pattern.  And I actually go back and forth as to whether I’m going to stick to the pattern or keep it more wild or straight ahead. I think it’s important to let the rhythm breathe in the sense of dynamics and style so it doesn’t get boring.

Planet Ill: How do you feel about freestyle these days?  People call it freestyle but they’re reading off their Blackberry or they’re busting pre-written rhymes…

Myka9: Well that’s interesting because technically it’s not a freestyle, but you know if you’re kicking a flow, somebody might not know that it’s written; they might think it’s a freestyle or somebody might not know that it’s a freestyle. They think it’s written. I think Nas said it best. It depends on what you’re projecting and if you come off convincing.

Planet Ill: Let’s talk about the new album Mykology

Myka 9: Well Mykology was a beast in itself of positive creativity. It was mixed by one of the best engineers I ever worked with and I truly respect the production quality that Organized Elements brings to the table. I’d say that it’s a classic project, I’m just happy it’s coming out and I’m ready for the people to hear it; They’re going to be hearing a lot of my classic material. I like it because it feels like the songs have character, and I like the project because it has DJ work it has segues, it has interludes; it’s more of a complete sort of album, versus a series of songs. I like the organic, acoustic blend of live instrumentation with the digital programming.  And it’s a general Hip-Hop project versus a Dubbstep project or a Jazz project or a Dancehall project. It’s more of a straight ahead kind of thing.

Planet Ill: What do you enjoy about rapping?

Myka 9: One aspect I enjoy, about just rapping general, is the thought. Cause I’m thinking about rhyming even if I’m not physically rhyming. And then I enjoy it for the performing quality, to watch people that enjoy it and react. The learning; it’s like a sport or a puzzle when you’re writing. It’s almost like a crossword puzzle, in a sense, with the word smithing of it. I like the musicality of it a lot; the syncopation, the hints at melody or even harmony in the backgrounds and things. The language of it; to be able to get in a zone, you kind of have to warm up sometimes. Unless you’re just always hot, I don’t know.

There’s so many things. It’s an art form that you don’t need that much equipment for, if anything. With a basketball, you need a ball, or with a book or a computer, but you can just rhyme on your own. You don’t even need to vocalize your rhyme; you can just rhyme in your head. But rhyming in general, rapping is a cool pastime because you can do it anywhere. You don’t have to go anywhere; you could do it any time. You can do it in any weather, so it’s a good pastime.

Planet Ill: Who are some of your favorite emcees?

Myka 9: Aceyalone,Tea Spoon, Iodine, A Real Allah, LA Cool, Abstract Rude, This brother names IK. I give Busta Rhymes his, of course Self Jupiter, from Fellowship, P.E.A.C.E. from Fellowship. So many. Teradactile, I think there’s just so many heads I don’t want to leave anybody out. Females, males. In general I’d say at least 25% of the Project Blowed community are some of the best emcees I’ve ever heard in my life. Of course some of my luminaries, living and dead, they move me. It’s not just to me who had a few hot lines or who had a great song. It comes to who knows how to emcee a party, do they work on different forms of music, not just Hip-Hop. Can they rock a capella. You gotta see cats in different environments to gauge and meter that.

Planet Ill: What is more important, lyricism or performance? In a song what’s more important the lyricism or the movement?

Myka 9: Wow, that’s a good question. I’d say the lyricism in a song, that’s what’s been important to me because I can put a lot into the recording and writing of a song. But who’s to say that you’re actually going to memorize it? Or songs are so complex that I’m not going to end up performing it. What’s the point of rehearsing it? But one should always pay attention, especially in this day and age where you’re more likely to get your money as an emcee by performing than you are just from the recording, per se. So the focus on being a good performer I think is equally important. I don’t think one is more important than the other. I think they’re equally important.

Planet Ill: Take us back to the Good Life Café Days. What was that scene like with all those minds coming together?

Myka 9: Well the Good Life for me was like, “Wow, another place where we can hang out and rhyme, because before that I would go to a place called the Radio. We’d call it the Radiotron. It was first like the Radiotron, then we changed it to the Radio. It was like a Hip-Hop workshop back in the early to mid 80s. You would see like Ice-T there, it was more like a writer’s background. A lot of early taggers, it was like different writer crews . So when the Good Life came up, it was closer and I was excited because I had already been doing the open mic scene. Of course the Coffee House was good. And I was busting my rhymes like in different spots in New York too.  Cause I was in New York a lot during the summer It was good to have that open mic vibration where you can actually rhyme and rhyme with some courage. But they discouraged cursing, so I thought that was an interesting handicap, if you will. But it only prepared us for some more success as far as radio. I mean I don’t know if it did or didn’t but it was more of a conscious vibration; we were getting exposed to vegetarian food and things like that, which is always good to know.

The Good Life scene, it was interesting because when I got hip to it I was maybe weeks before no more than maybe two weeks before I went they just had a little P.A. system with a nice little beat machine hooked up to a cassette tape and a couple microphones. They’d play the beats; play the little programmed beats they had. I remember the first summer it was me Jupiter and Acey, I believe. We were sitting up there rhyming, sitting on some chairs on the stage. And you know we went at the right time and there was only one person in the crowd, three people in the crowd for the whole night. We just got up there and rhymed.

Then we went the next week and it was a couple more people. The following week we had maybe like 12 people. Then , 24 and then it kinda started to exponentially increase. More emcees would sign up, the rules were being established and other forms of musicality; turntables at one point. Beats rhymes things of that nature. The establishment, they liked it, too. More people started to buy things and order some of their new and different food that they had to offer. It blossomed from that point.

Planet Ill: In one of your older interviews, you talked about an affiliation with NWA, that you ghost wrote a couple record on that N.W.A. and the Posse album…

Myka 9: My name is Michael Troy, my name’s in notes in parentheses [as Microphone Mike- Ed.]. It was for a group called Rappinstine. I wrote a couple joints on that thing. Got like 50 bucks or so. One song was called “Scream” and I forgot the name of the other song.

Planet Ill: What’s next for Myka 9?

Myka 9: Well I got Mykology coming out October 3,^rd got Promise coming out with Freestyle Fellowship. First quarter next year I’d like to release Grammaphone on my own label. The album is called Grammaphone 009, and that’s like my underground Detox]

Planet Ill: Don’t say that cause then we’ll never hear it!

Myka 9: Oh no it’s coming out, definitely. I already leaked a song from that called “Delusions of Grandeur” on Soundcloud. Then Magic Heart Genies, our third album, cause I have another side group, other than Freestyle Fellowship and other than Haiku De’ Tat known as Magic Heart Genies. And our third and final album, because the first album was called Heart Attack, the second album was called Cardiac Arrest, third album is called Pulmonary Artistry.

This album called Pulmonary Artistry is real dense, really nice. We’re workignon the final mixes now. So for the next year I got two releases, my solo album Grammaphone 009 and  group project Magic Heart Genies. And then hopefully by the end of next year, I can get a Haiku De’tat record out there for the people. And the Fellowship has another follow-up to Promise called Power Plant.

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