Mixmaster Mike is one busy DJ. From rocking out with the Beastie
Boys to being a co-founding member of the infamous Invisible
Skratch Picklz to working on a new breakbeat album with Adam
Horowitz, and a syndicated radio show called Full Court Radio
with Mike D, to his dope new mix album, Mixmaster Mike has barely
had time to engage in the various rock star exploits that his
success has afforded him. Like....doing his laundry?
"This may sound funny, but it really started out with me
like, going to a laundromat and doing my clothes, and basically
just putting together a tape for while I'm doing my laundry,"
he tells me while sipping on a coke from his pad in Sherman
Oaks. "I wanted it to be like a whole hour long, underground
hip-hop, stuff that you do not hear on the radio, that I could
listen to while I washed my clothes." Slowly but surely,
the idea evolved from just a simple little mix tape to a full
blown mix album chock full of quality hip-hop and, of course,
Mike's flamboyant and flashy work on the turntables. The Result?
Spin Psycle (Moonshine), an ill mix that's guaranteed to get
your whites whiter, your brights brighter and your ass blown
the fuck away by Mike's mad skills. Featuring tracks by Large
Professor, KRS-One, Gang Starr, Beastie Boys and of course,
a few tracks by the good Mixmaster himself, including a collaboration
with Mario C and Del the Funky Homosapien. Spin Psycle brings
hip hop back to its early, and arguably, better days when it
was about nothing more than two turntables, a mixer and a DJ
who could rock the party.
"It's just a different type of music," Mike explains,
" a different type of sound that you can make with the
turntable." Not that Spin Psycle is the first album ever
to use the turntable as its primary instrument, but Mixmaster
Mike has certainly been in the scene since back in the day.
"Back in 1984, I went to a Herbie Hancock concert and saw
Grandmixer DST, and that totally inspired me to get turntables
and start cuttin' it up. After that, I just started battling
at parties and competitions." And then of course, a few
years after that, M3 proceeded to enter and win a little competition
called the DMC Turntable Competition 3 years in a row, until
he and his partner in crime, DJ Q-Bert, were finally asked to
step down and let everyone else have a go at it. Not long after
that, Mike and Q-Bert were joined by D-Styles, Apollo and Shortkut,
and thus, the Invisible Skratch Picklz were formed. With 5 members
total, The Picklz were the first "official" turntable
band. Unfortunately, however, the year 2000 saw the demise of
what has been known as the most influential scratch crew ever.
Adds Mike: "Yeah, we just decided to lay low on that, because
it was getting to the point were kids were forming their own
crews and too many people were trying to imitate us in the wrong
way. So we just wanted to take a chill for a minute, and work
on our own solo projects and then later on, come back and reunite."
Fortunately, the Picklz are all still on good terms. But it's
not like Mike has been without work since the Picklz disbanded.
Rocking out on both Hello Nasty, the album and the tour, Mike
almost seems like the long lost Latino Beastie who has finally
been reunited with his brothers
"There are definitely some projects in the works with the
Beastie Boys, not necessarily another album, but we'll see,
you know? They're always up to something...."Though he
didn't care to get into details, careful not to ruin the surprise,
he gave me his M3 guarantee that some dope shit from the B-Boys
is certainly inbound.
As for himself, "Who knows? Right now, DJing is still in
its infancy, you know? I mean, someday maybe you'll walk into
a supermarket and there'll be a DJ scratchin' it up.... I'm
just trying to take it to different levels, develop different
scratches and patterns. Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane,
you know, I want to be able to play my instrument like they
played theirs. But for now, I'm just thankful that I can provide
for my family. Make a cool living off of my passion and get
to make some crazy ass music at the same time."
Mixmaster Mike is one busy DJ. From rocking out with the Beastie
Boys to being a co-founding member of the infamous Invisible
Skratch Picklz to working on a new breakbeat album with Adam
Horowitz, and a syndicated radio show called Full Court Radio
with Mike D, to his dope new mix album, Mixmaster Mike has barely
had time to engage in the various rock star exploits that his
success has afforded him. Like....doing his laundry?