Since releasing his debut mixtape 'Workaholic' on Blatantly Blunt back in the summer of 2009, MIK has been earmarked as one of grime's most promising young emcees. 2010 saw the release of his hotly anticipated follow up project, 'Grime To Five', which built upon the success of 'Workaholic', drawing considerable praise from fans and fellow artists alike, most notably for delivering true, hard-hitting grime minus the bubblegum hooks that had typified the year's early releases. Such was the positive reception and subsequent demand, MIK ended the year with a slot on Logan Sama's 'Chosen Ones' on Kiss and a second release, 'The Five Hour Shift':
"2010 was a big year for me really. I brought out my first mixtape 'Workaholic' on Blantantly Blunt back in 2009 and got quite nice reception off the back of that so I kept grafting and brought out 'Grime to Five' in June last year. It was definitely one of my highlights so far, it got voted one of the top 3 mixtapes of the year and I was proud that I managed to keep it 100% pure, hard-hitting grime - people seemed to like that. I touched the rave scene a bit too, made it down to a No Hats No Hoods launch and got a good reception, think there's video footage on youtube if you wanna check that, but after going to a few other raves, I realised that I actually prefer the recording stuff. As for 'Chosen Ones' on Kiss, that was a really big look, another thing I'm definitely proud of."
He revealed the plan was for him to take a break after the June release of 'Grime To Five' but its success ensured that fans were soon bugging him for more music:
"'The Five Hour Shift' came about because of the reaction 'Grime To Five' got. I actually went quiet for a bit because I felt like I needed a rest mentally but the demand for more music was there almost straight away and I couldn't ignore it. I like working off the back of demand too - there's no point doing it if people aren't left wanting to hear more. With 'The Five Hour Shift', I just decided to put all the bangers on there as a little thing to keep the fans happy really and remind people of what I can do and still want to achieve."
2010 was also seen as a breakthrough year for a number of other fellow DJs and emcees alike, something MIK is also particularly proud of:
"For me, Spooky had such a big, big impact in 2010 - he released a lot of stuff and obviously Spartan made everyone sit up. I've always rated Rudekid aswell so yeah, he was another one doing his thing. The 'New Wave' lot - Merky, Rival etc were obviously about as well - definitely holding up the grime flag for the new generation of listeners. DJs slyly came back into it too which was refreshing to see. 2011-wise, I'm gonna say that it'll be a big year for Merky Ace and the Family Tree Collective but I wanna see a lot of producers come through too. Royal T is the one I think but guys like Relentless and Faze Miyake deserve to make it this year."
As for personal ambitions, MIK seems to have everything in place to make 2011 another memorable year:
"Well, I'm starting off this year by putting out a single called 'Do It' (produced by Screwface) which keeps getting banged out on Logan and that - we're shooting the video this coming Thursday (20th Jan). After that, I'm kinda looking to bring out another 5 or 6 singles and hopefully another two 5-track EPs. I'm aiming to have my next major project, which is gonna be called 'Overtime', finished sometime in November and in the meantime, I've started work on my own site which I want to have up and running professionally soon. It'd be good to get some more videos and visuals done too, so thats something else I'm focusing on."
Expectations are justifiably high! Biggup MIK.
'DO IT' RADIO RIP
ESSENTIAL COP DETIALS:
YOU CAN PURCHASE 'DO IT' AS OF 01/03/2011 COMPLETE WITH REMIXES FROM SNK, KHAN AND FUSED FORCES FROM AMAZON HERE:
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