Timetable
Mikah 9's relaxed coif is misleading: It's the only part of him that isn't tightly coiled. His mind is taut, not restricted, but ready to pounce. The Freestyle Fellowship co-founder is one of hip-hop's most gifted microphone fiends and one of its most elusive. The notorious Mikah has been cultivating the reputation of legend in absentia. Yes, absence makes the heart grow fonder, but this rapper deserves the reverence.With the alternately languorous or lightning-quick touch of his tongue, Mikah makes language his.Timetableis a succulent, if apparently random, collection of freestyles (over borrowed rhythms like O.C.'s "Time's Up"), a cappellas, previously unreleased tracks and new work with producer Daddy Kev.Though the Fellowship has often been posited as the polar opposite of the G-funk scene that also emerged in early-'90s LA, Mikah 9's lyrical persona represents the troubled-but-loving marriage of poetic glimmer and gangsta strut. His flights of lyrical fancy are tempered by street wisdom, separating him from self-indulgent word wankery. Check this freestyle from the Wake Up Show: "Handsof a gangster/knuckles all scraped up/sandpaper fingerprints counter burns or razorblade cuts/there is no heart to speak of just cold black steel/the blood is circulated by the will to kill or be killed . . ." And then there's an unabashedly jazzy version of "Danger," which originally appeared on the Fellowship'sInner City Griots, with Mikah delivering endearingly off-key jazz incantations. As always, the man has no patience for boundaries. Now that's gangsta.Lizz Mendez Berry--From URB Magazine