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MICxSIC: The Mc

MC and Bar Exam host looks at the bigger picture

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MICxSIC is a true school hip-hop MC, first and foremost. Look no further than his latest single with Z. Rich (formerly Phene), “Respect Is Still King,” for some insight into his frame of mind. But beyond everything else, the Virginia Beach transplant calls himself a “visioneer” — one who engineers a vision. “I try not to use the word promoter,” he says. “I like to say I’m a provider, because what I do is necessary.”He’s also a leader of freestyle lyrical sparring known as cyphering. Since 2013, the host of Apache Cafe’s monthly Bar Exam has pushed rappers to the top of their abilities in an open mic showcase. Since 2014, he’s engaged singers, poets, producers, and DJs alike to take part in another open mic jam. But on Oct. 9, 2016, he brokered a partnership between his Savage Fam event productions and Soul Food Cypher, a local nonprofit that also hosts a monthly hip-hop cypher, to beat the Guinness Book of World Records’ “Longest Freestyle (Team)” record during the A3C hip-hop festival and conference. The goal was to surpass the previously held record of 12 hours and two minutes. Savage Fam and Soul Food Cypher called it quits after 24 hours, 26 minutes, and 42 seconds.The achievement came with little fanfare beyond Atlanta’s underground hip-hop scene. But setting a monumental goal and smashing it by relying solely on the talents of his musical colleagues and peers was motivation for raising the bar high for the coming year. At the same time, he also aims to adopt a less-is-more approach to his workload. “I produced and performed in over 70 events in 2016,” he says. “It’s been grueling but rewarding. I’ve had high highs and low lows. What that experience has taught me on a personal level is that persistence will get you there, and patience will keep you there. From there it’s a matter of where you want to be. Happiness is when you like what you get.”His goal for the coming year is to enrich the Savage Fam experience by crafting higher quality content while also providing more opportunities where his peers can hone their skills. However, at his core he’s still MICxSIC the MC. With the album he’s currently writing, Renaissance Hustler, he wants to set the standards that all other artists and event producers and promoters strive to reach. “I don’t take the audience experience or the artist experience for granted,” he says. “I want people to say I release quality music and I put together quality shows and that their time and money was well spent. I want to bring everyone closer with those experiences and earn their loyalty.”


To do it all, he will need to spend time producing more digital content and marketing, which goes hand-in-hand with taking shows like the Bar Exam to new cities. So much for the less-is-more approach.