iCON the Mic King
Interview By: Jason Gloss
Norff Philly’s most arrogant emcee Mike King chops it up with Philaflava.com on why he believes he is the best damn rapper alive! And if he isn’t, well there is always boxing…
PhilaFlava.com: Did you end Copywrites career?
iCON the Mic King (Laughs) Ahh I'm sick of hearing about that guy. Peter William Nelson did a lot of that himself by
turning on his people and then putting all his eggs in one basket hoping the Roc was gonna sign him. Then getting
rocked by Camu. I was just an instrument of karma that acted as the nail in the coffin. It's funny though because
we were supposed to go on a tour together with Inspectah Deck and U-God right after that happened and he tried to make
it so I wouldn't go and so the booking agent made the promoters pick and no one picked him. So I guess that speaks for itself.
PhilaFlava: You seem to always be surrounded by controversy. First it was the incident with Vinnie Paz over the name.
Then it was you knocking out Copywrite and most recently there has been talks of fellow Philly native Reef The Lost
Cause having a problem with you. Do you find trouble or does it find you?
iCON the Mic King Man as far as trouble finding me, for most of those situations it's more people reacting to me
as a product of their insecurity. I just do what I do. People I get into it with are generally upset because I make
them feel inadequate and my continued existence threatens their positions. I couldn't care less about any of that
I just wanna make a living off my music and see the world. I drive a luxury car and have the illest girlfriend in
the world, rappers with self-image deficiencies are not something I care about.
PhilaFlava: The new album "Mike And The Fatman" recently dropped. It's said to be your best work to date. Would you agree?
iCON the Mic King It's a good record. I wouldn't say it's my best work to date. It's prolly more catering to what
people want. Straight up rhymes with some boom-bap shit. Sonically it's prolly my best SOUNDING record but lyrically
nah I think it's a step back. I like it a lot but it's not my magnum opus or anything. It's a tight record it's just
so much of indie rap is a waiting game so u don't feel the same connection to it after 2 years and you’ve made all
this stuff you love more.
PhilaFlava: Tell us a little behind the project and how you and Chum got together for this jawn?
iCON the Mic King Chum and I were working on music cuz we just spend a lot of time drinkin and goin around actin
retarded and doing shows here and there and a label stepped to me like yo what do u have closest to being finished
and I was like this record with Chum and they were aight boom finish it. Then that fell thru so we shopped it and
Uprising loved it so they said do some collab tracks and we'll put it out. Boom there u have it. Except the bonus
tracks the record is kinda old and we've evolved so much so the next shit we got is going to be even more incredible.
PhilaFlava: Besides yourself (of course) who do you think is the best doin’ it in the 215?
iCON the Mic King Hands down Dos-Noun. Followed by Verbal Tec, Last Emp, Chief Kamachi. Jus Allah isn't
from Philly but he close enough that we can count him too.
PhilaFlava: What has prevented you from having the career you would have liked in 2007?
iCON The Mic King: Shit. That's a great question. I wish I knew. I wish I knew why I feel like my album was dead
in the water. I wish I knew why I haven't gotten enough shows this year. I wish I knew why I'm not an internet media
darling. All I can do is keep working until things match my projection. That's also why I didn't go ahead and put my
solo debut with Uprising because I knew the release fanfare around the release wouldn't live up to my expectations. It
doesn't have as much to do with them as it does with me essentially being a "new" artist to all those people who only
know what Pitchforkmedia force feeds them. A lot of it has to do with me (up til recently) continuing to believe in
meritocracy. Where if you do good people will notice you will get to go further. All the elite emcees I came up around
believed in that so we never tried to go and make friends with people so we could get ahead. I thought that was how you
did it so I was never one of those guys who went out to every event to shake hands and smile. It's all about those
relationships you create though. So hopefully in the future the relationships I'm building will help me move forward.
PhilaFlava: Your most recent tour was with Souls of Mischief. How was that? Did you learn anything from them in terms of the business. Any good tour stories?
iCON the Mic King The tour was great! We had some really good shows especially in Chicago and in Florida. Those
guys have it down to a science. Much love and respect to the whole Hiero Emporium. Tajai is very knowledgeable on
the business side of things and it just felt real official to be on the road with veterans of the game. They showed
me a lot of love and I'm going back out with them in July. All of them dudes had birthdays in the same 2 week period
on the tour so I guess you could say we were a mobile party (laughs). I'm not really at liberty to put their business
in the streets though. The wildest thing that happened was this one kid got stabbed in his neck with a broken bottle
in Sarasota. Shout out to that dude, hope you doing aight kid.
PhilaFlava: Now that O.C. has departed from Hiero, will you be filling in as the resident eastcoast artist?
iCON the Mic King He did?
PhilaFlava: He’s kind of stated it was a one and done deal. I'm sure he's still cool with all of them, he s
peaks highly but in terms of being signed to them he’s no longer.
iCON the Mic King Thaswassup! Well whatever he's doing I hope it works out for him. That dude is a legend. He
was at our Brooklyn show backstage chillin and he came out during Souls set.
I was also at this Pharoahe tribute show and I was just chillin in the front and dude got onstage and remembered me
from that show and was like "Yoooo my man iCON, he just ripped that shit at the Southpaw a couple weeks back!” That
was crazy because I never said anything to dude that night he just showed love. But yeah I got respect for Hiero
maybe I'll send them my next record to see if they feeling it.
PhilaFlava: A lot of people are curious as to why you never became apart of QN5. I realize they predominately
New York based, with the exception of CL, but you and your cousin PackFM collaborate often and your
style seems like it would fit.
iCON the Mic King I'm more of a super dense space rapper. Their music is more like up-tempo light stuff that
has a wider reaching potential than my moody/epic music. I love those guys and their music though. The best
way I can explain my relationship with them is they're like the Ninja Turtles and I'm Usagi Yojimbo. I'm
always down to swoop and assasinate some shit with them but I'm just used to being on my own doing things
how I do them. I'd be down to do an album with all QN5 producers though that could be crazy.
PhilaFlava: Jimmy Iovine calls you up and says, iCON I like your music. I’ll give you the “50” budget to
make the album you’ve always wanted to make. Now, make that album, who do you get to produce and who do
you tap on for a guest spot?
iCON the Mic King Shit. That's a wild question. My album would be mad raw but soulful. I'd mostly just stick
with the same producers I fuck with now and get some of the top tier indie heads like Ayatollah, Alchemist
and throw in like a Timbaland joint and a Just Blaze joint and a joint produced by Alicia Keys featuring
her also and of course a Primo track. Features I'd get Jay, Ghost, Pharoahe, Alicia Keys, and Musiq
Soulchild. My mixtape before that would have all that extra shit heads would wanna hear. Joints
with me and Grafh and Joe Budden and shit like that.
PhilaFlava: On “Mike And The Fat Man” you got some Wu support with Killah Priest and Blue Rasberry on your album. How did that happen?
iCON the Mic King I went on tour with Killah Priest and he showed me love so when it was album time i
just hit him up and he was like aight, bet I got you. As for Blue, I hit her up on MySpace and we spoke
on the phone and it was like a rap skit she was all shouting at her kids and shit and I sent her the beat
and she was like hell yeah and that was that. Look for us to be doing a LOT more stuff in the future.
That's my homey right thurr.
PhilaFlava: Assuming this record does really well and labels start hitting you up offering you a deal
for the same price such as Babygrande, Nature Sounds Duck Down, Def Jux, BBE/Rapster or Stones Throw,
which do you pick and why?
iCON the Mic King I think based on my subject matter Jux would prolly be the best fit their crowds
seem to grab on to what I do the most but BBE or Stones Throw are probably the best for breaking into
the international markets and that's my whole M.O. right now.
PhilaFlava: How important is your work to you? Would you dumb down for dollars or would you continue
making the music you have been for the past decade?
iCON the Mic King I wouldn't dumb down for dollars but what I feel myself doing is making my delivery
more exact and just in general making more soulful music. The dense lyricism is still there but it's
about packaging it so I can be at the helm when the Renaissance comes next year.
PhilaFlava: Without a doubt I believe the internet is responsible for the decline in hip-hop. Yet
without the internet many of the groups we have today wouldn’t exist. My question to you is, if
you could go back in time, would you do without the internet knowing that hip-hop would have
continued on the same path it was on in the mid 90’s or would you have given it up for the
current state its in today, just so many people could have a career?
iCON the Mic King As much as we as rappers try to make money want to hate on the net, the
internet made all of us. The internet put us in contact with each other and essentially
sped up a lot of our growth and a lot of us in touch with the emcees that would influence us.
So it's really hard to say because it's a double-edged sword. It's great in a way because it's
eventually going to level the playing field between the majors and the indies but it's also
going to level it at a much lower potential to make money. I would love for the saturation
of the market to not exist but at the same time there's a lot of rappers that I enjoy that
may have never existed had their been no internet so I really can't answer that Catch-22.
There should be a panel that issues Rap Licenses so if you're not a level 8 or above you
can't rap in public. That would fix everything.
PhilaFlava: I asked this question to Paz , but I’d like your take on it as well. The importance
Philly plays in hip-hop often gets overlooked. Being a native and MC, how important is Philly to the culture?
iCON the Mic King Philly is crazy important to the culture. Philadelphia has invented so many styles
and fashions that we don't get credit for and we're always overlooked because live in the
shadow of NYC. Just look at our golden era contributions. Then our more modern shit in the
gully rap categories. Heads from Philly have always had style and been different from what's
going on in NYC. Look at like State Prop them dudes were rapping in melodies and shit they were
like avant garde for thug rap. Basically we've added a lot of shit to hip-hop that we don't
get credit for because a lot of it gets jacked by NY and heads assume that's where it came from.
PhilaFlava: I'd like you to rank the following 10 Philly rappers from best to worst. Freeway, Baby Blak,
Beans, Maylay Sparks, Reef The Lost Cause, Cassidy, Peedi Crack, Black Thought, iCon The Mic King and Vinnie Paz.
iCON the Mic King:
1. iCON The Mic King
2. Black Thought
3. Cassidy
4. Beans
5. Freeway
6. Baby Blak
7. Peedi Crack
8. Maylay Sparks
9. Reef The Lost Cause
10. Vinnie Paz
PhilaFlava: Would you consider Big L or Big Pun a Top 15 lyricist?
iCON the Mic King Big Pun yeah. I like Big L too but I always felt like he was overrated. He's
dope but he's not an all-time great. I suppose I'd have a different perspective if I knew more
than "MVP" and his DITC verses when he was alive. He's good but he's just obsolete. It's like
seeing Blade Runner. But R.I.P. to both of those cats.
PhilaFlava: Whats on deck for the remainder of '07?
iCON the Mic King Just as much touring as possible. Got a lot of tours in the works we'll
see what actually happens. I'm basically throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Just left my dayjob and I'm just working as much as possible. Working on the next records.
Considering doing an electronica record. Dos and I are working on a European tour.
Overseas promoters get at us.
PhilaFlava: Any last words for your fans, haters and of course the wonderful people at Philaflava.com?
iCON the Mic King Thanks for the love and continued support. To heads that never checked me out
before, check out the album and the web stuff: http://www.myspace.com/iconthemicking & http://www.iconthemicking.com.
To all the message board heads thanks for the entertainment. I'm trying to cut back on looking at the
board too much cuz there have been days when I sat there pressing F5 on PF and Myspace all the sudden
it's 4 hours later. “The Renaissance” is coming! Shout out Jigga Gloss for being the Don King of this
mess bored shit! Peace!