INTRODUCING MICAH WRITE & SMOKEINTHEYE
WORDS WITH WORD$ INTERVIEW #16
A MESSAGE FROM MICAH WRITE:
“BAG OF TRICKS” by Micah Write feat. smokeintheye:
Yo, it's the Pope, 1000WORD$.
It was at a Lord Jah-Monte show at Rotten Island Records when I first encountered Micah Write. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much from his opening act, and I was sitting there thinking, "Am I really gonna watch this?" But, to my surprise, Micah blew me away with his set. Afterward, I approached him, asking where he was from and if he had any vinyl or CDs for sale. Micah had two vinyls, so I bought both and snapped a picture of him.
Micah mentioned that he usually doesn't share his music, but he generously offered to send me a link. That's when he told me about his project "LIVE MANY TIMES DIE MANY TIMES," and I was introduced to smokeintheye. I checked out YouTube and discovered they had tracks together. Upon asking Micah, he confirmed that smokeintheye was his rapping partner. I was looking forward to seeing them both at a Gorilla Nems show in Coney Island where they were supposed to open up, but unfortunately, they didn't get to perform. However, I did manage to take a picture of the duo for the first time.
Having formed a bond through their shared passion for Hip-Hop, these two connect like a pair of heroes in an old school Kung Fu flick. While smokeintheye, who is 21-years-old and from Rockland County, NY, brings an old soul and unfiltered creativity to the table – Micah Write, from Jersey City and nearly a decade smoke’s senior, offers the wisdom and experience of a seasoned veteran. Their joint project, "LIVE MANY TIMES DIE MANY TIMES," flips the saying “YOLO” on its head and explores the concept of reincarnation.
In this conversation, we delve into the creation of their project, the inspiration behind its title, and what's next on the horizon for these two up-and-coming artists. From smokeintheye's latest project "THE NEXT LIFE IS LOADING..." to Micah Write's upcoming collaboration with SkunkP32, there's no shortage of exciting work in the pipeline.
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1000WORD$: Yo, this is 1000WORD$. I'm here with Michah Write and smokeintheye.
Micah Write: Yo yo.
1000WORD$: Micah, let the people know where you from, my bro.
Micah Write: Jersey City, New Jersey. Born and raised.
1000WORD$: What about you smoke?
smokeintheye: Rockland County, New York.
1000WORD$: Fire. How was it in Jersey City when you was growing up?
Micah Write: It was dope, bro. I grew up in the original Jersey City. Let me say that, now that this is on record. I grew up in the real Jersey City, back in the early 90s. That shit was hard. It was way different than what it is right now. So when people hear this and they're like, "Oh he's from Jersey City. He's from downtown where all the bars are and it's like really cool." Like "Nah, it was not like that when I was growing up. It was way different."
1000WORD$: Fire. Yo smoke, how was it in Rockland County?
smokeintheye: It was cool, it's like a little suburban neighborhood, you feel me? There's really like, not a lot of Hip-Hop out there. There's a lot of different parts of Rockland. Like [Pro Dillinger], he's from Haverstraw. So that's like northern Rockland, I'm from southern Rockland. And I felt like there's kind of like, a void in culture, you know what I mean? There's no MCs out there and all the MCs that were from there died, like passed away in the early 2000s. So I grew up listening to them a lot. My brother put me onto Hip-Hop when I was like eight, you feel me? So I just grew up listening to Hip-Hop. I definitely felt a little isolated because no one else really related to that shit.
1000WORD$: Where would you get mixtapes at? What stores would you get mixtapes, Micah? Growing up in New Jersey?
Micah Write: So we had a spot called The Spot. It was called The Spot literally. Matter of fact, Hot 97 used to have commercials about it back in the day. So if people remember that bro, they're gonna know exactly what I'm talking about. Angie Martinez used to be on it like "Oh, The Spot on North Ave." That's where all the mixtapes was, everything. Or you could go Journal Square and get them. That was lit up there too.
1000WORD$: What about you smoke? I know you a bit younger, did they have mixtapes out there?
smokeintheye: I didn't grow up on shit like that. I got an an iPod Nano for Christmas when I was a kid and had all my older brother's music on it, type shit. And one night I just clicked like shuffle and "Mockingbird," Eminem, it just played and that was like the first rap song I ever listened to. From there, I just fell in love with Hip-Hop. I looked up like [2Pac], Big L, Pun, type shit. I just fell in love that old school sound and I never fell out of love with it. The Internet type shit like YouTube, that's how I kind of found my way around like who I listened to.
1000WORD$: What about you, Micah? What was your introduction to Hip Hop. What you remember being like the first song, or the first time you was like, "Oh shit."
Micah Write: I don't know. I feel like the answer could be a lot of different things, or it might change. But the one common thing that I remember really heavy was that when I was like 10-11, like when the Eminem album first came out, "Slim Shady LP," my sister's boyfriend bought it for me. And I wasn't allowed to have it because it was like mad cursing, he was crazy, he was talking mad wild. So I used to hide the shit. I used to keep it on the lowski that I had it. I was fucking with rap before that, like I grew up listening to all that shit, but that was when I was old enough to feel like this shit is cool, like for myself. Like I was hearing somebody say some shit that I felt I would say. So that shit kind of started it. And when I got into Hip-Hop, I was a little older by then, and that was the mixtape era. That made me want to participate in it, you know what I'm trying to say? Like really be about it, for real. I liked rap growing up, everybody loved rap, but I didn't really know what it was until that Eminem album and until I got a little older that I started to understand this shit is some shit.
1000WORD$: Wow, that's crazy man.
Micah Write: That's crazy how we both have completely different… like because of the age difference.
1000WORD$: And it's Eminem.
Micah Write: Yo, Eminem is that dude.
smokeintheye: Eminem is the GOAT, bro.
Micah Write: People love Eminem. I don't like the new shit too much, I can't lie.
1000WORD$: Yo, for the Eminem we know, he a GOAT. But for the new Eminem, he a nope.
Micah Write: Hell yeah, word. Yo, he really was nasty. Bro, he was getting down for real.
1000WORD$: He took it to another level, man. He took it to that level of like, "Yo, did he really just say he gonna like powerbomb a dog or some shit like that?" You know what I mean? That shit was crazy. But despite that, [Micah], was raised in the 90s and [smokeintheye] was raised the 2000s, right?
smokeintheye: Yeah, early 2000s.
1000WORD$: Early 2000s. How did you guys link?
smokeintheye: Shit, do you want to tell them?
Micah Write: I need to. That was the power of the internet.
1000WORD$: Haha.
Micah Write: I've been waiting my whole life to use that sentence.
smokeintheye: Facts.
Micah Write: That's what that was though for real. Yo, like for real, for real, because I would have never met him no other way bro. I don't really be... I'm out the way too. I don't mingle a lot. He'll tell you better than I could, but somebody put him on to my shit. And I peep somebody watching my story, checking out my stuff, so I always look at the page; if we get some likes or some little interaction, I'll check it out. So I go look, I'm like "Oh, it's a rapper, it's an artist. Aight, cool." I didn't think nothing of it bro. Then like a few days go by, I go back to his page cause he's still watching my shit, showing mad love. I'm like, "Let me check out his stuff," and bro, the shit was fire. It was really mad random. It was the most simple most random thing, but the music was crazy. I was like "Yo, I found a diamond. Nobody knows about this kid right now. Like nobody knows who he is, I don't know who he is, we bout to chop it up and see what's up." And we just started talking a little bit here and there, like building, and when we linked up the first time, bro it was instant. Instant, like the vibe, everything was just like connecting. The chemistry was crazy. That shit set it off.
smokeintheye: 100%
1000WORD$: smoke, what was the first song you guys put together?
smokeintheye: Yo, “THOUGHT YOU WAS NICE.” I feel like that was the first, or one of the first, cause we made a lot of shit the first time we linked and not a lot of them made the album.
Micah Write: That was the first one though, and that's the one that ended up on the tape.
I remember the feeling that like, was just in the room when we recorded, type shit. It was like, "Damn, this shit is fire. We really just made some good shit." And that was like the first time in my life where I was making some dense music, you feel me. And long before I ever really knew what I was doing in terms of being an artist type shit, [Micah] really guided me along the way to where I am now.
1000WORD$: What was the first project you guys put together?
Micah Write: "LIVE MANY TIMES DIE MANY TIMES."
1000WORD$: Yo, I remember when I heard that shit, man. I was actually riding around in Jersey headed to my lady's mom's house, and it was like an hour ride and that shit was like 45 minutes. That shit was crazy, bro. That shit was crazy from beginning to end, bro.
Micah Write: Bro, that shit came together effortlessly, organically.
smokeintheye: It didn't even feel like work.
Micah Write: We really had fun making that shit, for real. That shit was an experience. And we documented it.
1000WORD$: "LIVE MANY TIMES DIE MANY TIMES," right?
Micah Write: Mhm, that was him that came up with that title.
1000WORD$: What made you come up with that title, smoke?
smokeintheye: We're like drunk and I was deep in thought, you feel me? I was just stoned as fuck and I was thinking about YOLO, like you only live once. And I was thinking like, that's a lie. That shit is a fucking... like that's not true. And yo, it just hit me, like out of nowhere, like "LIVE MANY TIMES DIE MANY TIMES." And me and him were arguing about the name for the project, but as soon as I thought of it, I wrote it down, I started drawing it, like OD. I hit him up and told him like "Yo, what do you think of this?" And he was like, "Yo, perfect." Yeah, it's a spin on YOLO basically. "LIVE MANY TIMES DIE MANY TIMES," it's like reincarnation, type shit. It's like you live many times...
1000WORD$: And you die many times. Facts, that's fire man. What's so unique about you guys is that despite the age difference, you guys are out there like fucking shadowboxing, like fucking throwing darts all the fucking time. That shit fucking crazy. Shit reminds me of like some fucking old school Kung Fu flicks the way y'all n****s be like... So it be dope to see shit like that.
Micah Write: Nasty. That's how I felt when I found out when I found his shit. I was like "Bro, this dude is...." And I didn't know how old he was until we linked up and we were talking in person, building, and he told me he was 19 at the time, bro.
smokeintheye: Facts.
Micah Write: 19 at the time. He was like "Yo, I'm 19 and shit." I'm like "What bro?! What the hell you mean you 19?" He's like "Yeah man." I'm like "Yo, this shit is bonkers. This shit crazy." Cause he acts like an old soul though. That's why me and him like, we connect, and we can talk, and we can kick it and shit. He got an old soul, he got a good head on his shoulders.
1000WORD$: Yeah, man. What you guys got coming up next?
Micah Write: Shit, he got a project coming right now. He got some shit right now, for real.
smokeintheye: Yeah, "THE NEXT LIFE IS LOADING..." If I explain fully how I came up with the name you'd think I'm fucking crazy, but it's basically kind of just like, it means what it is, you feel me? "THE NEXT LIFE IS LOADING..." like you ever seen a loading screen. Like it's loading then you play the game and shit. It's like the world's ending. That was kind of one of the themes of "LIVE MANY TIMES DIE MANY TIMES." It's like the world is kind of coming to an end type shit, and therefore, where are we gonna go next? We're gonna go into the next life whatever that may be. It's based off a lot of the dreams that I have. It's based on shit I've seen on the internet, those liminal spaces. The shits that make you feel like mad nostalgic and shit, like dreams and shit, so I used those for the visuals. But yeah, that's kind of what it’s based on. "THE NEXT LIFE IS LOADING..."
1000WORD$: Fire. What about you Micah?
Micah Write: I'm working on a project right now with SkunkP32, [who] worked on "LIVE MANY TIMES DIE MANY TIMES" with me and smoke. He did a lot of the production on there as well.
1000WORD$: Fire.
Micah Write: So he's best friends with smoke. He's from Rockland County, New York as well. And he's working with me and smoke, like we're building up. So I'm doing a project with him right now. It's called "THE AMERICAN SCHEME" or "AMERICA IS A JOKE." It's gonna have multiple titles. We've got some shit coming, there's some bugged out shit. But yeah, we got that shit coming soon and I got a couple of little EPs that Imma throw out there like in between, you know I'm saying? But we just taking our time with these joints. Cause we want to give people like... we know that the music is dense. We know that the music is very heavy. We don't want people to just look at it like "Oh this conspiracy rap. This is like that conscious backpack shit." Like it's really not that. You might hear us talk about shit that might sound like that'll fall in those lines, but it's a little more than that, you know what I'm saying? It's really not just that. We want to make sure that people understand that. So these next joints, we trying to give them some shit that they could really feel like, "Yo aight, they giving us bodies of work that are full of substance and real shit." It's not a gimmick. It's not Illuminati rap. Like nah, this shit is way deeper than that. We covering all bases. We talking about a lot of shit, you know what I'm saying? We really do this. This shit is for real.
1000WORD$: Fire man. I appreciate y'all brothers man. And I hope that, you know as a fan, I can't wait to hear all y'all shit man.
Micah Write: Appreciate you.
1000WORD$: You already know, man. smokeintheye, Micah, my brothers.
smokeintheye: Yessir.