It’s always been important to trumpet that stuff from whatever platform I found myself on. “They meant so much to me… I see such a lack of reverence for how important that music was. In his words, these albums solidified that he “…was going to fuck with hip-hop forever.” “They pulled me into hip-hop around high school,” he says. Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s (ODB) Return to the 36 Chambers (1995), A Tribe Called Quest’s seminal Midnight Marauders (1993), 1995’s Do You Want More?!!!?! by The Roots, and Common‘s Resurrection(1994) are foundational albums for Open Mike Eagle. I grew up in the middle of some nasty gang activity and hip-hop was a uniform that made it where people knew that I wasn’t involved in that shit. When I got older around high school age I chose to engage in and express myself in that way and I found my identity within that.” With vigor and certainty, he declares hip-hop became a haven. “It absolutely changed my life and saved my life and I don’t mean that in a hyperbolic way. “That’s just my perspective on it as a consumer of hip-hop.

Some of Open Mike Eagle’s earliest memories involve hip-hop and how all the older kids were involved in the culture. “Specifically growing up in urban America, it’s so tied into the expression and existence of a people in space-time,” he says. I’m not sure that there is a more incredible line to follow in terms of a cultural movement than hip-hop. Indeed, felt the intensity in his words radiate from my computer as he pronounced “hip-hop is a miracle”. “Hip-hop is the result of so many very specific, cultural, and historical lines converging in a desperate corner of America,” he says, “From that place in the Bronx to its taking over the city, to taking over the country, to taking over the world.

Open Mike Eagle is verbose and passionate, both good qualities for a rapper.

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