MIKE BAKER // the bike maker.. — ARTIST TO LOOK OUT FOR

I was always curious about it, but in the few years I’ve known him I’ve never asked. Seemed as good a time as any: “So, what’s the story behind the name?”

“Why Mike Baker the Bike Maker?”

He laughs, “It’s really…it’s really dumb.”

Based in Queens, New York by way of Alameda, California, say hello to our #artist2lookout4, Mike Baker the Bike Maker.

Thinking it was an affinity for bikes (I’m not alone here right?), the story is actually a lot simpler than I imagined. “I started rapping in the summer before 9th grade,” he says. “I was in a group called Diverse Roots with my boy Moxie, who I’ve known since kindergarten, and my best friend Trackademicks. One day in highschool, Moxie turns around when we’re walking and says, ‘Hey man, you know, if you switch your initials around it’s Bike Maker.’ And I was like what, I have never thought of that in my life. And yea, so it became a nickname, and as we got more popular everybody was just calling me Mike Baker, Bike Maker, Mike Baker the Bike Maker, or whatever. People call me Bike—I’m not going to correct them. It works.”

Mike is a writer and emcee who’s been in the music game for almost two decades now. His passion for creating tracks that keep the crowd moving coupled with a vast knowledge of music history has given him that certain je ne sais quoi to create fun, one-of-a-kind, dance-inspired singles, mixtapes, and albums.

He recalls his formative years when he was first introduced to hip-hop legends like Gang Starr, Slick Rick, Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, and A Tribe Called Quest (among many, many others). He was hooked—taking full advantage of The Wherehouse music store’s return and exchange policy and digesting hours and hours of Yo! MTV Raps episodes at his babysitter’s. “I still remember how I felt when I first saw Tribe’s I Left My Wallet In El Segundo in 3rd grade,” he says. “Being like hella young and seeing how you can be fun and jovial, you don’t have to be mean and strict. That kind of opened me up.”

By 8th grade, Mike started taking his love for music further by diving deeper into his personal interests. But it wasn’t until he met his best friend and producer Trackademicks that summer that they started to make a name for themselves as Diverse Roots. And then by his tail-end of college, the group officially popped off as the HNRL (pronounced Honor Roll) crew.

Created by the group’s friend and mentor, Whiz Ward, who was a peer teacher during their time at Youth Radio, HNRL consists of dope ass emcees, producers, and DJs all from the Bay Area. “With HNRL, we have such different, particular, unique musical inspirations that we dive into different things. We’re into house music, we’re into dance, rock, we’re into new wave, we’re into this, we’re into that. Before, when everybody else was kind of like amalgamating their sounds, we would just be there. So when our music was really out there we were just connecting with everybody.”

Mike and Track have steady been creating + collaborating together. Most recently with Mike’s latest single Feels Like Summer and upcoming EP, Grace. When asked what we should expect from Grace, he said, “It’s fun party music with different types of dance and house music inflected hip hop.”

Say less.

He’s dropped two singles from the project so far: Feels Like Summer and Gotta Get Close, which was co-produced by Whiz Ward and fellow HNRL member 1-O.A.K. Though no release date yet, these two latest drops give us a little taste and they do not disappoint. Take a listen—move to a fun bop on a sunny day, get down solo or dance with your boo thang. It’s nothing but good vibes.

We talk about his music evolution, latest projects, music NFTs, and what makes a good producer.

Along with your musical projects, you also work at TBWA\Media Arts Lab as a Senior Creative on Apple TV. What has working in the ad industry taught you about navigating in the music industry?

I've learned a bunch of different things, especially where I'm working at now. Throughout my academic life, since being a little ass kid in kindergarten, I've always been a procrastinator. But as a copywriter, I've learned that it's not a bad thing. It's not me procrastinating, it’s me kind of just stewing on stuff. And once I do actually write things, when I actually am like, ‘alright, time to do it’, it just comes out of me because it's been bubbling in me, whatever the task at hand is. So I've learned that and I've also learned, being in such a demanding industry and dealing with demanding clients, you kind of need to just have that shit and just do it. So what this has done for me when I write my music, it’s the same: Alright, here we go—boom, four songs. I can tap into the shit because of my work. You know, I'm never in the mood to work, but I got to write. I got to deliver. There’s no more precious feeling in me where I feel like it has to be a certain way because I can access all this shit. All the talent is there, I just just have to access it. I have to deliver at such a high level for my day job that it's enabled me to unlock this ability in myself to always write at a high level. If I can write something for a movie or write something for a showrunner of a film or TV show and they like it, then I can obviously write a rap. Of course there are times when you have writer's block, but whenever that happens I just won't even bother. I’m never going to press it. I’ll try tomorrow.

Tell me a little about the HNRL—how did it come to be?

It was kind of birthed through this program in the Bay Area called Youth Radio that me, Trackademicks, and Moxie were in where we all became really good friends. We met our friend Whiz, who brought the HNRL to fruition. I can’t remember when we had our first HNRL show. I think it was 2003, 2004—Trackademicks had this show at this venue called Milk in San Francisco and we all performed there. This is the venue where every party was at that time. When Diplo was still part of Hollertronix, they would come through and we would always posse up and go to the shows. First time I met DJ Eleven, The Rub—shoutout to The Rub, that party is almost 20years old now—but yea met DJ Eleven there and Catchdubs, who’s one of the owners of Fool’s Gold. We all just met being at this venue. So for us to finally perform there and bake all these relationships with artists, I’d say that was when we were kind of out there. We were the only rap artists from the Bay. The Bay is very insular in the sense that you will be a hometown hero and be super successful without even having to go out of the Bay. It’s also one of the only places where as our heroes get older it’s not about them getting older or aging out. No, it’s like there’s this respect for those who came before as opposed to just putting someone on the shelf because they’re too old. And so yea it’s cool, but because it’s so insular out there no one was really going to these other things. With HNRL, we have such different, particular, unique musical inspirations that we dive into different things. We’re into house music, we’re into dance, rock, we’re into new wave, we’re into this, we’re into that. Before, when everybody else was kind of like amalgamating their sounds, we would just be there. So when our music was really out there we were just connecting with everybody. Just being present, being outside of where people normally think that we’re going to be and just being in the space of doing something different than the norm. Right now it’s me, Trackademicks, Whiz, Spank Pops, DJ Tap. 10, 1-O.A.K, and Josie Stingray. We all kind of have our things where we ebb and flow out of music, but we’re always family.

What makes a good producer? Is there such a thing?

I wish I was a producer, but I just don't have the patience anymore to learn these programs. I get so frustrated. But I think there are different things that make a good producer. I think the thing that makes me and Track a good team though is that we're like yin and yang. We bring different things to the table. I'm more of an extrovert; he's more of an introvert. I'm more of a people person; he's more internal. We're able to bring out the things that we want from each other. It’s just being able to throw things at the wall and trying something new.

What sounds/vibe should we expect from your upcoming EP, Grace? Do we have a release date?

No release date, but basically in developing this project, Whiz was the one that came with the idea for Grace. I have a mixtape called BODY OF WORK and it's one of my favorite things I've ever done. I worked on it with my boy Capski who mixed it, and I love it because half of it is like dance music and me just rapping over it. It’s like a mixtape of the old mixtape variety where you’re rapping over other beats, you know? So half of it is me just rapping over dance shit, house shit, and then the other half is me just spitting over boom bap beats and stuff like that. I love it so much because it's like two sides of my coin. I'm such a hip hop head, but I'm also such a party music person. And you know, hip-house was never taken seriously—it was such a minute sub-genre. But I love that shit. I love rapping over up-tempo stuff.

So for Grace, Whiz was like let's [Trackademicks, 1-O.A.K] make beats for Mike that sound like some shit that Mike would hear at a party and start rapping over. And so that's the whole genesis of [Grace]. It’s fun party music with different types of dance and house music and inflected hip hop. I've released two singles from it so far: Gotta Get Close and Feels Like Summer, but I’m testing the waters in terms of how I want to go forward with releasing things. I'm at the point now where I don't want to release a full project and then seed out singles. I want to just seed out the singles that lead up to the project. You know, maybe it's a thing where I spend a whole year or even a couple of years where I'm just like here's a song and then here's the video. And then a month later, two months later, here's a new song, here's a new video. And then compile that all into a full project at the end that maybe has a couple more songs on it.

When you think about how to release music moving forward, are NFT’s part of the equation? In what ways do you think NFT’s are beneficial to musical artists?

I actually just dropped my genesis NFT music with Glass Protocol. Music NFT’s are themselves becoming a thing, and Trackademicks and I are exploring the Web3 space. It’s interesting—when you see rappers like Latasha, an emcee out of Brooklyn, finding success this way as a Black woman emcee is validating. Like back in the 90s, if you sold a million records or a million units, you went platinum. It was great, you’re having a successful career. Now, you get a million spins on Spotify and that’s like a $3,000 check. How is that? Someone who listened to my song a million times…that’s a lot for a little.

To see someone like Latasha selling a rap song for $1.5ETH, over $3,000 for the NFT, but still being able to put it out on streaming platforms for people to listen to is validating. This seems like the future because why get rugged by a record label that’s just gonna take all the money when you sign a deal. When you sign a deal it’s basically a loan, and you’re repaying that loan to your record label until you recoup the costs and you might not see any success. This new space adds value to the songs that people are actually making. So it’s been really interesting to learn about this and see how to make these things happen. The way NFT’s are talked about in the press, it’s like you can just right click the JPEG and save it, so what's the difference? But what people don’t tend to realize is that you can go to the store and buy a print of the Mona Lisa for $15, but you don’t own the Mona Lisa. It’s the same thing. NFT’s aren’t for everybody; it’s a collector’s thing—I’m going to own it, but other people can appreciate it. It’s learning to find the value in the art; your art. I don’t want to feel animosity towards the art that I love. I don’t want to feel that I’m wasting my time and I don’t want to just do this for myself. I want to be successful doing the thing that I love, so I can’t play it safe and overthink. I have to have an open mind and be willing to learn and try something new.

Feels Like Summer dropped in August 2021, your second single from the project. A song you say is “the essence of a perfect Summer day”. What is your perfect Summer day?

Honestly, it can be any day. One day I’ll wake up, hop on the train and go to Makossa to host all day. After that, go get food and see what else is happening. No idea what you're doing, but just hanging out. You just end up in things and places. Like, you might be here one moment and have no plans, and then you just end up at a Little Dragon after party and QuestLove is DJing. A perfect Summer day is a day filled with random awesomeness. Feels like Summer is about going with the flow, feeling full of positivity and good energy and basking in it.

Do you have a favorite saying? What mantra do you live by?

In this moment, talking right now: booty’s moving, bodies moving, and all that shit.

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Interview by Rahel Tekle