Mike Melinoe

Mike Melinoe has never been afraid of being too close to the fire: Just this past October while filming for NOISEY Detroit, he rapped his song "Phase Face Moonlight" while fellow rappers shot flamethrowers behind his back in front of an old tire shop.

Now Melinoe is spitting that fire harder and more honest than ever on his newest cut "Addict Venture." The video, directed by 17-year-old filmmaker Ciara Boniface follows Melinoe along as he relives the psychedelic haze of his days as a youth in Detroit abusing drugs and "jumping on couches."

"I was on Xans and syrup back then, but I just couldn't wait to be sober," he told me over the phone from his new home in Austin, Texas.

The song weaves in and out of Robitussin beats with Melinoe's brash voice finding revelation in retelling those stories that, while once were frightening, have now helped him find a new inner peace. The road to recovery it turns out is paved with flames. "Hey Michael Jackson kept moving," Melinoe said, "ya get burnt, ya get burnt."

"Addict Venture" will be on Mike Melinoe's EP Caveman, due this summer. - Noisey

Mike Melinoe was featured alongside Big Sean, Danny Brown, Dej Loaf, and others in Viceland's Noisey Detroit episode. - Viceland

Detroit resident Mike Melinoe’s rapping on “Venture Addict” feels a bit too sharp to be under the influence of a drug cocktail, but his twisting lyrics, a woozy beat, and a just-unhinged-enough hook give the song an overall sense of the spins and the walls closing in. It’s an exercise in mood and evoking sense memory on the part of the audience. While it feels like it could have ratcheted up the mayhem a few more notches, sometimes trips are better taken with known limits. A well-executed introduction to an able talent. - Pigeons and Planes

This is a worldwide exclusive. The Mike Melinoe Caveman EP is the latest project from the upcoming rapper who presents his best work to date.

The Detroit, Michigan native gives fans 7 tracks on the Caveman EP which is released today and available to download from Mike’s soundcloud page. The two guest artists (UK based Lord Apex and Qween Louie) feature on DLOG TAOG and Nightmares. We’ve already blogged the single “Addict Venture” which came with an awesome video as well.

The psychedelic, half-reality raps put Mike Melinoe in a very unique lane. This new wave form of rap will be picked up quickly, and Caveman is an excellent display of the great work we can expect to hear from Mike in the forthcoming future. - Hip-Hop Kings

Great books, movies, and music have high replay value. It’s just a simple fact. Detroit emcee Mike Melinoe is on the path to creating that kind of greatness. His new single, Henry Ol’$kool, is packed with darker creative imagery and wordplay than we’ve heard from him to date. After watching his last video and hearing this new record, it sounds like Mike has more sides to him than we knew. Here he presents an alter ego called Henry Ol’$kool, who is the opposite from Mike in every way possible (see: the hook). You never have to worry about what goes through Mike’s head since he puts all of his thoughts into his songs. After each play, I catch a new line that previously went over my head. Stereo Symphony plays around with a lighthearted beat that sounds like he made it on a toy piano from kindergarten, making the hook sound even more like satire than anything else. - DJBooth

I prefer anything loose and lyrical, as most of you are probably tired of hearing about by now. But honestly, if you were to throw Yeezus and Madlib/Freddy Gibbs‘ new joint Pinata on my desk, I’d have no problem lighting Yeezus on fire and adding another copy of Pinata to my collection. It’s not utter hipsterness, it’s simple recognition of artistic integrity.

Today I have a new artist by the name of Mike Melinoe, premiering his new track “Hold My Dust” produced by Vintage Tux. The track is coming to you from Organic Geniuses, a US hip-hop collective who has shown some true talent in the past few months.

I’m digging Melinoe’s story telling style, roping lyrics together over what almost sounds identical to a Madlib beat. It’s soft in noise, but the track shows you just how hard Mike goes in from the tip of his pen to the recording booth. I give a solid two thumbs up to Vintage Tux as well, perfecting the art of a representative instrumental.
Take a listen to “Hold My Dust” now and check back later for more updates on Mike’s progress. - EARMILK

In the crater left behind after the comet that is Kendrick’s To Pimp a Butterfly, small fragments of alien life have begun to populate the rap world. While the record was only just released, its influence shaded over hip-hop as it descended slowly onto ITunes. It promised avant-garde expressionism, a widening of hip-hop’s potential, an alternate timeline where electronics and neo-soul head-nodders evolved together at the forefront of popular music’s attention. One of the pieces of alien life, taking Kendrick’s challenge and attempting to go beyond it, is Mike Melinoe. On his debut LP Natures of PropeR Element$, Melinoe takes a shot at his own spot in this alternate pantheon.

The majority of the record exists in a plane that marries classic boom-bap to the intricate chaos that can be summoned by a computer. Melinoe snarls with an elevated consciousness about his life, but eschews narrative for a collage of images. This is not an album that promise some entirely coherent intellectualism to explain the world, but snippets of life as Mr. Melinoe. He communicates this with a voice as elastic as ScHoolboy Q, treating beats as blank canvas’s for vocal exploration instead of a series of lines waiting to be colored within.

The best moments on here are the ones that transcend the boom-bap formula, and instead use the different elements of hip-hop as abstracted figures to rearrange. We just reviewed “Demi God” and its demonic-seance trap, but there are many moments of constructive experimentalism. “Koke” is composed of a a delicate organ and a beat chopped up into a churning wave, “Fear Within Melinoe” casts Melinoe’s paranoia as a 5 A.M. half-dream, and “Hideous Prophet” mixes “A Milli” drum patterns with theremin-like synth work. My favorite song though is the last one, “Mommas Bum”, where Melinoe explodes verbally over a half-time lament. The song ends with Melinoe giving his own spoken word understanding of his own work— maybe there isn’t any Tupac interview, but Melinoe and Kendrick are really trying to say the same thing. The most important thing in rap isn’t bling, ladies, or drugs, it’s hip-hop’s ability to turn potential into reality. As of now, Melinoe isn’t making a culmination of everything he could be, but is making a foundation. And off this foundation, expect great things to be built. - Flying Tides

This year has been phenomenal for Mike Melinoe. Recently he was featured in his first magazine (Sueded Magazine) and was also named "Favorite Artist of 2016" by Sueded Magazine. - Sueded Magazine