The Microphone Misfitz

It can be said that hip-hop culture and American culture are one and the same. The last 30 years have seen rap, one of the elements of the culture become popular music. It has traveled around the world and captured the hearts of many around the globe. Its influence is far reaching; however, many aspects of the music, including images of women, are viewed negatively. China banned hip-hop culture and tattoos from appearing on their airwaves. Such a sweeping ban is an example of the culture’s reach.

A Chicago rap group known as The Microphone Misfitz were recently invited to China to perform their brand of rap music and were received with great praise. We spoke with D-Nick The Microphone Misfit about the experience, how they were received and what this means for hip-hop culture around the world.
Talk about how you were able to make this trip to China.

For the past five years, I have had a residency at NIU (Northern Illinois University) for their Chinese leadership program. Groups of about 24-60 students from China come to Dekalb to learn a variety of things for two weeks. The workshop and lecture that I lead is called hip-hop for social change. I give a history of hip-hop culture, how it is, and can be used for social change in the community. The students take part in all five elements of hip-hop. For the past two years, NIU has purchased the comic books with music inside from The Microphone Misfitz to give to the students in China that come to the USA. This caught the attention of one of the coordinators of the International Chinese UTDF Music Fest in Chongqing who came to NIU with the students to meet me. They offered our group an opportunity to play multiple shows and be one of the headliners of the fest. It was on from there.
Why do you think the Chinese youth have embraced the culture of hip-hop?
Hip-hop in China is big here, like everywhere else in the world. What I have came to understand is a lot of the young people I have come in contact with have a huge dislike for modern pop rap. To them, as I’ve been told by the College of Mobile Telecommunications hip-hop club, pop-rap with the trap content, face tattoos, has made it harder for them to get the old-school rap they grew to love. The younger kids experienced old-school and new school rap and hip-hop in real time and just largely take to what they been taught to call old school rap. When walking to the market from my hotel, I ran into a group of kids with skateboards nodding their head to Gang Starr on the curb.
You were in China since they placed a ban on rap music. How were you embraced?
We were embraced with love and hope. The hip-hop and rap fans of China have such resentment for the modern look and sound of pop-rap mostly because it has made it harder for them to access other hip-hop acts such as ourselves. They categorize us as classic or old-school hip-hop. Not in the condescending way that the USA treats the traditional sound but more so to differentiate us from “pop-rap,” as I call it.
What impression would you like The Microphone Misfitz to leave on China?
That anything is possible. None of our fans ever thought they would get to see us live, but we made it.


What is it about hip-hop culture that has allowed it to travel around the world and influence so many?
It is a simple universal concept. When you have nothing in this world, you have your story and your creativity. Nothing represents that artistically more than hip-hop, in my humble opinion.
What does this trip mean for the group?
More international shows, collaborations with overseas artists, but even more than that, it proved that if we stay together nothing can stop us.


Eddy "Precise" Lamarre
Eddy Lamarre aka Precise is a father, emcee, motivational speaker, blogger and performing artist. Follow his blog at precisemuzic.com - Rollingout Magazine

His secret identity is D-Nick. He’s a hip-hop performer, teacher, youth advocate, and a real-life comic book character.
The Chicago rapper, who founded Microphone MisFitz, has been a comic book fan since he was a kid. D-Nick, whose real name is Dominique Stockman, has combined his love of hip-hop and comic books. The group he created has a comic, Escape from Babylon, about an "unknown entity putting out wicked sound waves mixed with biochemicals," Stockman said, who describes it as a parody.
Microphone MisFitz is fighting this battle,” Stockman said. The comic book features illustrations of each member of the group.
“It’s a story about big media brainwashing society,” fellow rapper Ray “Ray the Light” Jackson, said. “It’s not a farfetched story.”

Stockman, Jackson and Microphone MisFitz joined about 40 comic book authors, artists, and cosplay characters for Gail Borden Public Library’s Comic Book Mania Convention Saturday in Elgin. Members of the Star Wars 501st Legion were on hand for photos. Comic fans talked with their favorite authors, got a free comic book, learned how to self-publish a comic, and basked in the glory of comics from every genre imaginable.
Brandon Marcial, of East Dundee, came dressed as a knight while his girlfriend, Serenity Lancaster, dressed as an Anime character. Marcial, who wore a 55-pound costume, said he teaches sword fighting and has a Game of Thrones sword, but he brought foam swords to Comic Book Mania for obvious safety reasons. He enjoys both Marvel and DC comics. Unlike many fans, he doesn’t feel the need to choose one over the other because the heroes have different moral stories, he said.
“I come from a nerdy family,” said Lancaster, whose first outing as a baby was to a comic book store. She is named after an Anime character, she said. Lancaster is a fan of Anime because the comics have unique topics. “There are a lot of good messages,” she said.
Microphone MisFitz’ has positive messages in its music and the comic book, Stockman said. The group was the first to ever perform at Comic Book Mania. Microphone MisFitz’s family-friendly performance centered on comic book heroes and hip-hop songs with messages such as living a fruitful life.

When he was growing up, Stockman didn’t see many comics featuring people of color. Today, indie comics feature people of color in many different kinds of genres, he said.
“They are doing incredible work,” Stockman said of indie authors and illustrators. He is on the board of directors for Pocket Con, a comic book convention that celebrates characters of color. The convention will be held December 15 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., Chicago, he said.
Mark Stegbauer, an illustrator who’s worked on DC comics like the Flash and Marvel titles like the Amazing Spider-Man, said the ability to self-publish comic books has opened up a new world for fans. Comics aren’t just about superheroes, he said. There are crime, horror, sci-fi, mystery, and graphic comics, he said.
“Right now is the best time to be a comic fan,” Stegbauer said. He said the change within the industry is good because it will inspire the next generation of authors, illustrators, and fans. - Chicago Tribune

And so it continues – the journey begun in 2012 with Escape From Babylon and reprised three years ago with Volume 2 now finds the Windy City’s Microphone Misfitz continue their rearguard action against declining standards in hip-hop, race relations – hell decline in pretty much everything – with Escape From Babylon Volume 3. And you thought standing up for traditional values came from a conservative mindset. Still, someone’s got to stand up for all things decent in the moral vacuum of the Trump-era and they might as well do it with fat beats and laudable lyricism.
The Misfitz’ territory is very much that which formed the basis of the underground after the late nineties schism – as slo-mo b-boy cut Sons & Daughters makes clear, “Peace to the mothers and fathers of dope rap/ We are the sons and the daughters of boom-bap.” Musically, that means we’re in J5 and Dilated territory while lyrically there’s often more of a firebrand sense of social justice that you might expect from Perceptionists or rap grandaddy KRS-One. As is traditional with all names mentioned above though, it is necessary to rinse those who don’t have the skills to pay the bills. Who I’m Not for example finds D-Nick considers those who lack the facility to pay the utilities, “with poor mic skills and poor technique/ poor lyricism and poor stage presence/ a poor disposition that’s disrespecting the essence/ in that case I’ll post costs and send his poor ass packing/ with that pitiful, pathetic, misuse of the art of rapping.” As noted above though, the lyrics often reserve more and darker ire for a corrupt, and often racist Stateside elite, “Propaganda machine promoting us to be dumb/ While casual loss of life steady making us numb,” that goes as far as advocating some sort of revolution while advising care not to be sidetracked or have your sense of purpose undermined by the Superficial Hate of fake nooz. If that all sounds a bit serious, perhaps it’s because shit is. That doesn’t mean the Misfitz don’t know how to party though. There’s the intro from Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels that leads straight into soul-sampling funky (but conscious) roof-raiser It’s On for example or deeply funky b-boy cut Black Paranoia which combines conscious comment with a heavy dancefloor groove. And let’s not forget posse cut Crazy 8 featuring a host of guest emcees. Escaping Babylon was never going to be easy, but at least it sounds dope. - Monkey Moxing

If you’re short of retro-boom-bap hip-hop, this is the week for you as Chicago’s Microphone Misfitz have a new video out for their super b-boy-friendly cut Soul Rebelz. 80s platform games graphics give way to He-Man-quality animation and finally to the Misfitz themselves intercut with martial-arts flick footage by way of a visual backdrop to the Ironside Theme-sampling track itself. Man, their live show looks a blast. Bet there’s not much chance of them coming over this side of the pond though. Wrong! The Misfitz are keen to ‘do’ festivals and small venues in the UK, France, Germany and Switzerland – hell – anywhere they can rock the spot, frankly. Wanna book the ‘Fitz? Reach out to those soul rebels who rock on many levels and book The Microphone Misfitz via this email:
bookthefitz@gmail.com - Monkey Boxing

Chicago’s Microphone Misfitz vent their ire at America’s two-party electoral system with video and new track Empty Ballot. As the title suggests, they are not especially convinced that their votes make a difference and as they point out – even if they do make a difference, voting for the lesser evil of the two parties is – er – still voting for evil. Bad times. They don’t actually go the full ‘Russell Brand’ and advise punters not to vote however though it’s pretty clear they won’t be putting any crosses in boxes themselves. Still, if you are going to stick it to the man about his shitty voting system, it’s always worth doing it to phat drums and funky samples. Empty Ballot features on current LP Escape From Babylon Volume II – file next to The Perceptionists. Check vid. below… - Monkey Boxing

Chicago hip hop artist D-Nick The Microphone Misfit teamed up with B-Boy Super inLight to create “Abnormality“, a track for the opening of Graffiti and Grub, the Chicago health food store founded by activist LaDonna Redmond. Their video highlights the physical health issues brought on by artificial, processed foods and encourages us all to look at what we’re putting into our bodies.
D-Nick and Super inLight both embrace the acronym HIP HOP for “Healthy Independent People Helping Other People” and they are doing just that, using their talents to get the word out that “Eating healthy is the first step in disease prevention.” D-Nick has entered the video in The One Chicago, One Nation film contest, whose goal is to reward “videos that tell the stories of people in Chicago from different backgrounds working together for the common good.” - Huffington Post