Premiere + Interview: Eating Breakfast with Mic Kellogg

Milwaukee is probably one of the last places you’d think would have an exciting, bubbling hip-hop scene, but sure enough, as I sit here in front of my worn down laptop, I find myself scrolling through pages of songs from MKE cats that are nothing short of jammin’.

One guy from the area who has really caught my ear recently is a producer/rapper by the name of Mic Kellogg. He’s a 22-year-old who’s actually a Madison, Wisconsin transplant that made his way out of the area a few years back seeking much more than what was around him. “It’s a place where you can get stuck really easily,” says Kellogg.

Before finding his place in Milwaukee, Kellogg had first picked up and left the Wis for higher dreams in Colorado. Much to my envy, he had been taking a class on hip-hop, and that was when he really began to take things seriously with his music.

His interest and desire to make beautiful music hit a new peak when he finally made it to MKE, a move that seems like it wouldn’t have happened if not for one of Mic’s good friends and now-roommate, Webster X. He’s a very talented emcee in his own right, and had told Mic to make his way out there since the scene was starting to get real poppin’. Sure enough, Kellogg found his niche and has since flourished musically.

Webster is also noted by Mic as one of, if not the biggest influence and motivation with his music. He also draws a lot of inspiration from older, vintage music from the 1950s-60s, which you can definitely hear in some of his production work.

When it comes to his production, there’s a lot of sampling. He told me how he uses this one website that is essentially a search engine that allows you to type in any musician’s name, and shows you every artist that is similar to the one you searched. Mic would find some obscure name, and run through their entire discography. “I would be listening to like 150 songs from people I had never heard of [laughs].”

Another challenge he put in front of himself was taking classic Kanye West samples, and trying to flip it into something entirely new, yet still recognizable. Mic may not have made five beats a day for three summers, but he would take old Late Registration samples and try to make something better out of it, which only sharpened his skill as a producer.

He’s connecting a lot of these musical dots through his production, and has some dope work coming out with talents such as Bankx, RahRah The Savage and of course Webster X.

Because he produces all of his own stuff, it really allows him to make a well-rounded track that hits on every cylinder. Mic’s overall talent is just already so pure and clean sounding to me and, even though he only has three tracks out, they definitely stand out amongst most anything released from an underground artist this year.

Today DC gets the pleasure of being the first to give fans his fourth-ever track “Take Me,” which is another refreshing cut that blissfully falls into your ears. It features Mic’s stellar production and songwriting that has made me such a fan in such a short time. This is the last taste of his upcoming project before its release, and is definitely the best track I’ve heard from him so far.

His debut effort is simply titled Breakfast, and is currently without a release date. It’s going to be a prime display of his talents, and is sure to impress. It will be a full-length body of work, though it will hold just two features—Webster and his very talented girlfriend, Siren.

By looking at his tracks’ covers, it’s clear the morning ritual of breakfast is a reoccurring theme in Mic’s music. That’s simply because he’s embraced his last name of Kellogg, while also finding peace in some pancakes—he even has a Tony The Tiger tattoo on his side.

When you look at Mic, he might just look like a regular guy with some rings and tattoos. But when you listen to him, you hear the bounds of potential and sumptuous talent that he has.

This is the very beginning of it all for Mic, and frankly I’m really excited for him. I don’t interview a lot of underground artists, but when I do, I make sure that it’s someone I think people will wanna go back and get the story on because they’ll be big later. I’ve been right about GoldLink, Alex Wiley, Kembe X and a few others, so what do you think that says about Kellogg?

Keep an eye out, people. This train’s a-chuggin’ and a-chooin’. Listen to “Take Me” below & enjoy!