Mickey Factz | |
---|---|
Birth name | Mark Anthony Williams Jr. [1] |
Born | New York City, New York, United States | July 13, 1982
Origin | The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States |
Genres | Hip hop, alternative, electronic |
Occupation(s) | Rapper, producer, songwriter |
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 2005–Present [2] |
Labels | Battery Records/Jive |
Website | MickeyFactz.com |
Mark Anthony Williams Jr. (born July 13, 1982), better known by his stage name Mickey Factz, is an American hip hop recording artist from the Bronx borough of New York City, New York. [3]
Mickey Factz attended Adlai E. Stevenson High School, which is known for being the high school that hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa attended. The school is notable for delivering students of musical prowess. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Factz was exposed to music at an early age and his father would frequently rap to him. In return, he began reciting his very own rhymes, watching music videos, and studying the performances of his favorite music artists. [8] After high school, Factz went to New York University School of Law where he dropped out to pursue music [9]
Mickey Factz did many freestyles over N.E.R.D instrumentals on In Search of N*E*R*D (2006) in which he specifically rapped over N*E*R*D instrumentals. [10] Here Mickey Factz collaborated with Steve-O who pushed him to really begin to listen to N*E*R*D and served as creative inspiration. Factz then worked to chop up the beats and make the project unique, gaining the attention of Pharrell himself. [11]
Flashback Vol.1: Back to the Future (2007), which was created in order to pay homage to the type of music that Factz grew up with. [12] Mickey recorded about 40 tracks in total for this album and even after recording, he entered into another process that included the remix of over half the songs and instrumentals. [13]
For 2008's The Leak, Vol.1: The Understanding, Factz leaked one song every week on MySpace for 17 weeks. [7] One of the songs, "I'm Sean (50 Shots More)", was written from the perspective of Sean Bell, who was killed by New York police in 2006. [4]
In a 2008 interview, Factz recalled, "I had heard a few records from some New York artists, whose names I won’t mention, and I wasn’t very pleased with what they were doing. [...] I decided that I was going to get in the shoes of Sean Bell and talk about the night of him dying, him at his funeral, him seeing the press conferences and him just talking to the youth and letting them know that we have to come together and do better than what’s going on right now." [14] Factz's song-per-week release strategy was also used for The Leak, Vol.2: The Inspiration, [6] which contains guest appearances by Drake, Travie McCoy, and Tanya Morgan. [15] The music video for "Rockin' N Rollin'", featuring The Cool Kids and produced by Precize, was added to rotation at MTV. [6] Factz was named to XXL magazine's "Freshmen Class of '09" issue in 2008. [16]
Factz contributed a song, "Rocker", to the soundtrack of the Fight Night Round 4 video game, [17] and he signed to Battery Records in May 2010. [18] Mickey Factz became the new member of All City Chess Club when Lupe Fiasco said at a radio station "Mickey Factz is part of All City Chess Club." "I’m Better Than You" (2010) was Mickey’s way of expressing his sense of confidence and recognition of the competitiveness of music. [19] Love.Lust.Lost (2011) was an album based on one of Factz’s past relationships. [20]
In 2012, Factz tried to release Mickey MauSe under his label, but they considered it to be too artistic and did not back it up. Factz went on to release this experimental project himself and in the album, Mickey Mause became his pseudo character, thrown into the 1980s as a graffiti writer who was later kicked out by his parents for being a troubled youth. This project represented what it truly meant to be an artist and much research was done in order to learn about Mickey Mouse and that era of time. [21] Lyrically, this mixtape is known for being one of Factz’ best and gained him the opportunity to become closer to Lupe Fiasco.
In a 2015 interview with hip hop blog The Music Stash, Factz said a sequel to Mickey Mause called Mau2e was scheduled for Christmas. [22]
Factz appeared in a Honda commercial later that year as a spokesman for the Accord. [23]
Factz has a long history as a competitor in the sport of battle rap dating back to the original battle leagues, and hosting battles at Ultimate Rap League events.
In 2017, Factz was involved in the battle rap league KOTD's Massacre event where he battled West Coast rapper Daylyt.
Year | Song | Director(s) |
---|---|---|
2008 | "Rockin N Rollin feat. The Cool Kids" | Cheeba |
2010 | "Alpha" | Kwesi James |
"Paradise" | Phil The God | |
2011 | "Ex-Girl w/ Emilio Rojas" | Derek Pike |
"Paradise" | Phil The God | |
The discography of American rapper T.I. consists of eleven studio albums, one compilation album, one remix album, four extended plays (EPs), 13 mixtapes, 110 singles and 11 promotional singles. He has also released one music video album and over 60 music videos, the details of which are included in his videography.
Algernod Lanier Washington, better known by his stage name Plies, is an American rapper. Born in Fort Myers, Florida, Plies was a wide receiver on the Miami Redskins football team of Miami University in Ohio for two years in 1995 before embarking on a musical career. After a brief transfer to University of Central Florida, he dropped out and signed with the South Florida-based record label Slip-n-Slide Records in 2004; after four mixtapes, he signed a joint venture with Atlantic Records two years later.
Street Hop is the fourth studio album by American rapper Royce da 5'9", released in the United States on October 20, 2009, on One Records. It is the follow-up to his previous album Independent's Day (2005). At the release of Success Is Certain, Street Hop sold approximately 24,000 units in the United States via HitsDailyDouble. Despite being formally released in 2009, the singles "Shake This" and "Part of Me" were leaked online in late 2008.
Ramone Johnson, better known by his stage name Cashis, is an American rapper who was born and raised in Chicago, but moved to Irvine, California. He was most notably featured on the Shady Records album Eminem Presents: The Re-Up with Eminem and the record label, and released The County Hound EP in 2007. The County Hound EP sold 6,700 copies in its first week and debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number 106. He's best known for appearing on Eminem's song, "You Don't Know", featuring 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks.
Chester French was an American indie pop band consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter David-Andrew 'D.A.' Wallach, and multi-instrumentalist Maxwell Drummey. They met as college students at Harvard University, naming their band after sculptor Daniel Chester French, who designed the statue at the Lincoln Memorial, the John Harvard statue, as well as the Minuteman statue at the Lexington/Concord battlegrounds in Massachusetts.
Johnson Barnes III, better known by his stage name Blu, is an American rapper and record producer from Los Angeles, California. He performs as one half of the duo Blu & Exile, which was formed in 2007 and whom released their debut studio album, Below the Heavens in July of that year. He is also the forefront member of the California-based collective, Dirty Science. He is recognized for his collaborative albums with record producers Mainframe, Ta'Raach, Bombay, Damu the Fudgemunk, Madlib, Nottz, and Union Analogtronics. Since his debut, he has had a productive standard of releasing multiple albums.
U-N-I are a hip hop duo from Inglewood, Los Angeles, consisting of Y-O and Thurzday.
Asher Paul Roth is an American rapper from Morrisville, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his 2009 debut single "I Love College," which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and foresaw the birth of frat rap, a college-oriented subgenre of hip hop.
Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., known professionally as B.o.B, is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. Raised in Decatur, Georgia, Simmons signed with record producer Jim Jonsin's Rebel Rock Entertainment in 2006. Two years later, he signed a joint venture recording contract with fellow Georgia rapper T.I.'s Grand Hustle Records, an imprint of Atlantic Records. Following his major-label deal, Simmons quickly achieved commercial success when his 2009 debut single, "Nothin' on You", peaked the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and received three nominations—Record of the Year, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration—at the 53rd Grammy Awards.
This article summarizes the events, album releases, and album release dates in hip hop music for the year 2009.
Slaughterhouse were an American hip hop supergroup consisting of rappers Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Kxng Crooked, and Royce da 5'9". They released their eponymous debut studio album independently in 2009, and signed to Shady Records, an imprint of Interscope Records to release it's follow up, Welcome to: Our House in 2012. The group disbanded in 2018.
Blackout! 2 is the second studio album by American hip hop duo Method Man & Redman. It was their first collaborative album in eight years. The album was released on May 19, 2009 under Def Jam. It debuted at #7 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and at #64 on the French Album Charts. The album has sold 178,608 copies in the United States by December 12, 2010, according to SoundScan.
Donavan LaMond Johnson better known by his stage name XV is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Wichita, Kansas. He first gained major attention after the release of his twelfth mixtape Everybody's Nobody, for which he received two awards from DJBooth.net. His name, XV, refers to the age (15) at which he began his musical career. On Monday July 26, 2010, XV announced that he had signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records via his Twitter page.
The discography of Waka Flocka Flame, an American rapper, consists of two studio albums, 41 singles and 28 mixtapes. His highest-charting single, "No Hands" featuring Roscoe Dash and Wale, peaked at number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
The Marathon is a mixtape by American rapper Nipsey Hussle. It was released on December 21, 2010 for free legal download and for download on iTunes. The mixtape was released by All Money In.
Kyle Alfonso Myricks, better known by his stage name Stalley, is an American rapper from Massillon, Ohio.
The discography of Moroccan-American rapper French Montana consists of five studio albums, twenty-six mixtapes, 51 singles including 57 as featured artist, 32 music videos and 18 promotional singles.
Hotel California is the third studio album by American rapper Tyga. It was released on April 9, 2013, by Cash Money Records, Republic Records and Young Money Entertainment. The album features guest appearances from Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, The Game, Jadakiss, while the production on the album was handled by DJ Mustard, Detail, Cool & Dre, David D.A. Doman, Mars of 1500 or Nothin', The Olympicks, SAP and Ryan Hunt, among others.
La'Reonte Wright, known professionally as Dizzy Wright, is an American rapper and record producer.
Jon Kevin Freeman Jr., better known by his stage name Jon Connor, is an American rapper and record producer. Connor has released various mixtapes and an album effort during his career including the Jay-Z inspired The Blue Album, and the Eminem inspired The People's Rapper LP. His debut studio album, Unconscious State was released in 2013. Shortly thereafter, he was signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment from 2013 to 2019, where he did not release an album. In 2015, he garnered notoriety for being featured on Dr. Dre's album Compton (2015) as well as The Game's album The Documentary 2.5 (2015).