from the pages of Skillz Magazine
DJ Mike Nice was born in Ozone Park Queens NY. As a young child Mike grew up listening to jazz, funk, soul, r&b, and disco 45's in his grandparents basement. At age 4 his parents separated and Mike and his mom ventured out to Brooklyn. Growing up in Brooklyn Mike was introduced to hip hop at an early age. It was the summer of 1980 and the early sounds of hip hop blasting off Little Joe's stoop had him hooked. Cold Crush, Sugar Hill, Crash Crew, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, live battle tapes and old pause mix tapes were the daily listening.
The old neighborhood was racialy diverse, but when crack hit it hit hard. Nobody was safe from the litte rock. The block got bad, lots of pushin robberies, rapes, overdoses, death and assorted drama. Mike's mom remarried in 1990 and they moved over to Gravesend.
Mike relatively new to this part of Bk begun hanging around the Nostrand Ave pj's and begun pushing his mix tapes. A short time later UPSTAIRS RECORDS opened up and Mike landed a job in one of the most unusual ways.
"I was shopping for some records and im looking up and down the ailes and i say dam you guys got a shitty slection of music. They had some real whack titles that i knew would never sell. Shit we were directly across from the PJ'S on Ave X and Nostrand. Brooklyn wasn't abount no bullshit hip hop. Ikey who was the co owner along with Charley comes from behind the counter and says you think you can make a difference you can start tomorrow." At first Mike was groomed as a salesmen for instore and mail order. "It was dope because i learned hands on about every piece of equipment that came in the door, mixers, sp 1200, mpc 60's, s 950 , dr 808 etc, and i made comission on whatever i sold." Charley who was the music buyer soon saw Mikes passion for moving records and put him in charge of the urban music department. It was here Mike florished and began to put Upstairs Records on the map. In the 94, 95, you would see full page ads in the SOURCE magazine among others showing the large selection of wax that was on sale. Mike created a monthly VINYL FAX CLUB which serviced over 60,000 dj's world wide. "It was basicaly a list of all the vinyl we had in stock. I used to do a monthly report on the hot wax and do top 10 list on underground , classic, and breakbeat lps. Many of NY'S finest undergound artist records were pushed by Mike. "I was pushing JAY Z when he was PAY DAY with the IN MY LIFTIME 12" and than later we had the Dead Presidents 12" with the listening party b side" Lots of rare and classic wax was moved on the daily including the very rare KOOL G RAP "HEY MR MR 12" , BUCKWILDS "STILL DIGGIN EP" and the underground classic on South Paw Records ILL BILLS "DOPE FIEND" and much more.
In 94/95 Mike entered several DJ BATTLES such as the DMC, FAT BEATS, BEAT STREET, ITF etc. "Unfortunatley i didnt win but with a class of XMEN DJ's such as Total Eclipse, Rob Swift, Roc Raider, Joey Sinister, and even DJ Swamp competition was at its finest. All those guys are champions and World Champions. I can say i competed amongst the eliete and despite the loss im happy". Battle and break record became a huge thing at this time and Upstairs was one of the few spots on the East Coast to carry such a large selection specificaly "BIONIC BOOGER BREAKS" and other titles by the world famous DJ QBERT.
Upstairs Records gave Mike many connects within the industry both main stream and underground. Mikes mixtapes contained many unreleased gems from the biggest names in hip hop. Some say Mike is one of Hip Hop's best kept secrets. Mike was also one of the 1st djs to give you the 120 minutes mixtape. "Everybody else was doing 90 minutes i said let me give the listener more bang for the buck im a give em 2hrs". His mixtapes were a staple among heads at ST JOHNS UNIVERSITY. Mike could be found early morning hustling his tapes in the cafeteria pushhing that classic material.
While at St John's Mike made friends with several underground mc's such as A Butta, Absolute, and A.L. A clasic freestyle from A.L is featured on Mikes' 1995 HOLIDAY SPECIAL.
Always a fan of the undergorund Mike reached out to NECRO who introduced Mike to Mr Hyde, ILL Bill and Cage. "When i first heard Necro & Bill on the infamous 94 show i was like i got to find out if these cats have any stuff on wax. I called up Rich King over at Fat Beats and he told me about the ILL BILL "Dopefiend" joint that was going to be on Southpaw records compalation. Later down the line i was told about the movie Necro was putting out 187 Reasons Why , I got the vhs in and was amazed by this cats creativity. I called Necro up from the number on the tape and gave him his props on the film and production."
Mike dropped the underground classic mixtape "CRACKING THE SURFACE " in May of 1999 featuring a freestyle colaboration of 50 underground and than unsigned mc's. Such artist included Shakespeare, A Butta, Absolute, A.L, Necro, Mr Hyde, Non Phixion, Main One, Fat Kat Kareem, Ayana Soyoni, Helixx, and the group know known as N.G.P. "It was great to work with all them cats, the tape is a classic to this day for those who own it , and to set the record straight GRAFH was heard on this joint 1st way before Kay Slay. The freestyle he and A Butta laid down is legendary."
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