MIKE

Between New Jersey, London, Philadelphia and New York, rapper and producer MIKE, born Michael Jordan Bonema in 1998, has developed an introspective strain of hip‑hop marked by lo‑fi beats, jazz loops and a slow, almost monotone delivery. Based in New York, MIKE emerged from 2015 through a series of self‑released projects on Bandcamp, including the EP Belgium Butter and the mixtape Winter New York, before issuing his first notable full‑length, Longest Day, Shortest Night, in 2016. The album May God Bless Your Hustle (2017) established his place on the independent rap scene and kicked off a steady run of releases, among them Black Soap (2018), War in My Pen (2018), Tears of Joy (2019), Weight of the World (2020) and Disco! (2021). A co‑founder of the New York collective [sLUms], MIKE articulates a raw, community‑centred aesthetic focused on everyday narratives, mental health and the geographic moves that shaped his life. His independent label and publisher 10k has allowed him to control the distribution of his records, including Beware of the Monkey (2022) and Burning Desire (2023). MIKE has also pursued numerous collaborations, notably with Wiki and The Alchemist on the EP One More and the album Faith Is a Rock, and with producer Tony Seltzer on the projects Pinball (2024) and Pinball II (2025). In parallel he issues EPs and albums more production‑oriented under the alias DJ Blackpower and regularly tours the United States and Europe, including an expanded lineup for his Tiny Desk Concert recorded for NPR in 2025.