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Meet Mike Wird

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Wird.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Mike. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I bought my first Hip-hop cassette tape downtown Denver at the old Tabor center when I was 10 years old. It was Snoop Dog’s Doggystyle. Inappropriate for my age but funky! So Hip-hop and funk music got me early! Little did I know that on the other side of the country Showbiz and AG of D.I.T.C. released Runaway Slave. I wouldn’t delve this deep into Hip-hop for another decade almost. My high school years were spent spreading love through out all the social groups at school, I didn’t have one group that I kicked it with most. I was a diplomat, a man of the people, a true politician…LOL. I was the senior class student body vice president and captain of the varsity basketball team. If there was anyone I did kick it with more than anyone else it was my best friend, bass player and graffiti artist(writer) Kevin Deon Johnson, my boy Quintin Sherrell, and my basketball team. Quintin Sherrell is also known in the city of Denver as a prominent DJ, KDJ Above (he named himself after our friend Kevin Deon Johnson). It was like junior/senior year when Q’s mom got him some turntables and we would kick it in Q’s basement as much as possible listening to records, learning how to use the turntables, write rhymes and break.

In 2000 I went to Seattle for college and this is where my passion for Hiphop really blossomed, around the same time, my best friend Kevin committed suicide while visiting me at college in Seattle, this prompted me to drop out of college and pursue my music career “dreams”/vision and develop my Hip-hop crafts full time. (I don’t necessarily recommend this.) I moved back to Denver and began the journey of making a name for myself as a Hip-hop artist and not just a rapper. I felt it necessary to practice all the elements of Hip-hop (breakin’, djin’, producing, writing graff, emceein’, etc) in order to be qualified to rap! Little did I know that in the future being a Hip-hop Renaissance man doesn’t necessarily promise you success as an Emcee. The first shows I did were Guerrilla Tactics at La Rumba and The Mercury Cafe (a benefit for The Black Panther’s minister of information and framed death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal) with the help of DJ Cavem’s mother and cultural jedi Ashara Akundayo and at the legendary Revoluciones a graffiti art gallery that Babah Fly Jedi hooked me up with after I met him working at the legendary graffiti shop Art and Sol on Ogden Street.

These two people have had a major impact on my creative life early on and still till this day I work often with Babah Fly. Being that there was and is no real music industry movement in Denver the default for lots of artist that choose to stay here is to move into the education realm. Over the last almost two decades I have been on a mission to represent Hip-hop in an uplifting light and share that with all generations most importantly the younger generations. A lot of this work has been done through the youth arts advocacy organization Youth on Record founded by peers The Flobots. It is no secret that there is a corporate plan to criminalize the image and mindset of Hiphoppers worldwide and especially in the states. I am the antithesis of this treachery and I see why it is not advantageous for these “powers that be” to have artists like myself in positions of power and influence. It’s been a uphill battle to gain traction in this society as an artist which advocates for personal responsibility and service to others, as well as being a healthy steward of nature and finances.

I’ve been in several music groups including the Bugaboo conglomerate, Fly4wird with Babah Fly and Felix Fast4ward Ayodele. The band The Denver Avengerz. The Soul Pros with DJ A-L and Pablo Kee of Debajo Del Agua to name a few. Over the last few years I have been performing solo and have release several projects since 2010. My releases and collabs from 2019 are with Opio of Hieroglyphics and Souls of Mischief and Canadian OG producer/emcee Moka only, the song is called Perception available on all music streaming platforms. I am also highly honored to be a part of the worldwide artist collective known as The Peanut Gallery aka PNTGLLRY founded by California Hip-hop renaissance man and OG unknown founder of the world famous Living Legends, Anacron. The summer of 2019 Anacron executive produced another project of mine called Mike Wird: EP also available on all streaming platforms, I was also asked to go on tour with my childhood heroes The Hieroglyphics for the 21st anniversary of their first independently release record called 3rd Eye Vision. I dubbed my part of the tour as the BUILD YOUR OWN DREAMS TOUR.

We all have a major say in the design of our life if we choose to! The most recent project I released was in August called LILITH available on band camp. Lilith is a collab with all women vocalists and one woman produced the whole project, Judy Koolaid, who use to be a student of mine in an after school program for the YMCA where I taught about music production, and Hip-hop culture. It’s strange I have been contributing to the Hip-hop community in Denver and worldwide for close to 20 years now and it feels like I still haven’t even scratch the surface of what I am capable of doing. Even though I feel like giving up often, the reality is I’m just getting started and we miss 100% of the shots we don’t take…. So I’ma keep on taking my shots. The only thing we have to lose is our chains by following our dreams and visions. Thanks for reading this far. Keep building your own dreams y’all.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has been a rough road the whole way with the main obstacle being visibility and garnering a legitimate solid fan base. Which leads to better paying more consistent shows nationwide and globally.

Tell us more about the business.
My business is three tiered. I deal in the healthy stewardship of the social/cultural components of society aka my music arts, the ecological components aka as an instructor and designer of natural and build systems (ecologically sound human settlement design) and financial systems as an educated real estate investor and financial literacy advocate and student. You can find all these empowering themes throughout my work which make me a rare find in a world of materialism for the sake of materialism or pseudo-spirituality.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity….this has happened over and over again in my life and I hope for this to only elevate to higher and higher levels.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Stilfocus Media
DJ Cavem
Anthony Camera

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