Few good things have come out of Winchester, Virginia. The small town is best known for being a Cocaine trade hub in the mid 80's, due to its location between New York and Floridia, and for its Apple Blossom Festival, Civil War History, and of course Patsy Cline.
All of that is about to change, however. Micill Midas is taking Winchester and the rest of northern VA by storm. In just a few short years, Micill Midas has made a name for himself by constantly challenging emcees in battle cyphers around the region, gaining a reputation for his razor-sharp wit and lightening quick responses, causing people to call him just plain ILL.
Ill has been cultivating a style that is unique to Hip-Hop and reflective of the town's influences. Due to his originality, there are few, if any ,emcees/dj's in the area who have not heard of, cyphered with, or been in the studio with him.
Born and raised in Winchester, VA, Ill found growing up in a small town boring. Where the "Winchester Speedway," Apple Blossom Festival, and high school football were things everybody got excited about, they were not quite to his taste.
Video games and professional wrestling had a profound influence on the young Micill. In these, Ill found many other kids who weren't quite into the given norm of the area. The Beastie Boys probably capture the essence of this as good as any band, along with Run DMC and LL Cool J being some of his earliest influences. Since the realization that he could, Micill has been involved in creating communities based on un-common interests. As with the rest of the world, Eazy E, NWA, and the Ghetto Boys changed the way we viewed american culture, life, and hip-hop in particular. Finding outsider viewpoints alluring, Micill was drawn to the heavy beats and hard-hitting lyrics in the Hip-Hop of the early nineties.
Nas' "Illmatic" and Biggie's "Ready To Die," along with everything Wu-tang, captured Micill's attention and forever changed his concept of the possibilities in hip-hop.Though still too young to know exactly how, he began to feel hip-hop would play a huge role in the rest of his life. The hustle was just in him and he knew it.
From organizing Magic tournaments to video game contests, back-yard wrestling matches to wrestling pay-per-view parties and pools, Ill always found himself spearheading some movement or another. This fostered relationships and community where there might not have previously been, while always collecting a tidy profit in the process.
It wasn't until a cold winter's day in 1997 that Micill starting making some sense of the role hip-hop would play in his life. While driving down I-81, long-time friend Dik James began beat-boxing on a whim, and Ill started rhymin' to it. Soon freestyling while kickin' it became more common between the two. Along with another local kid, Doc, they founded the group "B.D.C." They began kickin' rhymes at parties while just hanging out, which often lead to freestyling on open mics at local shows.
As a young Ill grew in age, the couple hundred dollars extra a week from these activities just wasn't enough. So he did what many of the youth from the northern Virginia area did. Ill learned another way of making a few extra dollars by hanging around the clubs in Washington DC and participating in what was known in the area as "the trade." Ill fell into the darkside of life so deep that in February of 1998, while visiting home in Virginia, his parents' house was raided by the DEA/drug task force with suspicion of crystal meth trafficking. Although the state was unable to find sufficient evidence to file charges to back up the allegations, it was a life-changing experience for Ill.
However, the music buisness was just a natural progression of his ability to find "outsiders" and customers. With friends playing in metal and punk bands, Micill was drawn to the inherent rebellious nature of being a musican once again. Shortly thereafter, "B.D.C." began hooking up with other emcees in the area, notably, "Partners In Crime," made up of $keme $ and Jaz-E. Around the same time, "B.D.C." hooked up with another Rhyme Faction from nearby Berryville/NoVa/Radford, collectively know as "US." The three groups began hanging out regularly and eventually merged into one collective Rhyme Sector simply known as 850 records.
850 Records officially began in March, 2006 with the release of Micill Midas' debut album, "The Offering." Singles from the album got air play in VA, WVA and NC. "Why" and "Fades Away," along with numerous mixtape-styled tracks got mad love from DJ's in the WVA stripclub scene and on radio stations at Radford University, Shepard College 89.7, and UNC Asheville's, "The Blue Echo."
As Founder and acting CEO of 850 Records, Micill Midas has spent countless hours in the studio both rapping and engineering. While steadily puttin' his peoples on, he has managed the fledgling company with the help of local producer 2012 into a hub of local hip-hop.
Nine months after "The Offering," 850 Records released Micill Midas' follow-up album, "The Medicine," in December of 2006. With this album, Micill has started taking a new marketing approach, and within a month of learning about MySpace, he has become the number one ranked page for Virginia's freestyle category, as well as number 20th in rap and 21st for hip-hop. He just broke the freestyle charts on MySpace at the number 77th spot in the whole US. Ill has recently won the first two battles at Milano's Bar and Grill, and he has been continuing work in the studio on various projects coming out on 850 Records in 2007. Micill has more plans in his future with his desire to succeed, along with the support of his family, friends, and fans. Keep a lookout for new material and check iconrecords.com for a copy of "The Offering" and "The Medicine" in February!
