As TIDAL continues to grow and find its place in the new incarnation of the music business one of the areas they’ve focused on is finding and cultivating new talent from all over the world via TIDAL Discovery. With a unique and multi-faceted flow, a knack for hooks and production that showcases the essence of the south, 24-year-old Mike Floss caught the ear of the streaming service’s SVP of Artist and Label Relations, Tim Riley, who heard Mike’s latest single and realized they had something special.
“When I first heard ‘Dope Boy Dreaming,’I was incredibly impressed with Mike’s rap style, the percussive beat, the hook and overall production quality from an independent Hip Hop artist. Mike brings the southern hospitality to Hip Hop. It’s new. It’s refreshing. It’s what TIDAL Discovery is all about.”
In an exclusive interview with HipHopDX, Mike Floss, who recently signed with Paradigm Agency’s Joe Atamian has already opened up for artists like Pusha T, Wale, and Big K.R.I.T. speaks on getting discovered, putting on for his city and balancing the independent grind with mainstream aspirations.
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Nashville’s Place In Hip Hop & The Waka Flocka Connection
HipHopDX: Your last two joints “For The Rebels” one and two were both hailed as the best projects of the year in Nashville, but most of Hip Hop still looks at Memphis as big brother. How do you describe Nashville’s place in Hip Hop right now?
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Mike Floss: It’s unheard of to a lot of people on a national level. Speaking as a city person we have a dope scene here but it’s still getting to that point to where a lot of us are really young and we’re learning how to navigate through the industry and how to get more attention surrounding our projects cause we don’t have any real industry as far as Hip Hop goes, so all the stuff we do, we do. We don’t get a lot of help. Being independent really gives us an advantage cause it allows us to really do something different just off the strength of we don’t know how to do it the industry way so it’s all organic and very authentic.
DX: You’ve opened up for some pretty big names from all over the country. Were you able to connect with any of those artists and maybe even soak up the game?
Mike Floss: The person I connected with the most was Wacka Flocka. I did some shows with him on the west coast and that’s like big homie. He has so much knowledge and so many gems. He loaded me up with a whole lotta classic beats and that kinda stuff. We haven’t worked together yet but definitely a person that I continue to go to for insight and information and if I’m trying to learn something or try to figure out how to approach certain situations he’s a really good person to talk to.
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How “Tidal Discovery” Changed Mike Floss’s Life
DX: Flocka is known to go pretty crazy at his live show, did he influence that aspect of your career at all?
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Mike Floss: Absolutely. He taught me how to not lose my voice with the madness so because those shows are insane. I seen somebody get body slammed and not like in a violent way. Those kids just rage. It was really important for me to learn you have to control the madness and not let the madness control you cause you can get caught in that energy and next thing you know you’re in the middle of the mosh pit and you don’t get to finish your set so he really showed me how to not let the craziness control me.
DX: How did TIDAL discover you and how has your experience been with them so far?
Mike Floss: I have the true cinderella story with TIDAL cause I literally just uploaded my music: I put it on my Soundcloud and all that and I uploaded it to TIDAL and apparently somebody over there heard it and they have the TIDAL Discovery platform that’s all about getting artists new artists to connect with fan bases, getting them to connect on a personal level and have them look more into who you are. So they featured it on TIDAL Discovery and a bunch of people saw it, critics and journalists and just straight up fans and a lot of people saw it and got in tune with me and from there TIDAL came to Nashville and I played the show at Jack White’s Third Man Records and they came to Nashville and shot it and it’s a part of their 1440 series where they come and do a day in the life with an artist. People really got to get an experience of what my story is and where I’m from and got a glimpse of the Hip Hop scene and everything that I’m doing that’s different from a lot of the Hip Hop artists. Very few rappers have ever played Third Man. If you know Third Man you know how particular they are about every little thing so it was just a really good exposure opportunity for me.
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DX: Your style seems like it could go either way: Backpack or mainstream. How do you define your sound?
Mike Floss: It’s an interesting question. It’s kind of like this appeal, that’s what people tell me anyway, that everybody likes my music. It’s not just a sub-genre that I pigeonhole so it’s hard to put a finger on it but I think it makes me more of a universal presence than just a backpacker or trap artist or whatever people might try to box it in with. It’s a blessing cause I’m able to do whatever I want to do, like the next song called “Movie,” is completely different than “Dope Boy Dreaming” so people will see the diversity. I wanna just continue to grow as an artist and I can’t say where I see myself sonically. I’m a Hip Hop artist I know that much, but I’m a songwriter and I want to continue to grow and continue to advance in my craft.
