Mikey J

Michael 'Mikey J' Asante has fast established himself as a secret weapon for any record company looking to combine underground vibes with crossover appeal, and  can not be pigeon-holed as just a producer, a sound engineer, or even a creative director...as his multi-faceted roles and dedication to various creative projects over a ten year span is the major reason his career has gone from strength to strength. It was his engineering work on street anthems like Sadie Ama’s ‘So Sure’ and production on Kano’s ‘Mic Check’ that had people sitting up to this raw yet honed sound. Further work on Kano’s gold selling album, ‘Home Sweet Home’, including said title track, ‘Sometimes’ and ‘9-5’, went on to define his potential. Ultimately It saw Mikey J promoted to the UK’s production premiership, securing publishing with Blue Mountain in the process.

An integral wheel in the project, Mikey’s has had an intergral part in the production of Kano's albums to date including 'London Town'. “My favourite piece of work is ‘Take A Look’ from the Beats & Bars mixtape. Kano and I enjoy working together which helps the creative side. We’re not constraining ourselves and I hope it will always be like that”, Mikey explains. Mikey also produced many of the tracks on Kano's '140 Grime Street' which includes the smash-it 'Hustler' and also the follow up single 'Rock N Roller'. With the tastemakers hot on his heels, other work past and present includes original tracks and remixing for Shawn Emanuel (EMI), Akala (Illastate Records), The Mitchell Brothers (The Beats), Sky (Warner) and Shystie (Polydor). Not one to forget his roots, he also continues to par alongside and engineer for a number of unsigned artists including Shola Ama, More Fire, Ghetto, Demon, Flirta D, Terror Danjah, Shizzle and JME. “'Mic Check' definitely put me on the map but I’m like a chameleon and being versatile is definitely my selling point and major strength…” says Mikey. “ I’d like to think I’m always enthusiastic, whoever I’m in the studio with, but I’m friendly too which has made a massive difference to my career. People know I’ll put in the work".

Of Ghanian descent, east Londoner Mikey J knows a lot about hard work and started getting his name out there by making regular appearances on London’s DéJa Vu 92.3FM, with a prime time Saturday show. But what a lot of people don’t realise is that he is a classically trained singer who joined the choir and performed in school musicals, like Bugsy Malone, as well as various dance groups. He still manages to juggle his time to co-run the successful dance company, Boy Blue Entertainment, which boasts over 120 dancers, who this year performed at the Saddler Wells Breakers Convention, an event attracting enthusiasts from all over the world. Boy Blue Entertainment has also recently completed residency at the Barbican in Decmenber 2009 with the truely maginificent urban-dance re-take of the famous Robin Browning classic  "Pied Piper"which gained a Laurence Olivier Award in 2007. While no longer instructing, his attention has switched to making all the music for their shows. “Doing musicals in school was a massive help to me, cause I didn’t realise I had talent until then. My dad actually told me not to go to University to study music because it was ingrained me. It was my parents who chipped in and bought me my equipment in the first place. He said I should study something different and he ended up being right because I dropped out of my course at Westminster.”

His versatility is the reason that Mikey has produced music for films such as the 2006 UK movie 'Rollin' With The Nines', most recently in the eagerly anticipated movie set to release in May 2010, StreetDance 3D. He has also produced original music for corporate events and conventions such as the 2007  Tour De France Opening Dance and 2008 Fiat 500 Reveal.

Every year has proven a growing success with Mikey, 2010 will continue to prove no less!