Mark Williams (born July 13, 1982), better known by his
stage name
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...
Mickey Factz, is an American
hip hop recording artist from
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
borough of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
New York.
Early life
Mickey Factz attended Adlai E. Stevenson High School, which is known for being the high school that
hip hop pioneer
Afrika Bambaataa attended. The school is notable for delivering students of musical prowess.
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Factz was exposed to music at an early age and his father would frequently rap to him. In return, he began reciting his very own rhymes, watching music videos, and studying the performances of his favorite music artists. After high school, Factz went to
New York University School of Law
New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...
where he dropped out to pursue music
Music career
In Search of N*E*R*D (2006)
Mickey Factz did many freestyles over
N.E.R.D
N.E.R.D. (stylized as N⋆E⋆R⋆D and N.E.R.D, a backronym of No-one Ever Really Dies) is an American hip hop and rock band, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1999. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were signed by Teddy Riley to Virgin Recor ...
instrumentals on ''In Search of N*E*R*D'' (2006) in which he specifically rapped over N*E*R*D instrumentals. Here Mickey Factz collaborated with Steve-O who pushed him to really begin to listen to N*E*R*D and served as creative inspiration. Factz then worked to chop up the beats and make the project unique, gaining the attention of
Pharrell
Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...
himself.
Flashback Volume: 1: Back to the Future
''Flashback Vol.1: Back to the Future'' (2007), which was created in order to pay homage to the type of music that Factz grew up with. Mickey recorded about 40 tracks in total for this album and even after recording, he entered into another process that included the remix of over half the songs and instrumentals.
The Leak, Volume 1: The Understanding
For 2008's ''The Leak, Vol.1: The Understanding'', Factz leaked one song every week on
MySpace for 17 weeks.
One of the songs, "I'm Sean (50 Shots More)", was written from the perspective of
Sean Bell, who was killed by New York police in 2006.
Mixtape Success & Freshman XXL Cover (2008-2009)
In a 2008 interview, Factz recalled, "I had heard a few records from some New York artists, whose names I won’t mention, and I wasn’t very pleased with what they were doing.
..I decided that I was going to get in the shoes of Sean Bell and talk about the night of him dying, him at his funeral, him seeing the press conferences and him just talking to the youth and letting them know that we have to come together and do better than what’s going on right now."
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Factz's song-per-week release strategy was also used for ''The Leak, Vol.2: The Inspiration'',
which contains guest appearances by
Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
,
Travie McCoy
Travis Lazarus "Travie" McCoy (born August 5, 1981) is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is the co-founder and former lead vocalist of the rap rock band Gym Class Heroes, in addition to having a solo career. McCoy became involved w ...
, and
Tanya Morgan.
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The
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
for "Rockin' N Rollin'", featuring
The Cool Kids
The Cool Kids are an American hip hop duo composed of rappers Sir Michael Rocks and Chuck Inglish. The Cool Kids' music had been released primarily to the independent Chocolate Industries via their own label C.A.K.E. Recordings. Reed and Inger ...
and produced by
Precize, was added to rotation at
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
.
Factz was named to ''
XXL'' magazine's "Freshmen Class of '09" issue in 2008.
Battery Records & The Achievement (2010-present)
Factz contributed a song, "Rocker", to the soundtrack of the ''
Fight Night Round 4
''Fight Night Round 4'' is a boxing video game developed by EA Sports. It is the sequel to ''Fight Night Round 3'', released in 2006. It was released in 2009 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. The game's featured boxers ...
'' video game,
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and he signed to
Battery Records in May 2010.
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Mickey Factz recently finished touring with
Big Sean
Sean Michael Leonard Anderson (born March 25, 1988), known professionally as Big Sean, is an American rapper. Anderson began his music career in 2007 and gained popularity in 2010 with his third mixtape '' Finally Famous Vol. 3: Big''. He then s ...
and is working on his album ''The Achievement'', which is set to be released in Winter 2013/2014
Mickey Factz became the new member of All City Chess Club when
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( ), is an American rapper, singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, ''Lupe Fiasco's ...
said at a radio station "Mickey Factz is part of All City Chess Club."
While in the studio recording for his debut album, Mickey tweeted that he and Lupe Fiasco are collaborating on a track. Also pictures of the two together have surfaced on the internet recently. "I’m Better Than You'' (2010) was Mickey’s way of expressing his sense of confidence and recognition of the competitiveness of music. "Love.Lust.Lost" (2011) was an album based on one of Factz’ past relationship and was his attempt to get the girl he loved back. Although in the end, she slipped away, this album represents Mickey Factz’ growth not only as an artist but also as a person. Deeply personal and honest, this was enjoyed by a wide variety of people who could relate to his deep and heartfelt lyrics.
Mickey Mause
In 2012, Factz tried to release Mickey MauSe under his label, but they considered it to be too artistic and did not back it up. Factz went on to release this experimental project himself and in the album, Mickey Mause became his pseudo character, thrown into the 1980s as a graffiti writer who was later kicked out by his parents for being a troubled youth. This project represented what it truly meant to be an artist and much research was done in order to learn about Mickey Mouse and that era of time. Lyrically, this mixtape is known for being one of Factz’ best and gained him the opportunity to become closer to Lupe Fiasco.
In a 2015 interview with hip hop blo
The Music Stash Factz said a sequel to Mickey Mause called Mau2e was scheduled for Christmas.
Other ventures
Television
Factz appeared in a
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...
commercial later that year as a spokesman for the
Accord.
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Battle Rap
Factz has a long history as a competitor in the sport of
battle rap
Battle rap (also known as rap battling)Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 25. is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults and wordplay. Battle rap is often performed or freestyled spontaneously in live ...
dating back to the original battle leagues, and hosting battles at Ultimate Rap League events.
In 2017, Factz was involved in the battle rap league KOTD's Massacre event where he battled West Coast rapper Daylyt.
Discography
;Albums
*2016: The Achievement
*2018: The New Museum
*2018: I Said Yo
;Mixtapes
*2006: In Search Of N*E*R*D
*2007: Flashback Vol.1: Back to the Future
*2007: Heaven's Fallout
*2008: The Leak Vol.1: The Understanding
*2008: The Leak Vol.2: The Inspiration
*2010: thedarkphoenix#ALPHA
*2010: I'm Better Than You
*2011: Heaven's Fallout: 4th Anniversary Re-Release
*2011: Love.Lust.Lost
*2012: Mickey MauSe
*2012: #Y
*2012: #Ynot
*2014: 740 Park Ave
*2014: Love.Lust.Lost.II
*2015: Y3
*2018: I Said Yo...
*2018: The New Museum
*2019: The Achievement .... (collaboration album with Nottz)
*2020: Warped Collages
Music videos
References
External links
*GFCnewyork Blo
GFCNY*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Factz, Mickey
Living people
1985 births
African-American songwriters
Rappers from the Bronx
East Coast hip hop musicians
African-American male rappers
Songwriters from New York (state)
Underground rappers
African-American record producers
American hip hop record producers
21st-century American rappers
Record producers from New York (state)
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century African-American musicians
20th-century African-American people
American male songwriters