Miquiel Banks
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Miquiel Banks (born February 2, 1970 in Atlanta, Georgia), is an American rapper, songwriter, music producer, screenwriter, poet, novelist, short story writer, and editor. Most of Miquiel's songs are about racial pride, social problems within the black race, and a transcendent passion for spiritual awakening. However, most of his poems deal aggressively with romantic love, spiritual identity, and finding common ground between different religions, namely Christianity and Islam.
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[edit] Early Life and Kings Ridge
Fused with the sentimental chords of soft rock, his stint into hip hop was scattered and ragged through his teen years in Kings Ridge Apartments. His passion for the new art form crystallized in several directions, beatboxing and breakdancing and graffiti and rapping, though he’s quick to point out that he’s never "lost a battle beat-boxing in the school bathrooms of Therrell or Southside High School." Because of the rage behind Beat Street and Breakin’, most of his energy during the early 80s was breakdancing and watching Night Tracks on Friday nights. As the fervor of breaking waned, he found comfort in beat boxing and, as all initiates, he found his mentor in Bryan Fleming, better known to the industry as Kool-Ace. Miquiel found himself in a new world: the V-103 fresh party, performing live at the Kings Ridge clubhouse, Ben Hill Gym on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and Jellybeans on Fridays. Kool often bragged about his stage show alongside his buddy, but Miquiel thought nothing of it.
And on one of those warm SWATS nights, Miquiel witnessed Kool and Raheem on stage at the Therrell Talent Show. Together, they brought the stage down with their electrifying rap acrobatics. Kool’s outward flamboyance captured the crowd’s imagination as Raheem’s more traditional approach calmed its excitement. Back and forth, they took the crowd’s zest and polished its need for more. They ended their verses with the hook – cos it’s awesome – and before we realized it, it was over. Miquiel still contends to this day that together, these two rappers were unmatched in their stage swagger and exhibition. But because of pride and inability to reconcile their differences, Raheem and Kool both went on to have mid-level success in the industry, and it can be argued that Raheem’s career has been more financially successful. And despite their great performance, they were being rivaled by two dance groups: Hot Gritz and no eggz and FDC, of which we’ll talk about more later.
Enamored of his mentor, Miquiel sought to figure out how he could bring the power of Kool’s performance with a spiritual edge. And for the next few months, Kool introduced Miquiel to Dune, the spiritual purpose of black people, and the Nation of Islam. Coined by Kool as the human rhythm composer, RockMiquiel, he recorded his first "rough demo" with Kool and DJ Stan over Stan’s house in one take. The song was called RockMiquiel and it was so exciting, Kool decided to add Miquiel to some of his shows. For a short stint, Miquiel performed in several venues with Kool showcasing his beatboxing skills. As time passed, Kool eventually allowed him to rap on the mic and in Kool’s circle, he ran into the likes of George Clinton, Larry Blackman, and Curtis Mayfield. Then when Kool found the time, they recorded a professional demo of Rock- Miquiel, but Miquiel realized that beatboxing was slowly dwindling and he spent more energy writing lyrics. Despite the success of his stage performance, Kool wouldn’t allow Miquiel to record as a rapper. For the first time, he felt frustration.
[edit] Miquiel and Lee
Miquiel joined forces with his childhood friend, Avery Lee Blanton, and they formed the duo Miquiel and Lee. Patterned after Run DMC, they invented an alternate and parliament-type universe of rhythm, hip hop, and melody. When they were ready to record their demo, they were met with problems. They tried Kool, but he was busy with the Nation and recording in Curtis Mayfield’s home on Curtom Records. They tried Raheem, but he was recording Eliminator. They tried DJ Chauncy, but Chauncy wasn’t into music production. They talked with DJ Stan, but he wasn’t available. They tried DJ Toomp, but he was busy with MC Shy D. Finally, they recorded their first demo in the home of Mike Fresh a few days before Mike moved to Miami to join Luke Skywalker. In this demo, Mike Fresh tried an innovative approach to the drums by using both the 808 and the 909 and the song was dubbed Total Harmony and the Handclaps. Unfortunately, the demo tape was destroyed because Lee’s Chevrolet Nova’s roof had a leak and over night, their demo was destroyed by rain.
After saving up their money, Miquiel and Lee had enough money for another demo, but Miquiel’s family moved and this strained their relationship. And when Miquiel returned from the Army and serving in Desert Storm, the world he knew was gone.
[edit] The Early 90s
The incessant need for spiritual lyrics had dwindled and now the "in thing" for hip hop was dance music in the early 90s, primarily being hailed as the "New jack swing." Changing his name to Eternal, he continued to bring the spiritual lyricism, but the industry continually changed. Requiring help, he finally caught up with Kool, but this man was only a shell of his former mentor. Now, Kool’s running partners were Too Short, 8Ball & MJG, and other artists of the new fad in the industry: glorifying the street life. Though he tried to bond back with his mentor, their paths had diverged and Kool gave Miquiel his advice about bringing him into the industry. "Miquiel, I don’t know how to market you, first of all, you talk about God in too many of your lyrics, I’d have to market you like the second coming of Jesus or something like that." And with that remark, Miquiel realized he’d have to find another way into the industry.
Meanwhile, Lee found a taste of success as he met a promising producer named Mason and he was so impressed with The Black Man, he signed him. At this time, Lee’s running partners were Mike Gold and the Hard Boys and Carl Dorsey (The Organization). Mason released Mike Gold and the single got a little buzz for a few weeks, then it was gone, and Lee was left with songs and no label.
[edit] The College Years
During Lee’s success, Miquiel went to Georgia State University and met three promising figures, D Most Def and Chaka and Michael Marks.
D Mos Def’s handle was simple: if you don’t wanna talk about music, then don’t talk to me. He was from the SWATS and his running buddies were DJ Mann and DJ Smurf.
Chaka was more about networking and was very popular among the GSU crowd.
Mike majored in film and he was focused on capturing the power of Spike Lee in his own unique fashion. Despite GSU’s invigorating black movement, Miquiel changed schools and went over to Morris Brown College.
He maintained ties with D Most Def and after graduating, D Most Def got a job at Patchwerks as an Engineer and his hard work paid off. His engineering skills got him noticed and he ran with a new crew, some of Miquiel’s classmates from Therrell High School. They called themselves Organized Noize and D Most Def landed a job as the engineer for Outkast.
He met Chaka years later and found out through the circuits that he was the cousin of a revolutionary rapper that had taken the industry by storm, but he was murdered at the height of his career. Yet, Chaka Shakur continued his managerial skills and found gold when he landed his job as manager for Ludacris.
During the mid-90s, Miquiel managed to gain the attention of bass music producer Chris Rock (his clique includes Splack Pack and Raheem the Dream), and after a short time developing his talent, he went on the road as a promotional device for the Splack Pack. However, Miquiel’s direction and Chris’s schedule conflicted until he decided to leave the industry for awhile.
[edit] The Funk Shop
Though he recorded several demos throughout the 90s, he found himself in the industry, but not a part of the industry. He met Derrick Nicholson (Nick), one of the founding members of FDC (the dance group from the talent show), and at the Funk Shop, he found friendship with Nick and Devyne. The Funk Shop was a dance studio which many major artists came to choreograph their routines for stage performances. An added advantage of the Funk Shop was its location; it was across the street from BossTown (Bobby Brown’s recording studio) and Darp Studios (Dallas Austin’s famous studio). So Miquiel met with more industry personalities, Nick’s famed brother – the comedian PreacherMan, famed vocal coach Yakira, Monica, comedian Cory "Zooman" Miller, Pop (Bobby Brown’s father), A&R genius TP at LaFace Records, L.A Reid, and various others. As time passed, Miquiel found out that Nick was part of the first group signed to LaFace Records, but through personal differences, they disbanded and LaFace signed the LaFace Cartel. Yet, Nick kept close ties with L.A. Reid and after the Funk Shop closed, Nick and Yakira spent our evenings playing ball at Run N Shoot. So one day, we picked up Sam Salter and played a little ball and it wasn’t long before LaFace reached out to Nick again. They offered him an exclusive contract to choreograph their new acts (Sam Salter, Donell Jones, Usher, Toni Braxton, etc.), but due to some personal issues and problems, Nick said No and LaFace hired Devyne instead. Devyne went on to phenomenal success as a choreographer for several major artists, but most known for his work with Sean Combs. And it must be noted here that Devyne and Nick are both members of FDC, the original crew that started the type of dancing that has come to be known as GETTING CRUNK!
After a short time as a fashion magazine editor, Miquiel found himself interviewing Tisha Campbell for the movie Sprung and then he was asked to cover an event for Alicia Keys. Her album release party was held at Club Fuel in Buckhead and it was a success.
Then, he returned to the studio and recorded a short demo with D Most Def, but because it was of an explicit nature, Miquiel abandoned the project and continued his focus on spiritual hip hop. He eventually graduated from Morris Brown College and moved to Tampa, Florida.
