NEWS
01 October 2021
Newsdesk
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Mike D joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to celebrate the milestone of Sunday’s upcoming 100th episode of his weekly Apple Music radio show, The Echo Chamber. He discusses the origins of the show and using music as the driving force to accompany conversations with guests from various walks of life. He also shares some of his favourite memories from hosting the show, including memorable conversations with the late Biz Markie, Ice Cube, David Chang, and more.
Mike D Tells Apple Music About The Origins of The Echo Chamber…
Let's go way back in time, Zane to the very, not the very beginning of, we have a long previous relationship of me being in Beastie Boys, and you trying to interview us with. Mixed degrees of success, I guess. I mean, it seems successful on our part, but maybe. And then cut to, fast forward one fateful morning while queuing up for a fashionably late breakfast on the west side of Los Angeles, you and Apple Music, then Beats Music colleague, Ian Rogers, pitched me this whole idea of radio. And I was like, "Guys, I don't want to waste your time. I don't have a good idea for you." But then the idea one day lightning did strike and I had the idea of this Echo Chamber, like if I have people come from various walks of life that I know that come into the studio and just do what I've always done in my whole life of interacting with people, because I have my own social dysfunctions as everybody does. But when I play music back and forth with people, it all becomes a lot easier.
Mike D Tells Apple Music About Having The Late Biz Markie On The Echo Chamber (Episode 97) and Reflects on His Legacy…
It's one of those things that felt very necessary because Biz, it's actually in the whole arc of the show, I think Biz was like, I don't know if you have anybody in your realm of you doing show, whenever the topic was, whatever the show I was doing, if I needed something or somebody to save me, my lifeline was always Biz Markie. Because invariably I can call him and it would be a guaranteed 15 minutes of uncontrollable Bizdom. It was true Bizdom from the Biz, there was no controlling it, there was no channeling it, it just would be what it would be. It was sad to me, his passing, because he, to me, represents... He's such an original as such an innovator and so truly unlike anything that's probably ever going to come before him or after him. I mean, to me, that's what I even think back to just when he exploded onto the scene in New York and in Hip Hop, it was like literally everybody was blown away. Because it wasn't like anything they'd ever seen before.…he was one of those, the rare, I think, not even just hip pop artists, rare artists period. He let the freak flag fly at all times. It's all he knew how to do. He just was just unapologetically Biz Markie. And a lot of times that was funny. And sometimes even when he was trying to be heartfelt, it was funny.
Mike D Tells Apple Music About Having Ice Cube on The Echo Chamber and Why He’s a Pillar of Innovation in Rap…
The main thing is, and I don't know if it's the format of the show of having music being at the forefront. And so that being what inspires the dialogue, but I felt like with both of us, it was like we felt really comfortable talking to each other as if we had met 20 years ago. There was somehow a mutually appreciated sense of shared history, even if we hadn't met. We both had this appreciation of each other where, with Ice Cube I definitely think of him as a pillar of innovation within rap music. And he's also part of this incredibly powerful, it's a group, but I really think of the three pillars of NWA being, and no disrespect to anybody else, but being Dre, Easy E and him. And I think of Dre was the architecture of the music, but Cube was the architect and the mastermind of the words, the message. And then Easy was both the combination of this voice and the business forefront to just put it all out into the world and just make it all explode.
Mike D Tells Apple Music What He Learned About The Culinary World From Hosting The Echo Chamber…
Well, it's interesting. I had David Chang, esteemed chef, a master of the culinary arts. But no, you realise it is really interesting. You talk to people who have to cook for a living, music is like, along with gas being literally the fire, music is the other fuel. Like they need music going in their kitchen at all times and that's kind of what informs and drives what they do every day, more than anything else.
Mike D Tells Apple Music What’s Keeping Him Busy Outside of The Echo Chamber…
Aside from being a dad. I don't know. I can't talk about, there's something that we're going to start messing around with. So there's that and just a little bit, little bit of music stuff going on. That's about it.
