A Quote by Mija

I am really proud of where me and Ghastly's track 'Crank It' ended up. It was our first music video and big label release. It was such a dope experience working with OWSLA on that record.
We drank quite a lot and Tony Harrington said, "We're thinking of starting a record label at The Wire; how about you do a solo record?" I said, "Well, how am I going to do that?" I thought about it, and I'd been working on a lot of music in the years before, and I was working as a journalist, full time, really, up until that point; in whatever little spare time I had, I was working on music. So I said yes.
My record label, which is a huge record label who represents massive, massive stars - they've never done anything like this before, and they were so excited about this idea of an animated character which is singing legitimate music. It's not a comedy record, it's a legitimate record. And they really jumped on board. So, we've got our Facebook page up, we'll be jumping on Twitter very soon, and sort of be creating Haley outside of American Dad.
The music video, Lil Nas X, he asked me to be in the 'Panini' music video. It was crazy. I was just listening to the song and I was like, okay, this is going to be my first music video but it was really fun.
Well, we were originally called Huey Lewis and the American Express. But on the eve of the release of our first record, our record label, Chrysalis Records was afraid that we'd be sued by American Express.
I love the way I make hip-hop and I refuse to make pop-rap. I don't refuse to make mainstream music, which is why I did a soul record. There was no reason why soul music couldn't get played on the radio and I still wanted to have a relationship with my record label. So, I really enjoyed doing the Strickland Banks album. But there's no point in my trying to release underground hip-hop music on a major label. That part of my talent, or part of my art, had to live somewhere else and feature film was the perfect vehicle for it.
Obviously, what happened from the 'Immortalized' record was we achieved a level of success that, to be perfectly honest, was unpredecented in our career. Every track released from that record ended up going No. 1 at radio.
I'm not one of those artists who doubts that they made dope-ass records. From the first record to now, each record has gotten better. I started dope, so I've just gotten doper and doper and dopest and super dope.
Early on, before rock 'n' roll, I listened to big band music - anything that came over the radio - and music played by bands in hotels that our parents could dance to. We had a big radio that looked like a jukebox, with a record player on the top. The radio/record player played 78rpm records. When we moved to that house, there was a record on there, with a red label. It was Bill Monroe, or maybe it was the Stanley Brothers. I'd never heard anything like that before. Ever. And it moved me away from all the conventional music that I was hearing.
When I first came to New York I was a dancer, and a French record label offered me a recording contract and I had to go to Paris to do it. So I went there and that's how I really got into the music business. But I didn't like what I was doing when I got there, so I left, and I never did a record there.
The idea that somebody out there is that eager to hear my music in advance can only be a good thing. But growing up, I always liked that system where "release day" was a big thing, and for bands I really liked, I'd know that date. It'd be on my calendar, and I'd go to the record store that day. Sitting down and listening to the record for the first time was a real event. I wish it was still that way, but that's not the way the world works any more.
Professionally, I'm proud that Glassjaw has gotten to this moment, and that Justin Beck and I are making another record and some zany things are going on. It's on the tip of my tongue all day every day, between the press and the experience of putting ourselves out there, and putting our personalities out there to be judged and to have amassed a whole unit of music, and how it's really a celebration of our friendship. I'm really proud of it.
I had every major label in the world - I mean, any label that dealt with rap music wanted to sign me. I ended up going with Jive Records because I liked everything about 'em.
Look at my track record for showing up to fights. Look at my track record of finishing fights. Look at my track record of getting fight night bonuses. Ask yourself if you think that if the UFC decided to truly put marketing dollars behind me that they couldn't sell me or my fights.
'Runaround Sue' was a big record for me, as well as the music video for it.
People don't realize that there's no label and everything is self-financed and we make do and do our own thing. I was just happy to do my first video, I thought it was a fun experience.
When I first released 'The One And Only' nobody knew it was going to be so big. I just thought, 'Oh, this is what happens when you release a record? Brilliant! Let's release another.'
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