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ThaFormula.com - Now you guys had a Eastern Conference All Stars 1 LP right?

DJ Mighty MI - Yeah, but that was like a compilation of all our old Twelve Inches.  This new one is just all new shit.  

ThaFormula.com - Where exactly are you from man?

DJ Mighty MI - Originally from Phill, but now we stay in New York.

ThaFormula.com - So how did The High & Mighty and Cage get together?

DJ Mighty MI - Well we were just all puttin out records at the same time in N.Y and we were all fans of each others work so we just hooked up.  Originally Smut Peddlers was just gonna be a single but when we got a label deal with Rawkus, Smut Peddlers was included in it, but it was just supposed to be a little side project.

ThaFormula.com - So have you guys come out to L.A. to perform at all?

DJ Mighty MI - Yeah, we performed at The Whiskey a couple of times and for that B - Boy Summit once.  The first High & Mighty show we did at The Whiskey was real good.

ThaFormula.com - Why did you guys end up leavin Rawkus.

DJ Mighty MI - We just weren't really seeing eye to eye anymore. Basically they are just going in a different direction then they started out.  

ThaFormula.com - Now you guys were gonna put the second Eastern Conference out on Rawkus. Why did that not end up happening?

DJ Mighty MI - They don't have a distribution deal right now and we wanted to put our album out this year and they don't have any means of puttin out albums right now so we decided to leave.

ThaFormula.com - What happened to their distribution?

DJ Mighty MI - I guess them and Priority just ended their contract.  So they are lookin for a new distributor and I'm sure they will get one soon.

ThaFormula.com - How long have you been makin beats now?

DJ Mighty MI - For about 7 years.  

ThaFormula.com - How did you get started making beats?

DJ Mighty MI - Just from being a DJ.  I think the progression of any DJ should be to becoming a producer.  Who wants to be 40 years old and DJing in clubs. 

ThaFormula.com - Do you feel that you are gettin recognized more as a dope producer or do you feel you are still underrated as a producer?  

DJ Mighty MI - I think that people buy our records more then alot of other underground groups, but I think that people on the next level up aren't really recognizing us.  I'll get call from other Independent cats lookin for beats, but as far as Major Label shit, I don't really explore that avenue that much.  

ThaFormula.com - So who are the owners of Eastern Conference Records.  

DJ Mighty MI - Me and Mr. Eon. 

ThaFormula.com - So how has it been going for you guys as far as the new album goes?

DJ Mighty MI - It's doin alright.  It's kinda been hard to get into all of the chain stores because of the economy.  People aren't buying the underground shit as much as they were say 6 months or a year ago.  But it's doing pretty good.  We sold about 20,000 so far in three weeks.  

ThaFormula.com - Do sells on the internet help alot? 

DJ Mighty MI - Yeah.

ThaFormula.com - Why is it so hard to get into the music chains. Why don't they just say, Ok let's get a couple of copies and see what happens? 

DJ Mighty MI - Well alot of them do, but some them don't, like Circuit City and Best Buy.  They haven't ordered it yet cause they go on what the stock market is.  So if the stock market  is down, they are not willing to take chance on the underground stuff.  It's also the time of year right now.  It's really hard to sell records in the 4th quarter cause all the stores save their money to buy all the heavyweights.  The 4th quarter is the best for platinum artists.  

ThaFormula.com - So when the sell of an album is not what you expect, what do you do as an artist to try and sell more records?

DJ Mighty MI - You just go back and make more albums.  Fortunately I got alot of artists on my label and different projects so I can afford to just keep puttin albums out,  not spending that much money to make them and hope one of them is gonna break.

ThaFormula.com - The biggest way to make money Independently is having in house production right?

DJ Mighty MI - Right.  Also having a studio also to record everything at.  So basically your only expenses are to mix the album and an advance to the artist and then if you get any outside production.  I made the Eastern Conference All-stars album for about 60 grand, which was like very expensive for me.  

ThaFormula.com - How has it been with Landspeed?

DJ Mighty MI - It's pretty good.  I can't really complain about the promotion.  The video has been on BET a couple of times.  We have had print ads, retail posters.

ThaFormula.com - What our your chances of makin it in this game if your rollin without a crew or a known artist?

DJ Mighty MI - If you got the talent, you got the talent and someone's gonna hear you eventually.  I really believe that people were meant to be on this earth for certain reasons.  I really feel that Dr. Dre was put on this earth to be a hip hop producer and Allen Iverson was put on this earth to be a basketball player.  If your talent is there, it's gonna eventually come to the surface.  It might take longer cause I mean Eminem didn't make it till his mid to late twenties, but if the skills are there, they are gonna eventually surface.

ThaFormula.com - Now most of your fans are young white kids.  How does that fell to you?

DJ Mighty MI - In the beginning I used to get mad that my fans were young and white kids, but then I started to think when I was coming up as a hip hop fan and I would go to a Public Enemy Beasties concert and that shit would have such an influence on me.  So I started to think that's the same as these 16 year old kids that are commin out to see a High & Mighty show and they are going home thinking, Damn! that was a dope show and that sticking with them as one of their first hip hop experiences. So then it becomes flattering.  But it's a benefit to everybody also.  Jay - Z sells 4 million records, but if white people weren't buying his record, he would probably sell 1.5 million.

ThaFormula.com - Do you feel that the white mc and producer has gotten the proper respect and recognition yet?

DJ Mighty MI - I don't know if I have gotten it on a major hip hop level. but just the fact that I'm able to make a living from this shit and continue to be in it is cool.  The average career span of a rapper or hip hop group is not to long.  We been in this making records since 96 and I just look at it as a blessing cause for every underground hip hop group that's making it, their is like 50 that's not makin it.  So I look at all the groups that I came up with when we started puttin records out and most of them are nowhere to be found.

ThaFormula.com - So what do you guys got going on right now?

DJ Mighty MI - Well we just finished the new High & Mighty EP which is gonna come out like the first week of February and then in March Cage's album is gonna come out, Copywriter's album, and we just signed Tame 1 from the artifacts.  Also, Mad Skillz album will be comin out sometime next year on Rawkus.

ThaFormula.com - How is The High & Mighty EP lookin?

DJ Mighty MI - It's good man.  We got like 8 songs on there.  We got a song by Havoc and R.A. The Rugged man produced by Ayatollah.  Their is a Copywrite and Eon song.  A song called "Artillery" that J - Zone produced.  Their is a song called "IIlladel Jackmove" where we jack all the Philly records from the 80's and like kinda set it up like the Ice Cube shit.  So it's lookin pretty dope. 

ThaFormula.com - Have you ever thought of puttin out an instrumental LP like The Beat Generation type of LP's?

DJ Mighty MI - Yeah.  The thing is when I come up with a good beat, I naturally wanna give it to Cage or Eon, or Copywrite. 

ThaFormula.com - What was the deal with this whole Masta Ace situation?

DJ Mighty MI - We did a show about a year ago at a college music conference and Cage in one of his songs called "Suicidal Failure" has a line where he says "pumpin Masta Ace inside this Jewish slaughta house", and it's kinda payin him homage.  A couple of his boys came to the show and heard Cage say that and went back to Ace and said "Yo, them High & Mighty kids were sayin fuck Masta Ace and his Slaughta House.  So just from that speculation Masta Ace did the diss verse.  I know Ace and were both big Eagles fans.  So I called him when I heard the song and was like "Ace, what are you doing, this is  Milo from High & Mighty", and he's like "Oh, this the same Milo", "I didn't know that".  So I played him the Cage song on the phone and he started to become real apologetic and went on Hot 97 that night and retracted what he said to us.  I had heard he was gonna pull the verse of the album, but I guess he didn't.  It was kinda dissapointing cause he was kind of a favorite of mine growin up and I respect him and I'm cool with him, so I was real surprised by that. 

ThaFormula.com - Now I had heard you guys were gonna do a track together.  Is this true?

DJ Mighty MI - Yeah, we might get around to that.  It's just hookin up with people these days is just a real pain in the ass. 

ThaFormula.com - What's up with the video.  Who's the director?

DJ Mighty MI - This kid named Tommy Ryk. It was cool and it didn't cost us much to make and it's been on BET a couple of times.  

ThaFormula.com - Be Sure To Check out Tame 1, Copywrite, J -Zone, Cage, Mr. Eon, Mad Skillz, Aka The Eastern Conference All-stars II new video here (56k) here (Cable/DSL). 

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