Mike Explains His Credit Card Statement

Credit History is an interview series where we ask our favorite artists to comb through their credit card statements and tell us about what they bought, from the necessary to the frivolous to the outlandish.

On “Hunger,” a single from his 2017 debut May God Bless Your Hustle, the New York rapper-producer Mike said he was content to eat his words instead of food. But in the eight years since, his music’s become bouncier and slightly more optimistic, ready to wade through whatever strife gets him to the light on the other side. Like most of his recent work, Mike’s latest album Showbiz! balances deep reflection over fuzzy samples with flexing over frenetic drill-like production just for the hell of it. He’s not stuck in the tar pit anymore—Showbiz! is Mike at his most confident and chipper.

When we speak over Zoom in early February, Mike is preparing to spend the entire spring on a 71-date tour, and planning out the fifth iteration of Young World, his yearly independent hip-hop festival in Brooklyn. Yet as much as he has going on, Mike is cooling, rolling up weed and speaking in his usual deep, raspy ramble of a voice. His eyes light up whenever he gets the chance to speak on experiences with friends, many of whom he works with. He shows gratitude for all he’s earned, every chance he gets. He’s extremely humble, but as a successful indie-rap star and label head, he isn’t above blowing a good bag when the timing’s right.

Chrome Hearts glasses ($2,177.55)

Mike: I bought these for a Knicks game last night. We just got the random invite from their front office. I was like, “All right, for sure, I can’t pull up courtside looking crazy.” And in my head, I’m thinking, We’ll probably be courtside, but not, like, really, really courtside type shit. But I get there, and I’m sitting next to Jalen Brunson the whole game. I’m like, “Yo!” I look at my dad, like, “Yo, this right here? This is crazy.” 

And it’s funny as fuck because I was just talking to the homie Naavin [Mike’s manager] about this. Every artist, when they go courtside, has their iconic look. The whole time I had these Chrome Hearts glasses on, they made me look smart as fuck. I don’t even watch basketball—this shit lowkey moving faster than my brain. The homie caught a screenshot while the game was on TV and was like, “Yo, why Mike look like the assistant coach for the Knicks?” [laughs] I knew I needed to wear something that would make me look like a rapper. I don’t even wear glasses.  

So those weren’t prescription glasses? You just grabbed ’em just to wear?

Straight drip.  

Weed from Astor Club ($380)

Astor Club is the good, good homies. I’m not gonna lie, that purchase gets made about every three or four days type shit. I feel like they just got the best pack on the East Coast right now. They just plugged in with all the right people. They’re the GOATs, shout out to them, for real.

What’s your favorite strain of theirs?

Right now, there’s two: Blue Lobster by Maine Trees, and then a strain called Cornholio. Fire as fuck. I’m not gonna lie, I say this just to put it out there in the future: Lowkey, like, when I’m too old for rap, we goin’ straight weed business for real. Shout out to Berner. 

I gotta ask: What would the Mike strain be?

Lowkey, it’d be called Escargot. That’s a good name. It would probably be an OG or some type of sour—a really good sour. Hanging around with all these old weed heads on this Astor Club shit, they be puttin’ me on to hella weed tastes. I need some earthy tones, some earthy colors in there, too.

Dinner at Le French Diner ($298.23)

Le French Diner is this spot I go to on the Lower East Side. There’s, like, three tables in there, and then there’s a bar. And they don’t take reservations, so it be hard as fuck to get in there. It opens at 5:30 and niggas that live in the city, whatever they’re doing, they just stop doing it and go straight there. If you’re coming from Brooklyn, you’re clipped for at least two hours. I always try to go because the food is just amazing. They make these things called Socca de Nice that’s basically like a chickpea pancake, and then they got oeuf mayo, which is lowkey white people deviled eggs. Then they got these scallops and grilled octopus.

I might get in trouble for this, but my favorite African food is Senegalese food. Senegal was colonized by the French, so they be incorporating hella French food into Senegalese food. Even though they’re way more different, it’s kinda the same bag for me.

Mascot suit from Abracadabra NYC ($1,132.30)

We was tryna make a mascot [for the Showbiz! album release party]. We were tryna cop a Pink Panther suit, and we did from, like, Alibaba or something. But we weren’t sure it was gonna get here in time, so we went to this costume store in the city called Abracadabra and got this Big Bad Wolf mascot costume. I was with my homie Sha [Melendez], who does airbrush shit, and the homie Matt [Valdez], who’s a designer, and they took two weeks to help me turn this big bad wolf costume into a panther. We spent so much time like, “Breh, how we gonna make him look like a panther?” We had to cut his nose off and a bunch of other crazy shit. That Pink Panther suit wound up coming in the mail like two days after the show, too, so we just have a whole ass Pink Panther costume and no idea what to do with it.

Dinner at Blue Ribbon Brasserie ($417.11) 

Blue Ribbon is a celebration spot. If it’s one of the homie’s birthdays and you need somewhere you could just pull up with a lotta people, Blue Ribbon is lowkey the one. It’s also one of the only places that serves food that good that’s open until, like, 2 a.m. If we play a show—like, a crazy show—we’ll just grab seven of the homies and be like, “Yo, we gotta do a quick mission. Let’s go do a Blue Ribbon mission.” It’s one of those things that, when niggas are outside and having fun, Blue Ribbon be in the back of everybody head like, “Hey, who’s gonna be the one to bring it up?”

They have this sautéed calamari and this sweet and spicy catfish. That sweet and spicy catfish with the mashed potatoes? They also got this fried chicken, it’s going crazy. Then there’s this other shit we just got put on to: oxtail bone marrow and oxtail marmalade. Literally one of the best things I’ve ever had in my life. And whenever you’re there, you bump into a crazy ass [famous] nigga. One time, we went there and straight-up bumped into Meek Mill and then, 15 minutes later, we bumped into Dave Chappelle. The other night, we over there eating for the homie birthday, and he was like, “Yo, that’s Queen Latifah behind you.” I’m so gassed but I’m also not tryna make it hot.       

One-way Delta flight to Dublin, Ireland ($2,272)

The beginning of tour—it’s all about to start back up. We’re about to go on a 71-date tour across Europe and America, lowkey the longest one we ever did, but it’s been exciting getting ready. Especially dropping Showbiz! so close to the start of tour too, I feel like everything changes every year, and I’m super excited to get back out in the world and see what’s up. I’ve got hella homies in the city, but I’ve also got hella homies in England, so it’ll be good to reconnect with the Real Nigga Worldwide Association.

You a Guinness man? If not, what’s your beer of choice out in Europe?

Nah, I’m not a Guinness man. One of the best beers I found out about is called Super Bock—a legendary, legendary beer. I learned about it because I was in Portugal and there was this lady who was standing outside a spot we’d go to every night, and she would sell Super Bock for $1. I remember one night I was drunk as hell chatting to the lady and I’m like, “Yo, pull up to the show tomorrow! We’re gonna buy the whole box of Super Bock.” I always do this when I get too drunk and start overextending myself. So the next night, the show’s about to start, and the Portuguese homie hit me up like, “Yo, you promised this lady you were gonna buy all her beer. She mad as hell tryna figure out where to put this beer.” I’m like “What the hell did I do?” We wound up buying it all anyway and sharing it amongst the homies. Amazing beer.

Famichiki (fried chicken) from Family Mart in Tokyo ($6.94)

You know how at 7/11, there’s all the little food that’s reheating and shit? In Japan, that shit is so fucking good. It’s better than the food you can order, I can’t explain it. I’ll be clapped and just be like, “Yo, two Famichiki’s from Family Mart?” And I’m right. And mind you, I’m not smoking no weed because I don’t know if I have 0.3 grams of weed somewhere I don’t need it to be. I was smoking cigarettes and eating Famichiki to get the same experience as smoking weed. So that came super clutch.  

Madam Woo’s strip club in Tokyo ($3,023.37)

So the short draft version of this: I had got locked up in Tokyo for having 0.3 grams of weed on me—I didn’t even know that was in my bag and I got locked up for 10 days. Fast forward, it fucked up all the homies and my family, had everybody screaming “Free Mike, Free Mike!” When we finally found out I’m about to be free, the homie Naavin gave me a real rapper first-day-out experience. I came out—and it was my birthday, too—and the homie bought me Cartier glasses and the 24-karat pendant with the diamond. I felt like I went down for a body or some shit. I’m like, “I don’t even care what happened over the last 11 days. I’m finna go get drip.” 

The next day, we get drip, link the homies from Japan, and we pull up to Madame Woo’s. We got jazz niggas in there, like, niggas that just played at Blue Note Tokyo; with all the Japanese hittas; the gang members; the homie Salimata was out there, and we was all in the strip club goin’ crazy. Just bands, bands, bands. They dead handed me the money gun that night. I was like “Yo, this is getting outta hand. Rap is crazy.” 

What was the club itself like? 

We had that shit packed out. Lowkey, I had slid to that strip club the day before I got locked up, so when I came back, they were all like, “Yo Mike, we heard what happened.” This shit really had me feeling like I beat a murder case. 

You’re Big Baby Jesus. It had to happen. 

Jesus was not proud of me that day. [laughs]

He probably was, because Jesus hung with the sex workers and the lepers.

That’s facts, that’s facts.