Around 2006, New York did not have an identity. You can probably blame bitter rivalries between the city’s elder statesmen for their overall creative slump. To redefine the sound of the city, it might take a refreshing sound, like the electronica-driven sound of Europe’s dance scene, to change the tide. Enter Mickey Factz.

The Bronx-born MC began pushing the envelope by sampling forward-thinkers like N.E.R.D. Three mixtapes (Flashback, Back To The Future, and Heaven’s Fallout) later, and the 23-year-old attacked the blogosphere, releasing a new song every day this Spring with influences ranging from Portishead to The Prodigy (no, the other P). In this recent interview, Mickey puts his personal stamp on the Supra sneaker brand and talks about how he was rocking dance music influences before Kanye.

Interview by Richard “DJ Treats” Dryden

Complex: When did you start rapping over electronica-driven beats?

Mickey Factz: As of 2006, we just got bored. We sampled N.E.R.D and In Search Of… and we wanted to do something different from the jump. We felt that music was just going in the same direction'nobody was trying to be innovative. Then after that, I wanted to personally do Flashback, which was rapping over all old school beats, but we wanted to revitalize the beats behind it and Precize mixed some of the beats over. He did maybe 65 to 70% of the music over, and he made it sound more futuresque which was leading up to Heaven’s Fallout.

Complex: So were you familiar with the music, or were you an actual fan of it?

Mickey Factz: I was familiar with it 'cause I grew up on hip-hop, I grew up on Pun, I grew up on R&B, I grew up on gospel. That's the foundation. Most kids my age grew up on those three things. In the midst of Flashback, I did some records that were very weird to my ears 'cause I was listening to alternative and electro and house and stuff but I wasn't into it. Once we started to record for [Heaven's] Fall Out, I just fell into that whole scene.

Complex: Where does gospel come into play?

Mickey Factz: Gospel cause your parents made you, hip-hop cause you wanted to rebel and R&B 'cause you wanted to get a girl. Summer of '07, I personally knew this is stuff that nobody is going to rap over. Truth be told, we were recording this before Graduation. We did those before Kanye put them out.

Complex: So you feel that now this is a sound that you own?

Mickey Factz: Right. This is a sound that I created with GFCnewyork, with Precize. We've made a sound that is very hard to duplicate because we've done it so well, to the point that now we're trying to make a newer sound. Now as you see, people are starting to sample MIA, Santogold and things of that nature, but you know GFCnewyork will always be ahead of the curve. We've got a couple of tricks up our sleeve when it comes to the next couple of releases.

Complex: Where do you stand in terms of your perception the artists and DJ's of that world, and collaborations with them?

Mickey Factz: I would love it more than I would like to collaborate with U.S. artists. I want to be a global artist so if these artists from China and Japan and Europe or Australia, if they want to collaborate, I'm more than willing to do it because my music will then be spread out through their region, and they'll be like, 'Wow this guy's already been doing it, this guy seems more authentic.'

Complex: Right, rather than being on some name-dropping shit.

Mickey Factz: Exactly. We wanted to have a grassroots following in Europe and Asia and Australia. Before we even dropped music we were touring these places.

Hit “NEXT” to find out if Mickey feels like an outcast in the Bronx, and why he’s crowning himself the Supra king.

Sorry to burst your air bag hypebeasts, but the Jordan hybrid trend ain’t nothin’ new. Canadian-based artist Brian Jungen has been ahead of the curve, blending silouhettes of the VI, XIII, and the XIV since way before the Dub Zero dropped.

Jungen’s signature work was a series he started in 1998 (through 2005) called Protoype for New Understanding. The collection featured 23 different masks, all made up of manually pieced together Jordan parts. According to Jungen’s wiki, they represent the relationship between a consumerist artifact and an ‘authentic’ native artifact. Doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, but we can’t knock his hustle. Besides the kicks, he’s re-interpreted furniture, a whale-bone sculpture and football jerseys throughout his career. We bet you can guess our favorite remake. See more of his Jordan work in a gallery below…

[Witte De With]