#125: Hip Hop Mike

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome Hot 97 and Dash Radio personality Hip Hop Mike to the Upper West Side! In this hilarious and crazy episode, Mike details his parents leaving him to be raised with his grandmother in Queens, his father going to jail, becoming a stick-up kid, being sent to Florida to live with his well-to-do cousins and learning to sell weed, coming back to NYC only to get into more trouble and ending up in a group home, staying there so long he aged out of the group home, becoming a standout amateur tennis player, crashing a car on prom night, holding down several jobs, fighting with his mother and her boyfriend/Mike's tennis coach, all before he graduated high school. Mike talks about reaching out to Peter Rosenberg via MySpace, winning tickets three times from Hot 97 to see Rock the Bells, starting college for pre-med and dropping out, and linking up with Rosenberg again to offer his assistance. Mike discusses how much music changed his life, how showing up and listening changed the course of his career, and who exactly he considers family these days. All that, plus stories about Nas, Nardwuar, Lil Fame, and much more!