Mikey Factz is a renown world-class MC that has spent over half of his life on hip-hop and lyricism. In his 15-year career, Mikey Factz has spawned countless record deals, tours and commercials.  McKinley “Mac” Phipps, Jr. is a musical recording artist whose talent led to his first solo album at age thirteen. Mac signed to the No Limit Records and released two more albums before contributing to a collaborative project titled Goodfellas with the 504 Boyz in 2000. At age 24, he was convicted of manslaughter in a controversial trial where his lyrics from different songs were used as primary murder evidence. Mac served twenty-one years of a thirty-year sentence and in 2021 he was granted clemency by the Louisiana governor.  Mac recently released his first solo album in 23 years, Son of the City.  

On Thursday, March 23 at 6pm, both Mac and Mikey Factz will discuss how hip-hop is used to legitimate anti-Black violence. Moderated by Dr. Sabia McCoy-Torres, whose research focuses on the English and Spanish speaking African Diaspora, and Dr.  Corey J. Miles, who investigates how surveillance and policing are technologies that fuel the structure of the U.S. south. The group will take up some of the contradictions in hip hop, particularly how for many Black folk's hip hop saved their life and for others it was used to steal theirs. It will engage with how hip hop offers young folks the opportunity to be fantastic: to dream and imagine their selves beyond the confines of their reality. Also, it will address how hip hop is policed and used by authority to legitimate anti-Black violence. The conversation will use hip hop as a window to understand the corporal and psychological experience of having your body, imagination, and way of being policed. This event is supported by the Dorothy Beckemeyer Skau Art and Music Fund.