May 2009 – Patiently Waiting: Masspike Miles
By Julia Beverly • Jul 25th, 2009 • Category: Uncategorized 41 views
Masspike Miles isn’t your typical R&B artist, so don’t expect to hear many
(if any) love ballads from him. Growing in Boston, Massachusetts (Roxbury,
the same hood as Bobby Brown to be exact), Miles’ music has a sound that’s
as edgy as the Beantown streets that he came up on. “All my music is
Boston,” says Miles, who gets his “Masspike” moniker from the state’s
nickname for the Massachusetts Turnpike. “It’s all influenced by the Bean.
What happened in the Bean, what’s seen in the Bean, I came up in the Bean, I
recorded it in the Bean.”
Parallel to his Boston roots is Miles’ musical pedigree. He was named by his
father (a jazz musician himself) after legendary musician Miles Davis, and
grew up surrounded by music. His father played various jazz instruments and
continuously listened to music by Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and
Thelonius Monk. With these influences around him, Miles took to music and
singing, and by age 11 he was discovered by music producer Maurice Starr
(who also discovered New Edition and New Kids on The Block) in 1992, and
placed the young vocalist in the Warner Bros. R&B group Perfect Gentlemen.
With Miles as the lead singer, Perfect Gentlemen released a self-titled
album in 1993, but the group, as Miles put it, “got older and wanted to do
different things.” Miles continued to work in the music industry. He teamed up with Boston
rapper and businessman Benzino, and began writing and producing for artists
such as Montell Jordan, Fabolous, J.R. Writer, B.G. and Freeway. And he
formed his own record label with his business partner Roc Dukati, which
landed their artist Smoke Bulga a deal with Sony. Regardless of his behind
the scenes involvements, Miles continued recording his own music. And in
2008, he hooked up with Rick Ross for the single “Get It Together,” which
eventually led to Ross signing Miles to his Maybach Music imprint. “[Ross]
saw the hustle and the grind, and how serious I took it,” Miles says of
Ross’ interest in signing him. “Not only that, I’m an up-and-coming boss. I
take control of my own and I don’t ask a nigga for nothing. He saw that I
was self-sufficient, so he took me under his wing.”
Since joining Maybach, a mixtape The Pursuit of Happiness with DJ Khaled and
Bigga Rankin, numerous music videos produced by Jordan Tower Films, a
feature on “Murder Mami” off of Ross’ album Deeper Than Rap, and a
T-Pain-assisted single “What Is Ur Name” has the industry starting to take
notice of the rugged singer from Beantown. When it’s all said and done,
sanguinely, the route down this Masspike leads Miles to down the road of
success. Words by Randy Roper
Photo by Derek Koutijamia
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