The High & Mighty

The High & Mighty is an American hip hop duo from Philadelphia, composed of rapper Mr. Eon ("The High", b. Erik Meltzer) and music producer DJ Mighty Mi ("The Mighty", b. Milo Berger).

Career

Their commercial debut was in 1999 on the underground rap label Rawkus with their album, Home Field Advantage, featuring rappers, such as Mos Def, Kool Keith, What? What?, Cage, Pharoahe Monch, Evidence of Dilated Peoples, Defari and Eminem. They later left Rawkus, distributing the records issued by their own record company Eastern Conference Records via Landspeed Records. They also established a group called Smut Peddlers with Cage and published an album called Porn Again.

The High & Mighty have a penchant for subjects that break the usual hip hop stereotypes. The titles of their albums and the name of their record label are both references to one of their favourite musical subjects, American professional team sports. Home Field Advantage, for example, features numerous sporting references, including the track "Friendly Game of Football" and mentions of the '69 New York Mets, Cris Carter and Jason Sehorn, among others. José Reyes and David Wright of the Mets were mentioned in the song "Key Master" ("We the future like Reyes and David Wright on Fireworks Night"). Another recurring source of lyrical fodder is the Star Wars film series, with Home Field Advantage including lines about Jedi master Mace Windu, the bounty hunter Greedo, Anakin Skywalker and the droid C-3PO.

Rapper Masta Ace called them "a couple of high whiteys" in his hit battle rap "Acknowledge". This dis track was probably because he was not pleased that they mentioned listening to his records in their "Jewish slaughterhouse" (referencing Ace's album Slaughtahouse, the same reference was made by Cage on "Suicidal Failure"). It was not clear whether Ace simply misunderstood their homage or whether he attacked them for being white hip-hop musicians. According to Ace himself, however, another rapper had told him that the High & Mighty had dissed him at one of their shows. This prompted him to create the devastating Acknowledge song on his 2001 album Disposable Arts. Ace eventually learned that he was misinformed, but the track had already been released, presumably causing embarrassment and ending the feud.

They also had a feud with rapper Cage, which resulted in "Public Property" from Cage's 2005 album, Hell's Winter; along with Copywrite on the track "Poorly Promote This", which was produced by Twiz the Beat Pro. Their song "B-Boy Document '99" was featured in the popular Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 video game. A music video for the track "I Wanna (But I Won't)" from The Highlite Zone features actor Michael Rappaport and was directed by Joey Boukadakis.^[1]

Personnel

• Mr. Eon – rap vocals (1996–present)
• DJ Mighty Mi – producer (1996–present)

Discography

Albums

• 1999 – Home Field Advantage (Eastern Conference/Rawkus)
• 2002 – Air Force 1 (Eastern Conference/Landspeed)
• 2003 – The Highlite Zone (Eastern Conference/Caroline)
• 2005 – The 12th Man (Eastern Conference)

Singles

• 1997 – "It's All for You" / "Hands On Experience" / "Cranial Lumps" / "Open Mic Night" / "The Meaning"
• 1998 – "B-Boy Document" / "Mind, Soul & Body"
• 1999 – "B-Boy Document '99" / "Chaos" / "Dirty Decibels" / "Sun, Moon & Stars" / "The Conflict"
• 2000 – "Dick Starbuck Porno Detective"
• 2003 – "Take It Off"

References