Michie Mee

Michelle McCullock (born November 1, 1970), better known by her stage name Michie Mee, is a Canadian rapper and actress. Canada's first notable female MC, she is considered a national hip-hop pioneer.^[1]

Early life and career

McCullock was born in Jamaica, later moving to Toronto, Ontario at a young age, and was raised in the city's Jane Street area, as well as the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. She began performing professionally at age 14.^[2] In 1985, during a concert in Toronto, Boogie Down Productions introduced her to the audience and she performed on stage. Michie Mee later teamed up with DJ L.A. Luv (Phillip Gayle) and formed the duo Michie Mee and L.A. Luv.^[3] The duo was featured on the 1987 Canadian hip hop compilation Break'n Out, which was produced by KRS-One and Scott La Rock of Boogie Down Productions.^[4][5]

The duo's first single, "Elements of Style," made an impact in the United States, and it signed with First Priority/Atlantic Records in 1988. In the process, Michie Mee became the first Canadian MC to sign a record deal with a major American label.^[5] The same year, the duo was featured on the compilation The First Priority Music Family: Basement Flavor, appearing on the tracks "Victory Is Calling" and "On This Mic", which were engineered by Walter Sobczak who would several years later ask Michie Mee to record and perform with Raggadeath.^[6][7] "Victory Is Calling" also featured MC Lyte.^[8]

In 1991, the duo released its debut album, Jamaican Funk—Canadian Style, which incorporated dancehall reggae music and spawned the single "Jamaican Funk." Over 60,000 copies of the album were sold in the U.S. and it was nominated for a Juno Award in 1992.^[5] In the same year, she collaborated on the one-off single "Can't Repress the Cause", a plea for greater inclusion of hip hop music in the Canadian music scene, with Dance Appeal, a supergroup of Toronto-area musicians that included Devon, Maestro Fresh Wes, Dream Warriors, B-Kool, Lillian Allen, Eria Fachin, HDV, Dionne, Thando Hyman, Carla Marshall, Messenjah, Jillian Mendez, Lorraine Scott, Lorraine Segato, Self Defense, Leroy Sibbles, Zama and Thyron Lee White.^[9]

After Michie Mee ran into trouble with the law, the duo broke up.^[3] L.A. Luv later joined the group Dream Warriors.

After starting a solo career and opening shows for artists such as Salt-n-Pepa, Sinéad O'Connor, and Judy Mowatt, she became a founding member of the alternative rock band Raggadeath,^[3] which had a Canadian chart hit in 1995 with "One Life." In the late 1990s, Michie Mee began an acting career.^[2] She made her first film appearance in 1999's In Too Deep. In 2000, she starred in the CBC Television series Drop the Beat, playing a rapper named Divine.^[2] Later that year, she released a comeback album, The First Cut Is the Deepest,^[5] which spawned the single "Don't Wanna Be Your Slave" (featuring Esthero). The single earned her another Juno nomination.

In 2004, Michie Mee joined a group of local artists (including Maestro, Thrust, and Toya Alexis among others) and formed the Peace Prophets. The group released the charity single "Drop the Chrome" in association with radio station FLOW 93.5.^[10] The same year, she appeared in the film My Baby's Daddy.

In 2009, she released the single "Say About Us."^[11]

Discography

• Jamaican Funk—Canadian Style (1991)
• The First Cut Is the Deepest (2000)

Filmography

See also

• Canadian hip hop
• Music of Canada

References

External links

• Official website
• Michie Mee at MySpace
• Michie Mee at Discogs
• Michie Mee at the Internet Movie Database
• Michie Mee - Early Footage