A Minute With Micah

Base Trip Records' own Devondra Dominguez caught up with Micah Domingo (formerly known as Rapper Steph) to see what he has been up to.

How long have you been a part of Base Trip?

I’ve been a part of Base Trip since my sophomore year, so two years now.

What have you done so far with the label?

I can’t even count how many shows I’ve done, but a lot of the shows happened in my junior year. I was going and going; I did shows at least once a week maybe even twice, so that was really a hectic time. I actually went to California this summer to visit Conor and Rob (Supersillyus). Conor and I made some big strides over there and hung out with Rob while he was finishing up his CD. I also went to New York at the beginning of summer before California with the Throwbacks and we just played, gave out CD’s, and rapped for whoever. It was fun. It was a good time.

What material have you been working on?

I’m mostly working on new stuff. I went through a transitional period- a trans period, wow, that’s weird- last semester where I didn’t really work on music, but figured out a lot of emotional and mental stuff. This semester I feel like I’m coming out on a clean slate and I’ve been writing a lot about my experiences, transitioning, and kind of making sense of all the stuff that happened last semester through my music.

What drives you to create more work and who are your musical influences?

A huge musical inspiration for me would have to be Common. I actually had the great fortune of rapping for him. I went to a show at the Palladium to see him. I was right in the front the whole time.This girl I was dating at the time was able to get the bouncer to let me rap for Common. That was actually about a month after I performed at BU Central for my first time ever. I had never performed live ever in front of anyone before September of my sophomore year. So I was facing Common- thinking “Oh my God”- and started rapping for him. After, he was like “Yeah that’s good work, keep working on it. That’s tight.” Just hearing those words, I was in shock.

Besides Common, another huge influence is Mos Def- almost on the same level of inspiration as Common. His music is more head-trippy and you really have to think about it when you’re listening to it. You think “Woah, he’s really saying some deep stuff.” I have also been listening to some indie music like Rilo Kiley. I have been listening to a lot of emotional music – not emo- but like music that puts emotions in such a way that just makes you go “Wow, I feel exactly what you’re feeling”- that kind of stuff.

Do you have plans for upcoming shows?

I have one show that I know of: the Haiti Benefit show at BU. It’s next Sunday, but other than that I don’t have anything planned yet. I played a show at a house party last week and was a success because the cops didn’t come. It was awesome.

Discuss your possible decision to change your name from Rapper Steph to another name.

It’s not really a flip, but it’s kind of like I am entering into a new phase of life. I am taking all of this stuff that I learned from the old me and applying it to myself; it has been really crazy. I’ve had so much mental and emotional growth and I think it definitely shows in my music. Along with that growth, I need to change my name because I no longer am personified by the name Rapper Steph. That’s the old me. It was great and I loved that name and I had that persona, but now it’s time to move on from that and kind of keep going with life with these phases. I am figuring out where I am today and this is a more permanent kind of change. It’s figuring out what my essence is or what describes me. Picking a name is very complicated.

As far as names, I was going for the name Human, but it is taken which is unfortunate. It’s a bummer because I really liked that name and I felt that it fit me really well. Another name I was thinking was Micahphone since a lot of people call me that – it’s a nickname- and it has my name in it. Rapper Steph had my name in it and I would like my name in it. I’m still discussing the name change with Conor, so we’ll see how it goes. Names are always the hardest to choose because you have to have it forever and you have to personify that name.