Hip Hop Suburban Style
Pleasanton's Award-Winning Rap Artist, White Mike, Makes a Mark
By Allison firestone
Tri Valley Magazine, January/February 2008 Issue

Pleasanton isn’t a town generally associated with the Bay Area hip-hop scene, or any hip-hop scene for that matter. But for Michael Alexander, or White Mike as his fans know him, that’s exactly what makes him worth listening to.

In the past year, the Pleasanton native finished recording his third album and was dubbed Independent Hip Hop Artist of the Year at the Nov. 28 Hollywood Fame Awards. Despite his unconventional source of inspiration, ¾ everyday life in the East Bay suburbs, Alexander describes his music as something anyone can relate to, laugh at, and enjoy.

“My goal with music is to create something different,” the rising star says. “I don’t just rap about corny stuff relating to the suburbs. I talk about things that everyone can relate to.”

Many of his songs are entertaining and ironic – this is a town where it seems like everyone gets a car for their sixteenth birthday and multi-million dollar homes are more ordinary than extraordinary. Others explore more universal themes, like success, money, and self-doubt. Since co-producing his second album with friend and fellow producer Tony Tools, which was released in July 2006, Alexander has recorded a third album.

But the 27-year-old singer is holding off the release and performance of his new music while he tries to generate interest among the major recording companies. (Until then, like many aspiring artists, he is marketing his music at www.whitemike.com, where you can also listen to some of his songs.)

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“It’s really funny and entertaining, and I think it’s better than any of my past stuff,” he says of his newest work. “An example of that is a song I wrote, called “Rent-A-Thug,” which is about a rich kid from the suburbs who wears gold teeth and tries to act like he’s tough and from the ‘hood’. It’s what I’ve grown up seeing in Pleasanton. That song is hilarious.”

Coming of age in the quiet Tri Valley town, Alexander’s background is quite different than most urban-bred main-stream rappers. But he uses that to his advantage, managing to encompass conflict, growing up, and humor all set against the unusual suburban backdrop.

His songs range from the personal, including “The Time is Now” about trying to break into the rap industry (“My whole life dreamed about being rich and famous, with innovations and big ovations”), to the funny “Rent-A-Thug” (“Rent-A-Thug wakes up in the morning, tries to look pissed, his mom walks in with a bowl of Cookie Crisp”), and to relevant Bay Area topics in “I’m From Tha Bay” (“Talking politics with the communists” and “hitchhiking on 880”).

Alexander said he’d always wanted to rap growing up. “But I figured I’m just a white kid from Pleasanton,” he said.

The first time he gave it a try was as a 17-year-old Amador Valley High School student out with a group of friends.

When his turn came around to rap for everyone, he went for it. He said the response was surprisingly positive.

“They were all kind of like, ‘Whoa. That was really good,’” he said. “After that I knew I had to keep going with it.”

Since that day, Alexander has gone on to record and release two albums, “What’s the World Coming To?” and “Famous,” that he co-produced and released through his record label, Sav’d Out Records. He’s performed locally, drawing crowds at the Alameda County Fair and, at Pleasanton’s Aura Nightclub, where he performed on July 21, 2006, for the release of “Famous” and again in May.

“My favorite performance was at Aura in ’06,” he said. “Everybody I’ve known since I was a kid was there.”

Alexander has also performed in San Diego, Los Angeles and a barbecue restaurant-turned-night club in Kansas City. Although he’s trying to hold out on scheduling gigs before getting signed, the hiatus from performing is proving to be the most difficult part.

“I’m thinking about doing some more local shows,” he said. “I don’t like sitting around and waiting.”