Violinist, Composer, Hip-Hop Producer - Mihalj "Miki" Kekenj

How did I stumble upon this creative spirit from Germany? By a randomly appearing video of Aloe Blacc with a very artsy version of "Dollar"

Apparently this awesomeness was part of the MADE project in Berlin, combining visual art, pop stars and classical musicians. Miki, the founder has this to say of the project: 
"My goal was for the audience to experience urban artists in a remarkable venue with no technical setups, no microphones, and without the usual safety net on which contemporary music relies, providing only simple and pure enjoyment. The chamber music ensemble was the medium for an extraordinary hybrid of popular and classical music, and with this auditory collaboration came a visual component. "

* a little choir of "hallelujah" singing in my head*

Miki is a very interesting musician. Hailing from a long line of violinists, himself an accomplished player and a concertmaster of the Bergische Symphony orchestra. He also produces hip-hop tracks mashing up Mozart, and turns the Fugees into a violin solo. You must check out the "variations on ready or not":



Miki quoted Goethe when trying to define his genre, with "two souls dwelling in his chest". “I just do what I can; produce tracks and play violin. No more, no less”. In this manner, he composes, arranges, produces, and performs with artists that fit well into this very special musical concept. This has given him a certainty for of where he belongs in the artistic world."

You belong on this blog man, right next to all the other genre-flexible folks who can't quite verbalize this new emerging style. #crossgenre it is, for the lack of a better title. 

The "ready or not" performance is from the Opus 1 recording project, a "hip hop x symphony orchestra" album available for free download (right here). The tracks move from beautifully written cinematic and melancholy orchestral pieces and old school R&B and hip hop where the orchestra functions as the track. 

This so you know that German orchestral hip-hop is a thing that exists


I wanted to feature some of the straight up orchestral pieces but no videos were found, so go ahead and download that album!

I'll leave you with a take on James Brown and a link to the Miki's website 


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