Micky Munday is far more than meets the eye.
You may have seen his name or face on Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood, but the West Coast artist loves music above all else.
On top of being an artist, an entrepreneur, a singer, a rapper, a father, a businessman, a family man, Micky describes himself as “the people’s champ.”
He states, “ I’m really just a down to earth person at the end of the day. Really somebody who’s for the people, but I happen to be very talented.” Of course, being on LNHH comes with its own stigmas (typically drama and fights), but Micky proudly brings the opposite. It’s his positivity and bubbly personality that serves as a breath of fresh air to not only television but the entertainment industry as a whole.
While he claims to be sitting on 5 projects, his most recent single “Muchacho” is a testament to his versatility and Spanish roots.
AllHipHop: Why did you name yourself after a drug dealer?
Micky Munday: The funny thing is I’m the only rapper ever to get the co-sign to use the name of the person they took it from. I actually have videotape with Mickey Munday. If you ask him, he doesn’t consider himself a drug dealer, he considers himself a smuggler. He never actually sold drugs. He flew to Medellin to get the drugs and dropped them into the Miami ports. His boats picked them up and took them to his tow truck. He had a tow truck service that delivered them to the people who sold it.
AllHipHop: Wow! How’d you get with him?
Micky Munday: Met him in Atlanta at the A3C concert some years ago now. I’m at the Stankonia Studios, these two Spanish dudes come up to me like “you’re Micky Munday, I seen you. Watch this!” And he leaves the room, I’m like ”alright.” He comes back in with a phone, he’s like “it’s Mickey Munday.” I’m like “oh s##t.” He put me on the phone with him. Mickey Munday’s like “man I like your stuff. If you’re ever in Miami, come visit.” Literally when I got to Miami, I hit him and we linked. We sat in a swamp with him, all kinds of stuff. He’s a cool dude. He’s incarcerated right now, free Mickey Munday!
AllHipHop: What was it like being white in South Central?
Micky Munday: You know what’s crazy, I don’t really know any different. I only knew different when I started moving around, moved to the valley, moved to the desert to where I knew I was different. My roots are in LA so I always felt more of an oddball in the valley or other places. Because all my friends till this day who I grew up with, that’s where they all come from. But you definitely get picked on, definitely get called names. I’ve definitely been called “stupid white b##ch,” those 3 words many many times in my life.
AllHipHop: How’d you overcome that?
Micky Munday: It is what it is. There’s so much bigger fish to fry in the world. I always knew I had bigger plans, always knew there was bigger and better things for me. I never looked at my current situation as my end situation. I always knew there was more to offer. I always seen a lot growing up. My grandpa would take us on trips and I would see things, I knew there’s more than these 4 corners.
AllHipHop: At what point did you realize the music thing was for real?
Micky Munday: Probably at age 17. I always wrote poetry, always was really good at creative writing classes. Then I started battle rapping when I was 17/18 at this place called The Pit. I was just rapping. I stopped going to school when I was 16. My mom would go to work real early in the morning so from 12 till when she went to sleep at 6 am or 7 am, I’d just write bars. When I’d go to this place to rap them and see the people’s reactions, I’m like “oh yeah!” I always knew I wanted to entertain. Always figured I like to write, I like to entertain. You put that together [claps] and you got an artist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91haSHg5JUY
AllHipHop: Are you Akon’s artist?
Micky Munday: No. Akon used to manage me but not no more. He found me through this girl. I had wrote some songs with him before in the past. I had this song called “Sauce” that everybody was really on and wanted to work with at the time. When we got together, we had a lot of plans and didn’t get to follow through with those plans, unfortunately. I took a big L in that situation.
AllHipHop: Why?
Micky Munday: I had a role on Empire, the TV show. I passed that up to work with Akon, so I passed up $500,000. Our plan was to go national radio with the song and we never did any of that. I don’t know what happened. I don’t have no malice towards Akon, he’s a legend and it was an honor working with him.
I just wish we could have followed through on what we had planned. Because at the end of the day, you leave a situation and you’re still Akon. You still have f##king $100 million dollars.
I gotta look my family in the eye now and tell them “damn, I made the wrong decision.” That was hurtful. I regret that decision every day. Until I become super successful, I beat myself up about that choice every day.
But it is what it is, it’s all in God’s plan. I got to see some different places of the world I definitely would’ve never seen. Been to India, Dubai, places like that, so that was cool.
AllHipHop: How did you land the role on LNHH?
Micky Munday: They actually asked me to do it for 3 years. 2 seasons ago, Brooke Valentine asked to be on there with her as her love interest. I was going on tour with Young Thug, my manager at the time’s like “we got all this stuff going on, you don’t really need to do it.” Last year came back around, but I went out the country with Akon to perform. So this year when it came around, I said “listen, I’m not f##king passing up being seen by millions of people every week. I’m not doing that again, let’s do it.” My story was very genuine and authentic, so they liked it. They liked my family, the addition of me having Slick [Woods] as my girl was a big plus to them too. They’re like “oh s##t, you brought a f##king supermodel on here.”
AllHipHop: Talk about your past relationship w/ Slick Woods. What happened?
Micky Munday: Slick’s a great person, a very accomplished woman at 23 years old. She comes from bad trials and tribulations in life. She had a real tough life so to overcome everything she overcame is beautiful. She’s a beautiful person inside and out. I’ll always love her. We just you know… long distance. Slick thinks like a guy so sometimes we butt heads, like “aye girl, remember you dating a guy now.” She’s used to dating girls so it’s a little different, but we had such a good time. When we met each other, it was an instant connection. We never left each other. For 6 months, we were just on top of each other… in many ways. [chuckles] It was great, I wouldn’t change that experience. Slick’s gon’ be my friend forever, that’s my dawg.
AllHipHop: Why were people speculating that the relationship wasn’t real?
Micky Munday: Probably because we’re not each other’s typical type. People are used to seeing her with girls. When people look at Trish then look at her, they’re like “oh they don’t look anything alike!” Everybody just thinks I like thick big booty girls, that’s not true d#####. I like ‘em all! Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Sometimes it’s not always the looks that attract you to somebody, maybe it’s their sauce, their drip, their personality. You get around them like “oh wow, this person’s beautiful.” You start looking at their features, just different things. I’m a very open person. Because I’m different, I’m eclectic. I’m not your typical person.
AllHipHop: Best memory from filming the show?
Micky Munday: Getting to be on camera with my family honestly. I’m very family-oriented so to have my daughter on there. To have my dad – my dad’s hilarious. He speaks in third person the whole time. We had to stop him multiple times because he talks about me like it’s a documentary. “Micky Munday, is the greatest…” They’re like “Mr. Jacoby, you’re supposed to be talking to him.” He’s like “oh okay, my bad.” 2 minutes later, he’s like “Micky Munday…” He’s funny. My family are my biggest supporters, always have been. They’ve been along on this journey with me for 10 years, so they want it more than I do probably.
If I didn’t make it, it’d be a tragedy today. They’d never live it down because they know how hard I work and everything I put into it. They think I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread, you can’t tell them nothing about me. Then getting the chance to show my craft… at the end of the day, it’s f##king 3 or 4 million people that watch this show every Monday. To have a chance to show people “listen, this is what I really do. In not a regular way, in any way shape or form.”
AllHipHop: Have you always had TV aspirations? IMDb says u were in a show back in 1994 called “Step by Step.”
Micky Munday: I did an appearance, my dad was actually in that episode too. I did martial arts when I was younger, so they had a martial arts show. I wanted to be an action hero when I was younger, always wanted to act and incorporate my martial arts in it. I’m still gonna be an action hero. I still whoop ass till this day. I’m still a ninja. A ghetto ninja, but a ninja nonetheless. I always had dreams of being on TV with my music. We write shows. We write movies. It’s so much opportunity, so many things I haven’t even gotten my chance to dip my feet in yet. I’m really excited for the future. The only thing a person should ask for in life in opportunity. If you’re talented and you know you can do something in life, all you need is an opportunity. After that, it’s just an excuse. I’m just looking for opportunity.
AllHipHop: Biggest lesson you learned in fatherhood?
Micky Munday: Patience. You gotta be patient in fatherhood. You gotta really take your time. I have a daughter, she’s my everything. She’s grown man, she’s about to be 10 next month. As a young father… I had her when I was very young. I was 18. I was fresh outta school, living on my own. To have this young kid around who’s f##king screaming at 3 am, I don’t know what to do. Patience. It’s the greatest love thought that anybody could ever experience, the love of their daughter. My daughter is my twin, she looks just like me. Definitely patience is the biggest thing in life period. Just having an understanding that everything is in God’s timing. Everything is in God’s plans.
Preparation and opportunity leads to success, but you gotta be ready for the moment because you never know when the moment’s here. It’s not guaranteed to be today, not guaranteed to be tomorrow. I always tell people it’s never ‘if’, it’s ‘when’. I just stay ready for the moment and know that it’s going to happen.
AllHipHop: Worst part about filming the show?
Micky Munday: The time and the drama. When you’re dealing with a lot of other people, they call you in and you’re sitting there for hours to film something that’s 4 or 5 minutes. Besides that, I knew what I was signing up for. I really enjoyed my experience on the show honestly, probably because I stayed so true to myself.
I didn’t get out of character. I didn’t have any arguments with nobody, my s##t was really positive. Even everybody commented like “man you brought positivity to this show. You brought a good influence, a good vibe.”
AllHipHop: What inspired “Muchacho”?
Micky Munday: The beat was playing and I just felt like Pablo. I felt like Jefe. When I hear music, I just start freestyling. I go in right away. I load the beat and start freestyling. I find cadences and pockets, and make it make sense after. “I’m in this b##ch with vatos, I twist an L like Chapo.” Just the Spanish vibe. Half my mom’s side of the family is Mexican and Spanish, so it’s dope.
AllHipHop: What can we expect next music-wise?
Micky Munday: Oh my goodness gracious, Lord have mercy. So much. I got so many visuals coming out. Got 5 mixtapes ready: Beautiful Lies Vol. 1 through 5. I got a lot of music coming. I’m gonna constantly fill people with videos and audio. In Day in the Life, vlogs, all kinds of s##t. Pictures, video, audio, everything. I got literally probably 120 songs just sitting.