March 5, 2014
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East County
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North. Portland
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photo by D onovan M. S mith /T he P ortland O bserver
with his first project titled 16 Bars, Portland sown rapper, songwnter and emcee Mike Bars, is drawing fans from across the country
With hi<t firct n m ifir t titiori uiet R a re ” D ^ r t i a ^ t .
16 Bars” Going Worldwide
Local emcee boasts global exposure following debut release
by
D onovan M. S mith
Less than two minutes into a sit down
interview, a fan rushed into the Sizzle Pie
pizzeria off Burnside and approached our
table; he wanted to shake the hand of emcee/
songwriter Mike Bars.
The adulation might be expected consid­
ering Bars has racked up over 400,000 plus
views on a 4-month-old video alone, and
over 3,000 downloads on his 3-month-old
debut album.
“It’s been happening more and more man,
ya nah’m sayin’ which is cool,” he says as
the fan leaves, adding with a crack, “and no,
I did not pay that dude to come.”
With his first project titled “ 16 Bars,”
Portland’s own says he’s only just getting
started.
This album is fittingly 16-tracks (sans the
Portland anthem bonus track, “P-town”) and
came about as a result of Bars obsessing
over another project he has been working on
for nearly two years, titled “The Micro­
phone.”
“ 16 Bars was like a relief for me, you know
what I’m saying— like a creative relief. I was
so focused on The Microphone and doing
everything that I was doing, that I didn’t get
to write anything new.”
This output finds Bars exhibiting his often
electic range, spinning on the usual bragga­
docio-train that’s expected from rappers, to
moments of great humbleness and vulner­
ability.
One moment y o u ’ll find Bars rapping
lyrics like “Foul m outhed, you Listerine/
I ’m a dish m achine/N asty, you like Mr.
Clean/I spit suprem e/W ith a 1000 an hour
salary/T hat’s why they kiss the crow n not
the ground when they bow down to m e”
on “Hit ‘Em H igh” then next you can find
continued W ' on page 15