Open Mike Eagle

Open Mike Eagle, an emcee, comedian, and podcaster residing in Los Angeles, originated the phrase "art rap" for his sharply intelligent and bookish approach to hip-hop, one shaped by Freestyle Fellowship and De La Soul alongside They Might Be Giants and Pavement. Long connected to the Project Blowed collective, he helped establish the Thirsty Fish trio and the broader Swim Team battle crew in the 2000s, then issued his first solo project, the 2010 album Unapologetic Art Rap on Mush Records, whose lighthearted everyday observations matched the record's name. He kept releasing material at a steady clip into the following decade and afterward, earning praise for personal works such as Dark Comedy (2014) and Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (2017) while also gaining traction in comedy circles through multiple podcasts and co-hosting duties on Comedy Central's The New Negroes. The 2020 release Anime, Trauma and Divorce extended his practice of channeling private matters into song, and 2022 brought the looser, cassette-inspired Component System with the Auto Reverse.

Born Michael Eagle II in Chicago in 1980, he attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where serving as an RA led to a quick friendship with fellow student Hannibal Buress. Graduate studies drew him to the West Coast and Project Blowed's open-mic sessions; there he formed Thirsty Fish with Dumbfoundead and Psychosiz, whose debut Testing the Waters arrived in 2007. The three also launched Swim Team, whose 2008 mixtape Ocean's 11 preceded Eagle's own Premeditated Folly mixtape that year. His proper solo entrance came with Unapologetic Art Rap, featuring college acquaintance Buress plus Busdriver and Serengeti, and Mush later put out the companion Art Rap After Party EP plus Thirsty Fish's 2011 follow-up Watergate. Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes surfaced on Hellfyre Club, which then issued the EPs Extended Nightmares Getdown: The Blue Door, Rent Party Extension (2012), and Sir Rockabye (2013).

Working with producer Awkward, Eagle delivered 4NML HSPTL on Fake Four in 2012. Mello Music Group issued the fittingly named Dark Comedy in 2014, the same year a track he sent to The Ron and Fez Show became the program's theme. He started the Secret Skin podcast that year and co-hosted Conversation Parade, devoted to Adventure Time, in 2015. Mello also handled the 2015 EP A Special Episode Of and Time and Materials, the first Cavanaugh project with Serengeti. He remained with the label for 2016's Hella Personal Film Festival, recorded with U.K. producer Paul White, and for 2017's Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, a concept album centered on the Chicago housing project of his youth. That same month he voiced a rapping gingerbread man on the final season of Adventure Time.

Eagle launched Auto Reverse Records in 2018 and released the EP What Happens When I Try to Relax. The New Negroes, the standup-and-music program he co-hosted with Baron Vaughn, debuted on Comedy Central in 2019, each episode ending with a video that included guests such as Lizzo, MF Doom, Danny Brown, and Method Man; a digital soundtrack for season one followed. Cavanaugh's Quarantine Recordings EP preceded the 2020 solo album Anime, Trauma and Divorce, which Jacknife Lee mixed and co-executive produced. Component System with the Auto Reverse, drawing from late-'90s college-radio rap mixtapes, came out in 2022.