Rest in Peace to Mike Dreams
The Twin Cities music scene lost a fantastic artist this week. The universe lost a beautiful human being, a father, a friend, a supporter. Michael Hannah aka Mike Dreams is an artist I can only describe as an associate, we weren’t close but I cared for him and his work. We played music together moons ago when he was a featured performer for an open mic concert that Toki Wright and myself put together over at McNally Smith for the Hip-Hop Studies program. Since that time my primary connection with Mike Dreams was him connecting me with his music for play on the radio. He sent along his releases; they were always top-notch professional productions and he was one of those artists who took himself seriously. When someone exudes that confidence and resolve about their work, it makes it easier to engage with the work, easier to believe in. Mike Dreams was an easy person to believe in. He was honest about his struggles in his music and in his social media presence but within that honesty he was also honest about his belief in himself, his pride in his impressive accolades.
Mike Dreams made triumph music. In that genre I connected what he was doing with what Nipsey Hussle was doing. These are men who celebrated wins in spite of adversity, it wasn’t simply bragging, it was. . .well . . .triumphing. Mike also exuded the energy of somebody who HAD TO DO MUSIC. I’ve been around long enough to meet people who are working on music cause it’s a fit for them at the time. . .maybe their roommates are encouraging them, maybe they just got a new guitar. Great. But when the circumstances change, I know the music will stop. But there are people you meet where you know they will be making music on a Fisher-Price mic and a TASCAM if it comes to that. . .the need to create is forever and it’s strong. That was always what I got off of Mike Dreams. He was an all-seasons creator, nothing fairweather about his commitment to his craft.
I’ve spoken to a couple friends who were also connected to Mike since his untimely passing. I don’t know the circumstances of Mike’s death and it isn’t my place to guess. But, in a macro sense, I worry about how death piles up around us, a level of death that isn’t right and anecdotally isn’t the norm for previous generations. I don’t believe my dad and mom spent their thirties and forties hearing about friends dying in these sorts of numbers. I marvel at how it all keeps on happening. We all seem to agree it needs to stop, and it does not stop. Police killing unarmed people, people suffering from depression and taking their own lives, young people killing other young people, children getting their hands on guns. At this very moment it is this pile up of bad news after bad news. I pull news stories for the newsbreaks on Jazz88 and I know that pretty much everyone who does that work ends up fighting back tears as you read about the painful stories you pull from and prepare for broadcast. I don’t have a way to wrap up this thought. We are in a cycle of pain, of death, of government sanctioned killings and nothing nearly drastic enough is happening to stop this cycle.
From the day he was born, Mike Dreams’ story was unique. He crafted a career and a name in a very competitive music world, he told his stories and he touched people with his music. He will be missed most dearly by those closest to him, but I mourn him too, he was a beautiful human and the world is worse without him. Rest in Peace Mike Dreams.
