Bonnaroo 2024 Artist Spotlight: MIKE

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2024 lineup. After roaring back to life in 2022, after two years off due to Covid and weather, and feeling fully like its old self again with a great fest last summer, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 21st installment (and 23rd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also a continuation of some of the big changes and improvements rolled out over the last couple of years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 13-16 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

LEARN

Before we tell you about buzzy New York hip hop artist MIKE, we should try to curb some confusion. Bonnaroo has inexplicably booked two artists- both rappers, both from the Northeast- named MIKE and mike. on the same day, just a couple hours apart, on This Tent and That Tent. It’s unclear if this was a deliberate, Abbott and Costello-esque joke or an unfortunate coincidence, but this isn’t a situation where one artist is playing two sets under slightly different monikers (as sometimes does happen). In this case, uppercase MIKE, who we’re writing about here, and who, if pressed, is the one we’d more strongly recommend, is a heady, alternative, and experimental hip hop artist who draws acclaim from numerous tastemaking outlets, and plays at 1:15 p.m. on That Tent. The lowercase mike. was formerly known as Mike Stud, and is a professional baseball turned pop rapper, whose music, though fine, is a bit more of a novelty (you can catch him at 4:30 p.m. on This Tent if you want to make it a double Mike day).

Born Michael Bonema in Livingston, New Jersey, and a resident of several Northeast cities as well as London, before settling in New York, MIKE was immersed in hip hop and r&b in his youth (as well as the London grime scene), and gravitated towards more substantive and subversive artists like MF Doom and Tyler, the Creator as he began making music of his own. As a teen, he co-founded New York hip hop collective Slums, and began self-releasing a plethora of early EPs and mixtapes, with 2015 mixtape Winter New York first helping him find some online buzz, and finding a mentor in Earl Sweatshirt not long after. While his first LP, Longest Day, Shortest Night, further established his contemplative, understated, and intoxicating ethos and delivery in 2016, it was the following year’s sophomore effort, May God Bless Your Hustle, which really first helped MIKE reach tastemaking outlets like Pitchfork and The Fader, immediately anointed as one of hip hop’s most talented and important new fixtures. Only now just 25 years old, MIKE has dropped around 25 LPs, EPs, and mixtapes over the last nine years, teaming up with the likes of Wiki, The Alchemist, Tony Seltzer, and, of course, Earl, furthering attracting ubiquitous acclaim for releases like 2019 mixtape Tears of Joy, 2020 LP Weight of the World, and 2023’s Burning Desire. Tackling issues of grief, angst, hardship, and mental health, MIKE makes music with an emotional resonance and vulnerability few MCs can claim, and his sound, though undoubtedly contemporary, harbors a reverence for hip hop history, giving it an elevated and timeless quality. Bonnaroo’s hip hop lineup can be a mixed bag, but there’s always at least one or two artists on the rise who are hidden gems you could easily overlook on the lineup (especially when two similar artists share a name), and MIKE is definitely a must-see for fans of real, meaningful hip hop.

WATCH | “Burning Desire” (Official Video)