MIKE – “You’re the Only One Watching”

MIKE doesn’t really ever take a beat, because he seems to always be too busy dropping bars around them, even if at a subdued, impressionistic pace. If it wasn’t obvious a few albums ago, it’s starting to make sense why on “You’re the Only One Watching”, the first single from his early 2025 album, Showbiz! Consider that last year, the ever-prolific New York City underground rapper released two albums in the listmaking Beware of the Monkey and Burning Desire, and then soon followed both up this year with Tony Seltzer collab, Pinball! The early listen off Showbiz‘s suggests this busy mind of his is his way of holding conversation with not only his internal stream of thoughts, but that of spirits passed. As much as time passes and as many new projects come and go, he’s finessing words and feelings into the afterlife from this side of existence about lessons learned since they left him on this plane. That’s just his way of coping with the grief. When you wield the power of rhyme and do so in a humble ebullience over a mesmerizing swirl of a dazed soul music, you know you’re doing whomever you’re talking to proud.

Directed by: Ryosuke Tanzawa