By Book a Poet

Book a Poet is delighted to be able to introduce you to one of our spoken word artists, Mixy. He’s been writing for 13 years and always loved performing, so the transition from writer to spoken word artist and rapper was a natural progression. Since first performing over a decade ago, Mixy is still going strong and is stunning audiences of all ages, genres and cultures.

Since Mixy began writing, he has covered most styles of lyricism. Starting with hip hop he moved through rock, drums and bass, and dub step, eventually landing on poetry. “I just like to write and perform in whatever way my mood takes me,” he says. “My style is not formatted – it runs freely. I write a lot about past experiences. A lot of my material is about feelings and relationships, but I also write story tracks, real and fake, alongside other things. I like to try and be quite wordy and good with my rhymes – I have no set formats that I use, I just always try to create something fresh and like to experiment outside of my comfort zone.”

Mixy has a vast catalogue of material, rap tracks and poems covering many subjects and emotions: factual and fictional stories of personal experiences and even educational pieces– from historical cultures and events to the natural world and the unexplored. He finds it impossible to pick a favourite piece he’s written: “Often the pieces I write that I’m really happy with don’t get the response I expect and some pieces I’m not impressed with seem to be really popular. Also, I write so much that my best pieces keep getting overtaken. I am my own worst critic, but that’s what keeps me on my toes; I will never hit my peak and will never be happy till I do. I’ve had brilliant responses on my pieces about the Holocaust, the wars and my multicultural hometown of Peterborough. Personally, I think some of my best wordplay flow and concepts are on my last mix tape; there’s a very emotional track I wrote for an ex-girlfriend that everyone falls in love with when they hear it. There is also a track I wrote for my sister’s birthday using the soundtrack from a childhood film we used to watch together. I think most artists will agree material appears to be a higher standard when there is a emotional connection to the subject.”

Mixy told us, “I’ve got a vision of what Book A Poet wants to do. Poetry or creativity in general can struggle due to stereotypes, I’ve seen a lot of it in rap and the same thing happens in poetry. Few people know much about poetry and the preconceptions most have are that it’s very slow-paced and dull. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the old school and some of my material may fit that bracket, but I find that doesn’t get people enthusiastic about it. Not only is Book A Poet covering the angle of getting people interested in poetry, they’re helping people like myself to get their point across and help others. I want to take my music as far as I can, I realise I may never get the chance to do all the amazing things I dream of, but if I can do what I love for the rest of my life I’ll be happy. Like I say, I will never quit till I hit my peak and no matter how good I do or don’t, I will always find ways to improve my skill. The sky’s the beginning.”

In 2010 Mixy became the youngest person and first ever rapper to gain the title of ‘Peterborough Poet Laureate’. In the same year Mixy took part in many rap battles and remained undefeated, earning him the title ‘King Of The Mic’. He also took part in numerous poetry slams managing to claim the title of ‘Speakeasy Slam Champion’. Mixy is also one half of the poetry double act Dead Poets, who wowed audiences and critics with their debut show at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe. For further information, to book or enquire about Mixy or Dead Poets contact Lynsey at [email protected] or check out www.bookapoet.co.uk.