When I’m thinking about something new to create, the material, the medium, the shape, the light, the density, the message, the story, all that takes place at the same time. At the end of the day, if something has to be made with the feathers, it would be feathers because that’s where the process took me. Has to be lacquered, well, it’s going to be lacquered. If it has to be a performance, it will be a performance. I don’t really have the kind of thinking process where I separate the idea from the medium or the message—everything really comes together in my mind.

Not only the seventh song on ‘Beware Of The Monkey,’ Ipari Park is also a universe MIKE created. “It’s a 24/7 family reunion cookout kind of vibe. It’s definitely in Nigeria. Definitely has palm trees,” he elaborates. The musician first noticed the words “Ipari Park” on a sign while traveling in Budapest and was shocked to see a Yoruba word in the Hungarian capital. Since then, he’s brought his own personal meaning to Ipari Park. “I feel like when I make music and make certain terms, I just be trying to build small worlds or characters.” Where MIKE fits into those worlds? “I don’t always have to be in the same place — I can help divide [myself] by creating really simple roads.”