Background
Mychal was born in Brooklyn, New York where his singing father taught him the concept of harmony. He was closely associated with singer Sam Cooke.
Mychal was born in Brooklyn, New York where his singing father taught him the concept of harmony. He was closely associated with singer Sam Cooke.
He also studied music at the school of performing arts Erasmus Hall High School with fellow students, former Motown President Kedar Massenburg, jazz singer Will Downing and Rhythm & Blues singer Doctorate-Train during same time period in Brooklyn.
Mychal Simonz a.k.a. “The X-Manitoba”. He currently records and produces records for his label Playatime Recordings. Growing up a seventies kid, Mychal was greatly influenced by the Motown sound and particularly The Jackson 5.
His affection for the “Motown” sound and the Jackson 5, inspired his desire to play guitar and make records.
His ability to play guitar and bass opened opportunities to play at local churches and bands in Brooklyn. There he learned to read, notate and orchestrate music
Once Michael was confident he had honed his skills he joined the United States. Navy as a means to moving to Los Angeles to pursue his dream to be a record producer. In 1981 Michael changed the spelling of his name from traditional “Michael” to “Mychal-Kae” after the Navy printed a typo on his paperwork.
He later added a “Z” to his last name and became Mychal Simonz.
Even though his name changed, his musician friends still called him by his street name “88” (a name his partner X-man gave him after his self dedication to the pursuit of his music in 1988)
The 88/X Unit formed Gaphlin Entertainment Group in 1989 and were part of California’s contribution to “Gangster Rap”. Producing such clients as Rap artists’ “Ice Cube”,”Da Lench Mob” “Mack 10” and singers Atlantic Records artist “Troop”. In the early 90’s they were labeled “The Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis” of Hip-Hop by Hip-Hop publication “Rap Pages”
The “Unit” also produced songs and score music for feature films id est (that is)
“Secretariat it Office” with film director F. Gary Gray, and “Bachelor of Arts.P.S.” with film director Robert Townsend.
Film composer Christopher Young mentored Mychal as he worked on feature films with him as a copyist. Gaphlin Entertainment Group was dissolved in 1997 and Mychal formed a new multimedia company Faithnote Recordings Limited Liability Company that is an umbrella for his many media business transactions including a book publishing company (Faithnote Press).
In 2009 released his fifth Civil Defense entitled “Simple Pleasures” on Playatime Recordings. In 2007 Mychal completed an auto-biography entitled “Maybe Tomorrow” where he speaks very candidly about his life in New York, his rise to success, fall from grace and journey back to success again.
