John and Maurice met back at James Madison high school in 1988. Like many kids growing up in Brooklyn and going to public school it was hard not to be effected by rap music. Its rise in the early eighties by groups like RUN-D.M.C., Beastie Boys and LL Cool J became the new sound for many youths. In fact, it was similar to what the Beatles, Led Zepplen and Rolling Stones did for teens 10 to 20 years before them. It became their rock-n-roll. Their rebellious music. It was the noise that every parent hated.

Hip hop was beginning to gain it's mass appeal in the early nineties. Its fan base stemed from kids in urban areas to the suburbs. Many of its followers were also coming from the hardcore music scene that rose out of lower Manhattan years prior. John was one of them.

Gathering many influences from the sunday matinee hardcore shows he would watch at CBGB's, from the early rappers to newer ones who began to emerge such as Eric B & Rakim and Epmd, John started rhyming. He began making homemade demo's freestlying at partys and anywhere else people would listen to him. In 1992 under the name "Jon Bro." John made his first serious attempt to break into the music industry. With the help of a young and eager producer named Ruven Schartz he recorded a two song demo. John and Ruven pushed the demo hard for a year, but time and fustrustion began to take over. John felt making it as a solo artist was not looking good.

In the summer of 1994, John began persuading Maurice and another neighborhood friend Jeremey to form a rap group. Although neither of them ever rhymed, they decided to give it a shot. The group was called "Firm Grip" and began to do live shows in local bars around the Brooklyn area. The group would normally write and rap lyrics over well known instrumentals. Firm Grip had become popular among close friends and other people in there neighborhood.

So again the services of Ruven where called upon to produce a demo. The first track the group recorded was called "Snappin Necks". It consisted of a sample of Eric Sermon of Epmd reciting the chorous "Snapin Necks". Unfortunely, the group only lasted one session. Musical differences and immaturity led to there break up.

Flash forward to 1998. Maurice was working as a film editor for tv commercials while Jon Bro was working for the New York Transit system. Both had remained friends through the years but never talked about rapping again. The long work hours were consuming much of there time. The closest they got of doing anything musical were dj-style mix tapes that Mauricewould make and distribute to close friends under the name "Grey Ghost". But all that would change when Maurice met Mike "The Oscillator" - an audio engineer's assistant who worked at the same facitily. Together on their own time they began sampling, looping and constructing beats. In the beginning the objective was merely experimental, while accessing the equipment that was availble to them.

What they didn't know and would later find out, the early forms of the "Mike Control" sound was being shaped. Mike having musical influnces such as Fleetwood Mac and Eric Clapton while Maurice was more focused on hip-hop. Their musical differences combined to blend a unique sound. When it was all said and done after months of experimenting with samples and loops, "Mics I Grab" - the group's first single - was in place. The only problem was there actually wasn't a group yet.

Maurice felt the beat had potential if vocals were laid on top of it. That's when he contacted Jon Bro to come out of "retirement" to ryhme over the beat. Jon was set to do it only on one condition.......if Maurice would join him. A last ditch effort was made to unite the orignal three of their former group "Firm Grip", but Jeremy declined. In the end, Jon Bro added the final element to the Mike Control sound. Firece battle rap lyrics being thrown back and forth by himself and the Grey Ghost (Maurice taking the idenity of his Dj alias) reminiscence the old school rap style that the duo grew up loving.

Mike Control completed their first indepent single in the summer of 1999. The group continues to grow in the year 2000; both mentally and musically. They are scheduled to release a 6 song Ep consisting of hip-hop songs with some live instrumental arrangements in the coming months. Mike Control..........and Beyond !!