MC Magika

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MC Magika, sometimes credited as M•A•G•I•K•A, is a British MC, music producer and rave promoter.[1] He was regularly featured at many of the big UK raves in the mid to late 90’s including Dreamscape and Helter Skelter, and on the mega-hit dance music compilation Dancemania's Speed sub-series. He is also well known for being the former MC for DJ Carl Cox.[2] Magika worked with his partner in crime MC Stixman who Magica himself rated as one of the best happy hardcore MCs around. This is debatable.

Career[]

Born in Birmingham, England,[2] he started MCing in around 1989 at a club located in Birmingham.[3] He later met with Carl Cox and performed with the DJ for 5 years during the early 1990s.[4][5]

His first appearance at the UK rave Dreamscape (a rave held in the custom-built sanctuary music studios in Milton Keynes) was in 1993, featuring DJs such as Slipmatt, Dougal, Dave Angel, LTJ Bukem, Carl Cox and MC Conrad.[6] Credited for ruining many DJ sets over the years (with the expert help of the stixman), he appeared on many of the cassette tape compilations of the time including Dreamscape where he was known for his live collaborations with DJ Dougal. This was the dream team of mid 90s hardcore - with Dougal providing the ever cheesier beats and magika and stixman trying to rap over the top of it.[2]

He was well known for his crowd hyping skills and would regularly get people to hold hands and ‘ring the bell’ or ‘drop the bomb’.

Was involved in dream dance magazine in the late 90s, when lots of people used to write in and say how amazing he was (and also MC Marley).

He also promoted a short lived hardcore event called ‘cocoon’ (not to be confused with the geriatric-themed Peter Pan fantasy sci-fi film of the same name) in Birmingham during 1997-98 aimed at bringing back the vibe with a selection of old and new sounds, but issues with the Que Club and the local council due to trouble at these events led to dwindling numbers and concerns over the general health of the scene in the late 90s.


He also ran a regular happy hardcore radio show in the midlands and did his best to get happy hardcore played on BBC radio 1, at a time when many of the DJs were trying to break into the mainstream - which in reality was never going to happen due to the association of the music with warehouses full of young kids off their nuts on ecstasy, LSD, Ketamine and amphetamines. It was clearly easier for the mainstream to sell the more grown up house sounds pioneered by the likes of Renaissance and DJ’s like Sasha and Digweed. But Magika did his best for the scene.

In 1999 he made his first Dancemania appearance on the third issue of the Speed series with his track "Flashdance (What A Feeling)".[7] He made a number of appearances on the Speed series and its sub-series albums including Classical Speed in the early 2000s. Many of his tracks on the series were co-recorded with fellow British DJ Kambel.[2]

Discography[]

Singles[]

  • Flashdance (What a Feeling) (1996)
  • Hardhouse Raver (2002) - with Mutant DJ

Albums[]

  • The Old Skool Masters Round 2: Ratpack V Magika Presenting Blackmagic (1998) - with Ratpack
  • (2001) - with DJ Horn
  • (2002) - with KengKeng

Appearances[]

Dreamscape[]

  • 6 (1993)
  • 7 (1993)
  • 8 (1994)
  • 10(1994)
  • 11 (1994)
  • 12 (1994)
  • 14 (1994)
  • 22 (1996)
  • 24 (1997)

Dancemania[]

  • Speed : 3 (1999), 6 (2001), 7 (2001), 8 (2002), 9 (2002), 10 (2002)
Classical Speed : 1 (2002)
Speed G : 1 (2003)
(2003)

Others[]

  • Happy Daze (1996)
  • Dance Dance Revolution 3rdMIX Original Soundtrack (2000)
  • Hardcore Underground (2006)
  • X Years of Hellhouse (2009)
  • In Full Effect - The Mix Tapes (1995)
  • The Payback (1996)
  • Capital Punishment (1997)
  • Helter Skelter Imagination NYE 1996/1997 (1997)
  • Black Magik (1998)
  • Helter Skelter 10 Legendary Years Hardcore (2001)
  • Banginglobe Anthem (2002)
  • Dance Valley 2002 - Hard Dance Edition (2002)
  • The Sound of Don Diablo (2002)
  • Torture Garden vs. Fallen Angel (2002)
  • Hard Kandy - International Series Vol 1 (2004)
  • The Legend of Hellhouse #02 (2004)
  • X Bass (2004)
  • Black Magic - Hard Trance Anthems (2005)
  • Blutonium Presents Hardstyle Vol. 5 (2005)
  • Hardbass Generation (2005)
  • Hardcore Underground (2006)
  • Pharmacy Volume 3: Down with the Sickness (2006)
  • X Years of Hellhouse (2009)

References[]

  1. ^ Back To The Oldskool, MC Magika Interview
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Discogs, MC Magika,
  3. ^ Obsession, MC Magika Profile Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Fantazia, MC Magika - Fantazia Exclusive Interview 2005
  5. ^ MC Magika, Official MySpace
  6. ^ Discogs, Dreamscape VI
  7. ^ Discogs, Dancemania Speed 3
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