Mir Fontane

Camden, New Jersey is about a 100 miles away from any borough in New York City, yet it can feel worlds apart when you’re talking about their hip-hop scenes. With legends including Joe Budden, Redman, and Queen Latifah hailing from the Garden State, Mir Fontane is in the forefront of the new, young movement putting the “Southside of Jersey” on their back.

Influenced by great narrators like The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Big L, Nas, 50 Cent, and many more, Mir Fontane, a moniker derived from the Godfather’s Johnny Fontane character, wants to be known for his cinematic approach to hip-hop. Before viral songs “Frank Ocean” and “Down By the River,” Fontane used drawing as his artistic expression, putting as much detail as possible into his pictures.

When he attended Creative Arts Morgan Village Academy as a freshman, he majored in visual arts, and started to take music seriously going into his junior year. He made an effort to record songs at professional studios, dropping lo-fi mixtapes that were mostly freestyles over popular instrumentals. Switching from drawing to writing rhymes stimulated his creativity, but he ultimately decided to fully focus as an artist.

One of his earliest mixtapes was Don’t Sleep that contained the blueprint of his storytelling raps. The narratives got much richer on He’s So Crazy, the mixtape that was heavily inspired by Martin and weaved in skits from the show and his perspective of South Jersey. He would slow down his pace, opting to strategically drop “banger after banger”: “Steph Curry,” “Wanni Wag,” and “Space Jam” all have over 200k plays on SoundCloud.
The positive reception eventually led to his biggest song to date (“Down By the River”) that topped the Spotify U.S. Top 200 chart at No. 6 upon its release. The song appeared on his August 2016 project Who’s Watching the Kids, a project that was similar in theme to Camden’s thoughtful balance.

His second biggest single, “Frank Ocean,” features him singing a strained hook about listeners claiming to be day ones but still play J. Cole, Drake, and Frank Ocean over his music. The fan-favorite song was featured in Spotify’s Most Necessary playlist for several months, and was recognized by Frank Ocean's younger brother on Twitter.
In 2018, Mir furthered his ascension by dropping his Macaroni Tony EP in March and performing at Made in America Festival that Summer.

After celebrating over 10 million streams on Apple Music (currently 22.8M+), Mir Fontane shared his Who’s Watching the Kids 2 album via EMPIRE in 2019. The 11-track project, which tells compelling street stories, alongside melodic, yet gritty forward-thinking compositions, boasted a guest verse from Charlotte superstar DaBaby, and production from hitmakers such as Mike Zombie, Charlie Heat, and Internet Money.
Since 2019, Mir Fontane has shared a handful of EPs and single releases including his groovy, 80s-infused song, “Georgia Peaches” which received an entrancing house mix from Brazilian DJ/producer, DUX, as well as the official video being featured on BET Jams and Revolt TV.

Fans can expect plenty of new music from Fontane in 2022.