What grounded his presentation was not nostalgia but intention. Mickey spoke openly about crafting his career, pursuing authenticity, and creating Pendulum Ink when he realized no formal space existed to teach the technical, emotional, and financial aspects of being an MC. His academy integrates:
• storytelling and lyric structure
• hip hop history
• financial literacy
• emotional awareness and monthly “line therapy" sessions
As he said: “Living in history never feels like it until you remember what was done."
The Heartbeat of a Culture
A Conversation with DJ Quik, Bklyn Jones, and Kareem Grimes
If Mickey's session traced the evolution of hip hop, during 100 Years of Music and Sound: The Heartbeat of a Culture, DJ Quik, Bklyn Jones, and Kareem Grimes spoke about how sound becomes experience.
DJ Quik, a pioneering West Coast producer, described how technology transformed not only what artists made, but how they made it. Coming up at a time when equipment was expensive and often inaccessible, he built his own speakers as a teenager. That DIY ethos – a mindset embraced and rewarded by engineers at HARMAN – defined an era of wood boxes, salvaged foam, and piezo tweeters. The improvisation of those early years shaped his lifelong commitment to sound quality.
He also named something everyone in the room understood instantly: frisson, the involuntary chill when a record hits just right. As he says, “If I don't get frisson, it's no good."
Bklyn Jones, creative director and storyteller, reflected on sound systems built by hand in Brooklyn parks, towering speakers crafted by kids from Caribbean families who used engineering, community, and bass to carve out space for joy. He described the experience of hearing the low end travel blocks away: “You could be 15 blocks away playing basketball…and you felt it."
Kareem Grimes, actor and producer, shared how music shapes his work on screen. Before reading a script, he creates a playlist to find a character's emotional temperature. In his role on the TV series All American, he pulled directly from West Coast icons—including DJ Quik—to understand the rhythm, vulnerability, and evolution of the character Preach. As he put it, “Music puts you in a mood. The music drives the scene."
Their conversation made something unmistakable: music does not just accompany culture, it structures it.
JBL and the Tools of Expression
Across both sessions, one idea came up repeatedly. Technology evolves in response to cultural demand. From homemade speakers to custom subwoofers to studio monitors, sound systems have long been extensions of identity, craft, and community.
For many of the artists who joined us, the JBL brand was part of their earliest memories of learning what good sound feels like. Whether in clubs, studios, cars, or block parties, JBL became a constant in how music reached listeners.
At HARMAN, we often talk about engineering excellence. This month reminded us that excellence is cultural as much as technical.
Continuing the Rhythm
Our BHM event extended the celebration with a focus on creators whose journeys began with music and expanded into acting, directing, producing, and cultural leadership. Hosted as part of the Black Professionals Network, the gathering underscored that Black creativity is not confined to a single medium. It is a catalyst for storytelling across industries.
As we close Black History Month, what remains is a sense of continuity:
• 100 years of Black History Month
• 53 years of hip hop
• 80 years of JBL sound
Different timelines, same heartbeat.
These anniversaries are not simply markers. They are reminders that culture is created in real time, carried by people who experiment, innovate, build, remember, and pass it forward. At HARMAN, we do not just engineer sound. We engineer the future of how culture moves through the world, one frequency, one innovation, one moment of frisson at a time.
