Former student Miguel Pacheco, who now goes by the stage name MP14 has had a passion for songwriting and rapping. His stage name comes from his initials and his birthday, August 14.

BG: Tell us a little about yourself

MP: It all started when I was 12. I tried to write my own lyrics and I gave up quickly after that. Then, after a year I thought why not give myself a second attempt? Next thing you know, I pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and I wrote a song called “Living the Dream”

BG: What made you choose a music career?

MP: I love the intense complexity of working with words and structured wordplay, and so forth. It made me realize that I wanted to work with something more than a job. I love being able to go on stage and express who I am

BG: Who are your biggest influences, who do you look up to?

MP: Ooh, Eminem, 2pac, [Notorious B.I.G.], Eric B, Rakim, Big Pun, Big L, Nas. And if we’re talking about today’s artists I’d say J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Logic

BG: It says in your Spotify bio that you thought of giving up on your music career when you were 12. What motivated you to go back and give yourself another chance?

MP: You know how they say in life that if you work it’s okay to fail but you should never quit? I remember when I came home from school and I thought maybe songwriting isn’t actually that hard. So I pull out a pencil and a piece of paper, look up songwriting tips online, and then I write whatever comes to mind. 

BG: All your collaborations are with independent producers and artists like yourself. How do you get these collaborations, and how do you choose which artists to work with?

MP: Most of the people I work with were people that I went to high school or college with and we’re all into coming together as a collective.

BG: Which of your songs are you most proud of? 

MP: I’m proud of all of my songs

BG: You graduated from NJCU two semesters ago, what was your learning experience like here on campus?

MP: It definitely did. Professor Botero and Burke helped me with my experience in ProTools

BG: Tell us about your latest project

MP: So this new song is called “Find a Way”. The song is a phone call about how there are people in your life who don’t respect your boundaries or space. There’s this girl that’s interrupting my space my mental health and I reply back, “hey I understand what you want, but at the same time you’re disrupting my space I can’t keep having this”’

*”Need a Friend” is available to stream on Pandora, Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, and Apple Music