Born in Manila, Philippines but raised in Chicago, Illinois Miko (aka Emcee M.A.S.) fell in love with the rhyme as early as 5th grade.  Writing playful lyrics throughout his childhood, the dynamics of rapping became not only a hobby, but an outlet.  This eventually turned into a passion throughout high school as his lyrical style and skill progressed dramatically.  His first big performance came in his sophomore year at age 14 where he performed at a fashion show entertaining hundreds with his gift of wordplay and creativity.

Miko grew up as a cradle Catholic: he knew the basic tenets of his faith but never really practiced them devoutly.  His family was not active in the Church; neither he nor any of his family members attended Sunday Mass regularly.  However, upon the start of his junior year of high school, he was invited to a youth retreat that discussed God’s love and Christ’s mercy and emphasized the call to evangelize.  It was then he committed his life to Christ.  He fell deeply in love with his faith, and even more with His God.  This new found zeal helped spark a flame not only in his heart, but also in the hearts of his family members. His dad is currently a household leader for Couples for Christ ministries and his sister is a full time mission worker for both Singles for Christ and GK – a program that reaches out to the poor.  As his faith and conviction grew, he felt called along with his sister to help start a Catholic charismatic prayer group at his university by the start of his freshman year.   He was heavily involved with many of the Catholic retreats and programs at the school’s Newman Center and worked closely with the priests and the Franciscan Nuns in his spiritual formation.  In addition he has given several testimonies and talks to other students relaying the message of Christ’s love and the call to go forth and renew the society.

Since his love for rhyming stayed with him since childhood, Miko took this passion as well as his passion to spread Christ’s message and combined the two to create hip hop music that speaks of his faith, his love for Christ, his struggles and just the challenge to all who listen to his music to do something radical in their lives.  In the summer of 2003, he stumbled upon the Phatmass.com community and contributed 4 tracks on the first ever Catholic hip hop compilation CD, which featured many popular artists such as ManCHILD from MarsILL as well as Fr. Stan Fortuna.  Since 2005 until now, Miko has been working on many tracks that will appear on his first debut solo album, The Road to M.A.S. soon to be released early summer of 2007.

Miko graduated from the University of Illinois with both B.A. in accounting and Masters in Tax.  He is a licensed CPA in the state of Illinois and works for Deloitte & Touche, LLP a “Big 4” accounting firm.  His favorite parts of the Catholic faith are his devotion to the Blessed Mother and the Most Holy Eucharist.