If the TGS team (That Good Squad) had to collectively agree on our #1 Favorite Album of 2025, Showbiz! would be our most obvious pick. 2025 has been an MVP season for MIKE, and a trophy-winning year for his label 10k Global. This year was full of MIKE-core memories, from his amazing performance recently on NPR Tiny Desk, to dropping the highly-anticipated sequel with Tony Seltzer: Pinball II , or even mixtapes like his dj blackpower Dr. Grabba II and jbl music with MKYFM. MIKE has had an amazing 2025 that can be studied as a blueprint for future artists.

My favorite MIKE memory of 2025 was on Thursday, January 30th, the day before Showbiz! dropped. I was bored in the back of my last class of the week, scrolling through X to run out the clock before the weekend, when I saw a fresh tweet from MIKE that simply read, “lostscribe.com.” I immediately typed the url into my browser to find a white page with nothing but a cutout image of two birds. Suddenly, once I clicked on the image, the screen lit up with a collage of camera roll images slowly scrolling on top of hand-written lyrics while the first moments of “Bear Trap” blasted on my computer speakers in the middle of class. As soon as the weekend bell rang, I raced my bike through the rain and listened to Showbiz! for the first time. Hearing “Watered down” as I was getting soaked in the rain felt like impeccable timing.

“Watered down, mines more acidic/ Since its fortune now, my DMs gettin’ more explicit/ Come tour the towns, explore the ciry/ They talkin’ down, I see ‘em ain’t no warrin’ with me”

Ever since that first listen, biking home in the cold rain, Showbiz! was cemented in my rotation and eventually became the soundtrack to my year. Giving me the confidence, encouragement, and guiding mantras I needed to get through the year.

“I gotta put it on my life if I want it”

Another MIKE mantra that constantly runs through my conscience.