A former heroin addict who converted to Orthodox Judaism, Mickey Avalon’s colorful childhood provided fodder for a musical career of rapping about lewd, lascivious and otherwise outrageous subjects. Born Yeshe Perl on December 3, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, Avalon survived a tumultuous upbringing and started writing rhymes after his pal, the former MTV VJ
Simon Rex, encouraged him to compose his own songs. Avalon, Rex (who rapped under the name Dirt Nasty), and Armen Melik (aka Andre Legacy) began recording and releasing their own material as the Dyslexic Spee
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dreaders, an irreverent group that gave a satirical and often bawdy look into the L.A. club and drug culture. Avalon's stage presence, which, according to observers, “mixed a kind of hyper- and often ambiguous sexuality akin to the trashy glam rockers of the '70s,” gained the attention of DJ and aspiring manager Kev-E-Kev, who was soon helping Avalon hawk his self-titled CD -- wrapped in a newspaper advertising adult services -- on the streets. His music, in particular the song "Jane Fonda," thanks to its appearance in the HBO series Entourage as well its availability on his MySpace site, started gaining an audience, and in 2006 his album was reissued as the first release from MySpace Records in joint collaboration with Interscope. In recent years, Avalon has toured internationally, appeared on an episode of The Simple Life, and appeared in a Boost Mobile commercial with
Young Jeezy and Jermaine Dupri. He is currently working with
Travis Barker of
+44 on his new album, and the only place for him to go in the rap world is up.
