It was the last album to be released in Price's lifetime before his death on August 8, 2015.
Background
Sean Price announced the album to the public in mid-2009 by releasing a mixtape titled Kimbo Price: A Prelude to Mic Tyson, which contains 23 tracks. In an interview with VladTV he stated that "he's tryin' to fuck everybody on this album". He calls it Mic Tyson "because he's from Brownsville and that he knows how to fight".
In an interview with Grand Angel TV, he stated that the only confirmed guest thus far was rapper Chali 2na.[2] However he did not make the final cut of the album. In that same year, he spoke with Conspiracy Radio regarding the producers slated on the album, which are Stu Bangas, The Alchemist, Evidence, Sid Roams (who as well did not make the final cut), 9th Wonder, (who has appeared on Price's two previous studio albums), Beat Butcha, etc.[3]
In 2012 three videos on YouTubeDallas Penn channel surfaced of Price previewing tracks off of Mic Tyson, and after many of the pushbacks, Price stated that the album would see release in July. However it was pushed back, yet again, to October 30, which ended up being the actual release date.
Mic Tyson was met with generally favorable reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 80, based on seven reviews.[4]
Mark Bozzer of Exclaim! stated "Young rappers take notice: you want to sound like this when you get older".[6] Steve 'Flash' Juon of RapReviews praised the album saying "Sean Price has rarely if ever lost a step and Mic Tyson is not going to be the time that he did".[8]AllMusic's David Jeffries said "Price's material-starved fans are craving his words more than beats, so don't call it a comeback but a wicked, wordy return".[5]HipHopDX reviewer RomanCooper said "It's a matter of execution, and in that regard, fans will have little to complain about".[7] Writing for XXL, David "Rek" Lee said that "these verses could've fit on any of his past records or mixtapes. But the production on Mic Tyson ties them together nicely".[9]
