Def-i finds strength in family through marathon rap challenge
Navajo Times | Sharon Chischilly
Christopher Mike-Bidtah, known as Def-i, poses for a photo with his brother, Joshua Mike-Bidtah, and their mother, Pandora Mike, at his family’s home in Shiprock Saturday evening, Oct. 3.
DÁ’DEESTŁ’IN HÓTSAA
By the final hours of an overnight rap marathon in Pennsylvania, Def-i was looking into the eyes of other exhausted performers as they took turns improvising lyrics.
He had started drinking coffee again after more than a year without it. Sponsors supplied food, smoothies and tea. When the rappers needed ideas, people wrote words on a drawing board for them to work into their verses.
“It was really a test of mental endurance for an MC, I think, and especially for me,” he said.
Christopher Mike-Bidtah, the Shiprock-raised Diné artist known as Def-i, joined musicians at Infinite Cypher, a 73-hour Hip-Hop gathering Sept. 25-28 at Forest Farms in Tionesta, Pennsylvania. After the festival, he stayed for a separate eight-person Guinness World Records attempt that organizers reported lasted 13 hours.
Def-i said Oct. 15 that organizers were preparing evidence to submit to Guinness World Records. Certification had not been confirmed.
Travel delays had left him tired before he reached the festival. He arrived in time to freestyle with MC Supernatural on the second night, then joined other cyphers throughout the gathering.
Rappers, singers, beatboxers, producers and live loopers shared the performances. Some rested while others kept the music going.
To read the full article, please see the Oct. 22, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow