Mikael Temrowski[1] (born May 6, 1992), known by his stage name Quinn XCII (pronounced "Quinn ninety-two"),[2] is an American singer-songwriter from Detroit, Michigan. He began his career in 2011 when he started writing and recording his own music as a sophomore at Michigan State University, before releasing his debut EP Change of Scenery in May 2015.[3] On September 15, 2017, he released his debut studio album The Story of Us under Columbia Records,[4] with his second album From Michigan with Love released on February 15, 2019.[5][6] His third studio album A Letter to My Younger Self was released on July 10, 2020.[7] On March 5, 2021, Temrowski's fourth studio album, Change of Scenery II, was released on all streaming platforms[8] after being teased a week before.
Temrowski originally went by the stage name "Mike T" and started performing and uploading videos to the video-sharing website YouTube.[10] In college, he adopted the name Quinn based on an acronym used by a professor: "Quit Unless Your Instincts Are Never Neglected."[10][11] Because of trademark issues, he later added the Roman numeral for 92, the year of his birth.[11] He rapped over beats sampled from popular songs before releasing his own original song, "They Know" in 2011, followed by his first extended play Old Fashioned on November 5, 2012. During his attendance at Michigan State University around 2014, Temrowski started taking a more serious interest in writing and recording music. His longtime friend and producer, who goes by the stage name Ayokay, began producing music together, with Quinn XCII rapping over beats Ayokay found off of YouTube.[12] Quinn XCII quickly became a college mixtape sensation, and would begin to travel frequently to Ann Arbor to record new music with Ayokay.
During May 2015, Quinn XCII released his debut extended play titled Change of Scenery, which garnered millions of online streams. His next single, "Stung", climbed to the #1 position on Hype Machine's Popular Charts. In January 2016, Quinn XCII featured on Ayokay's own single titled "Kings of Summer" which soared to #1 on the Spotify Global Viral Chart where it stayed there for three consecutive weeks, in addition to 25 million streams on Spotify. His collaboration with producer Illenium on a track titled "With You" reached #1 on the HypeMachine Popular Chart and reached #20 on the Spotify Global Viral Chart.
Quinn XCII released his highly anticipated second EP titled Bloom on March 10, 2016. Shortly after releasing the EP, Quinn XCII went on his first nationwide tour where he performed in 24 cities for over 20,000 fans.