If you pay any kind of attention to the country rap scene you may already be familiar with Mikel Knight A.K.A. “The Maverick.” Facebook was lit up yesterday with reports of him and his street team pushing his merch in the QCA.

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Knight's Facebook page has over 100,000 likes, he’s sold hundreds of thousands of records, has millions of views on YouTube, and only plays shows on rare occasions. Not bad for a country rap artist that isn't signed to a label, so how does he do it?

Mikel Knight makes his money by deploying fleets of tour vans and buses all mocked up with Mikel Knight insignia and full of street team members to solicit people on the street, in parking lots, and at gas stations all across the United States to purchase Mikel Knight country rap albums.

Known as the “Maverick Dirt Road Street Teams,” dozens of pseudo-employed Mikel Knight devotees fan out across smaller communities to aggressively peddle his country rap albums to local populations, usually working a dozen or more hours a day, driving through the night to their next locations, not even being given chances to shower or sleep, and leaving town before local authorities catch up with the street teams and make sure they’re obeying local sales ordinances. Right now Mikel Knight is thought to own two buses and 18 insignia-wrapped vans as part of his street team armada.

Saving Country Music

Several members of the street teams have been arrested all across the U.S. for selling CD’s without a proper peddler’s license. Five members were caught outside a Walmart in South Dakota. Seven men were cited with Failure to Have a Solicitors License.

Even after all these run-ins, Mikel Knight’s “Maverick Dirt Road Street Team” continues to frequent the same towns they have been to before, building up a reputation with local residents and authorities.

They were spotted in the Quad City Area, traveling on I-80 by Walcott, peddling CD's in LeClaire and at the Shell station in Colona. Keep your eyes open boys and girls.

Here are some of the comments we found on Facebook:

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