Born in Hershey, PA in 1972 to first-generation American Jewish Brooklynites, Lapidus moved almost 15 times before returning to New York City at the age of 14. Trained in piano from a young age, he moved through a variety of instruments including trumpet and bass before concentrating on the guitar. Lapidus was exposed to music by his grandmother and his father, who played in Latin and jazz bands in the Catskills in the 1950's. Through his father's record collection and stories of his father's visits with his Latin American relatives, the seeds of Latin music were planted. Yet it wasn't until the 1980's that the youngest Lapidus became immersed in Latin music, when he moved to a predominantly Latin neighborhood in New York City, where numerous important musicians also resided. Living a block away from Mikel's jazz club, Lapidus still has vivid memories of practicing in Mario Rivera's house or seeing Mario Bauzá walk down the street. Deciding he needed a complete musical education, Lapidus earned two degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Oberlin College, becoming one of the program's first jazz guitar graduates. In 1994, Lapidus started to play the Puerto Rican cuatro and Cuban tres. After leading his own quartet at festivals and clubs throughout Europe and winning a grant to study briefly with Steve Lacy in Paris, he returned to the U.S. and worked with Joe McPhee, Joe Giardullo, Tani Tabal, Thomas Workman, and other creative improvisers. At the same time, Lapidus began performing with Larry Harlow, Alex Torres, and other Latin music luminaries in New York and Puerto Rico. Lapidus earned a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2002. His travels to Cuba acquainted him with distant relatives and grounded him in the music of Eastern Cuba. He has taught popular music of the Caribbean, Latin music in New York, and world music at Queens College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice where he is currently an assistant professor of music. In addition, he has served as scholar-in-residence with the Jewish Museum during four humanitarian missions to the Jewish communities of Cuba. For the last 13 years, Lapidus has performed and recorded tres and guitar on film soundtracks, video games, television commercials, and albums with notable musicians such as Juan Pablo Torres, Ibrahim Ferrer (Buena Vista Social Club), Pío Leyva (Buena Vista Social Club), Orlando "CachaÍto" López, Paquito D'Rivera, Cándido Camero, Larry Harlow, Bobby Sanabria, Ralph Irizarry, Humberto Ramírez, Harvie S. (formerly Harvie Swartz), Brian Lynch, Mark Weinstein, Chico Álvarez, Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, Emilio Barretto, Eddie Zervigón, José Fajardo, Rudy Calzado, Jose Conde, Kaori Fujii, Roberto Rodríguez, Maurice El Medioni, and many others.