Mykki Blanco
In electronic, Hip HopA singular artist who has made an indelible mark on the pop music landscape with a string of street-level releases and mixtapes, Mykki Blanco’s debut album “Mykki” has been met with widespread critical acclaim. Produced by Woodkid and Jeremiah Meece, the album finds Blanco simultaneously at his most fearless and his most accessible.
Mykki Blanco has metamorphosed many times. The multi-faceted star was a child actor, founded a performance art collective as a teen, ran away from home, won scholarships to two prestigious art colleges, quitting both as he realized that “the art world is just one big scam for rich people,” an idea touched upon in album track “High School Never Ends” written with Woodkid, premiered on FADER in May.
Finding fame first as a fearless noise rap poet Mykki published a book “From The Silence Of Duchamp To The Noise Of Boys”. Then what started as a video art project about a “teenage drag rapper” transformed into 2 years of Blanco living as a transgender woman in his personal life. Through this, Mykki Blanco graduated in real life experience as well as artistically into the non-binary gender-queer post-homo-hop musical artist that we see before us today. Needless to say, it’s impossible to pigeon-hole Blanco and his unique and beautiful sound is no exception.
Amassing a vast online following with a savvy and savage social media output, Mykki is hailed online as a digital warrior princess who rules across the underground music scene with mixtapes like Gay Dog Food, cult hits like Kingpinning and sensational videos like Coke White, Starlight, The Initiation, Wavvy, and Haze Boogie Life. Everything Blanco has released to date has been razor sharp, ahead of its time and sometimes deliciously far out. Yet this album seems to leave much of the mayhem behind, marking yet another departure, this time in favour of melody and musicianship and Mykki comes of age into a serious chart contender
“I realized as an artist I need to focus on myself and on my work. Arguments with people online distract from that. I used to have a problem with the media trying to define me, either as a drag queen, or a transvestite, as a homosexual rapper, a transsexual or an HIV positive pop star, but most people need labels and my true fans know who I am and what I’m about”
Mykki Blanco’s referential framework is both archival and futuristic; a myriad of culture references, spiritual anecdotes, designer labels, make-up brands, hippie jargon, Fendi here and Snapchat there, all perfectly reflecting the creative dialogue digital landscape we live in.
What stands out above all of this though on “Mykki” is the musicianship, melody and depth, that help Mykki Blanco birth a heavyweight album about feminine empowerment, the discovery of ones “second soul”, giving a voice to the marginalised and scratching a question mark that cuts deeps over and over again.
Album Tracklisting
1. I’m In A Mood
2. Loner feat. Jean Deaux
3. High School Never Ends
4. Interlude 1
5. My Nene
6. The Plug Won’t
7. Hideaway feat. Jeremiah Meece
8. Interlude 2
9. You Don’t Know Me
10. Fendi Band
11. For The Cunts
12. Shit Talking Creep
13. Rock N Roll Dough
For more Mykki Blanco:
mykkiblancoworld.com
twitter.com/mykkiblanco
facebook.com/mykkiblanco