Mykki Blanco
Michael David Quattlebaum Jr. used several stage names until he decided to perform as a rapping troublemaker Mykki Blanco. Last year, she released her debut album Mykki, which is according to The Wire, “one of the hardest and most consistent recent statements in US hip hop.” The rave reviews from MixMag, Guardian or Pitchfork confirm the ever increasing quality of her work. Mykki Blanco is coming to convince festival-goers about her qualities at Pohoda 2017.
06. March 2017
At the age of 15, he won an Indies Spirit Award (with the performance collective he founded). When he was 16, he ran away from home and later received scholarships to attend two prestigious art colleges but dropped out of both. In 2010, he was doing industrial punk under the stage name of No Fear. A career breakthrough came a year later. What started as a video-artistic project turned into two years during which Mykki lived as a transgender (without actually becoming a woman). She released her first recording Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss in 2012. What followed was EP Betty Rubble: The Initiation EP; then EP Gay Dog Food; a more aggressive and more punk collaboration project Mykki Blanco Presents C-ORE; and, finally, a debut album Mykki, on which he collaborated with Woodkid, for example. Her work is influenced by the likes of Lauryn Hill, Rihanna, Marilyn Manson or poet Jean Cocteau. New York Times or Elle praise her for fashion and visual aspects of her artistic alter-ego; The Quietus, Guardian and Pitchfork, on the other hand, for her radical lyrics, lavish videos and excellent musical facet of the artist. Media often name her as a hip-hop queen or homosexual rapper, transsexual or HIV-positive pop star. Mykki says that while many people need tags, her real fans know who she is and what her point is.
Blanco’s conceptual hip hop is miles away from the majority of macho music made by her male rapping colleagues. She’ll drag you into a hedonistic party in a night club as well as into an extraordinarily introspective diary containing the most intimate fears or various aspects of love. Probably the most fitting description of her personality and art is the one Paper magazine offers: “Prepare to be blown away.” When we started working on our visuals, apart from other big names, in each proposal, name Mykki Blanco appeared in a pretty large font. This is how Žltý caught our attention and indirectly convinced us to send a proposal to this artist. Now Milk can add her to the bill for real. :)