Hey Mykki: Mykki Blanco

Thinking his entire world would cave in, Mykki Blanco was in such a “fucked-up headspace” last year he abandoned music altogether, deciding to pursue his interest in writing about places and cultures instead. Having been HIV-positive for the whole of his musical career since 2011, Mykki, real name Michael Quattlebaum, had reached boiling point with his burdening secret. “I only had examples of people in the nineties who came out and were publicly shunned. It was scary because I thought everything I enjoyed was going to go away. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to exist as an artist,” he tells us. Eventually he decided to open up, more for himself than anything else – and was surprised by the supportive response he received. Starting his Dogfood Music imprint on !K7 thereafter, the rapper eased himself back into music. “Everything kind of bounced back into being. I realised that this was something I love so much and I can’t fuck it up.” And now, the cross-dressing, gender-bending rapper has made a statement with a killer debut record.

Having burst onto the scene in 2012 with the hectic and club-heavy hit ‘Wavvy’, the North Carolina-raised rapper found himself heavily linked with the NY queer rap scene, along with the likes of Zebra Katz and Le1f, mixing punk, hip hop and club culture with fierce attitude, firebomb verses, drag antics and sheer electricity. Taking his cues from club culture and punk music equally, Mykki embodies a voice that music all too often is missing. “Clubs speak to queer culture,” says Mykki. “If you’re a gay person coming to a big city, whether that’s London or Paris, it’s like a second family in a way, and can be such a nucleus for where you go and what you do.” In the stories he raps, like on lead single ‘The Plug Won’t’ where he tries and fails to find love in the club, and in his music’s electronic production, such as the funky house rhythms of ‘My Nene’, the club is a place we keep returning to.

But it’s the punky attitude that flows through his performance that makes Mykki such an interesting artist to watch – especially now as he embarks on his world tour, thrashing his limbs and vocals across the stage and microphone. “I try to put on quite a visceral performance. I leg-stomp everywhere, I climb on shit, I jump on shit, and I run on shit. I don’t hide. Sometimes I even black out when I’m on stage.”

This was an energy that Mykki gained long ago. Crashing into New York’s legendary Don Hill club in 2010 and screaming into the microphone under a bed of industrial noise, Michael was setting the groundwork for what would later become Mykki Blanco. Having started making music at 25, Mykki, now 30 years old, could be deemed a late starter in the music world. After publishing a poetry book in 2011 (From The Silence Of Duchamp To The Noise Of Boys), he began experimenting with music, forming the no wave-inspired (a short-lived avant-garde music scene from New York City in the late 70s) No Fear project to perform his poems. This, over time, morphed into what became Mykki Blanco, combining it with a video art project on social media in which Michael would dress in drag to transform into a teenage wannabe rapper. “It was just another random idea I had one day – to have a teenage girl want to become a famous female rapper – and then it spiralled,” he says.

It’s a spiral that has now led to his debut record. Having released two mixtapes prior to his retreat from music, the speed-induced, manic ‘Cosmic Angel’ and the noisy ‘Gay Dog Food’ – both now deemed a little too conceptual by their creator – on his debut proper he has trimmed the fat and made a streamlined album with vocal versatility and lyrical depth. The record’s 13 tracks, made with the help of Woodkid and Jeremiah Meece (of The-Drum), together fall just short of 35-minute mark, giving listeners a pure slice of glisteningly melodic, electronic-influenced hip hop that feels closer to a true Mykki sound than ever before. “The music on this album, this vibe – this is how I am as Michael, as Mykki. This is how I am.”

Mykki’s dream to travel and write has now been postponed. For now, he is solely focused on his music. “I know it can’t last forever. One day I’m going to get old. One day it’s going to be different. But right now, especially after last year going through my emo shit, I just really want to go hard and I really want to push myself for the next couple of years.” After the defeated place he found himself in last year, it’s understandable to see why he’s lost none of that energy when up on stage. Faced with his own mortality, Mykki is ready throw his all into everything.

'Mykki' is out now on !K7 imprint Dogfood Music