Mykki Blanco’s journey has been incredible to watch. A self-described “weird, artsy noise freak” who “kind of stumbled into being a rapper”, Blanco rose in a flurry of boundary-pushing, genre-blurring flames. Now, after several starts and stops – last year suggesting he was done with music and preparing to explore a career as a journalist and activist instead – his debut album Mykki is finally due out September 17 through !K7.
Following “Loner,” “The Plug Won’t Listen,” and “High School Never Ends,” a new cut from the album called “My Nene” featuring Woodkid premiered on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show last night – along with a short interview.
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“This is the beginning of the mainstreaming of Mykki Blanco, and I’m not anti-that,” Mykki says. “I’ve always believed that I had the criteria to reach larger audiences, it’s just that a lot of the things that people thought were taboo about me for our five years ago have become mainstream, you know? So many conversations: gay marriage, transgender this, that... Queer culture in general has reached the masses in a way that it hadn’t before, so I feel comfortable now where I can come out and people aren’t just going to point a finger at me and say, ‘Oh that’s the gay rapper’.”
Listen below and read our recent interview with Mykki here.
