Music
Mykki Blanco's best music videos
Before the New York based rapper tears up #RBMASP with another upfront and controversial performance here are Blanco's best – and weirdest – videos.
Punk poet, activist, performance artist and rapper Mykki Blanco has been one of the world's must-see live artists for the past five years. In a style influenced by punk-rock and hip-hop alike – notably artists such as Lil' Kim, Rihanna, Kathleen Hanna, GG Allin, Yoko Ono – Blanco has explored the subjects of gender identity, transfeminism and political repression, among other things, across a self-titled debut album and various EPs and mix tapes. Bridging both genre and gender, her songs and their accompanying videos offer an important view of the world.
To get you in the right headspace before she takes to the stage at #RBMASP's Queeridxs night on June 9 with Linn da Quebrada and Total Freedom we've collected some of Blanco's best (and strangest) music videos.
Hideaway
Blanco found out she was HIV positive in 2011. Since then she's been helping to raise awareness of the persecution and shame that's often experienced by those living with the disease. From the call-to-arms introduction to its affecting finale, the video for Blanco's recent Hideaway track is a gentle yet hard-hitting exposition of the issues.
Loner
One of the weirdest looking videos in the Blanco canon. This one comes with a warning for viewers with epilepsy, which means flashing, fragments of Google AI dreams, augmented reality and some very far-out costumes. That Blanco went to this much trouble for one of the prettiest tracks she's ever done underlines her dedication to a mind-bending artistic vision.
Coke White, Starlight
Blanco delivers this epic 2015 track in four or five (nightmarish) parts, ranging from screwy ambience and abstract hip-hop to industrial noise. Its video is equally ambitious, accompanying the song's episodic approach with a symbolic, fast-paced and bamboozling thriller set in the Greek islands.
Wavvy
Francesco Carrozzini, who's made videos for Marilyn Manson, A$AP Rocky and Lana Del Rey, gives this 2012 track the dark, hedonistic aesthetic it deserves. Cue plenty of flesh, wide eyes and the euphoric climax to the best all-night party you've never been to. You'll want to be Blanco's plus-1 forever after watching this.
Haze.Boogie.Life
This taut, cosmic, stream-of-consciousness banger from 2012 is given some suitably mind-bending visuals in a video that depicts what may or may not be a typical night in the life of Blanco. Like much of her music, it's an unsettling, off-the-wall and totally joyous trip.
Mykki Blanco performs at #RBMASP on Friday, June 9.
Mykki Blanco is on Facebook.
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