Mykki Blanco is the stage name of American poet and performing artist Michael David Quattlebaum Jr. Quattlebaum is an interdisciplinary artist who uses contemporary hip hop as a performance medium to express his larger ideas. Quattlebaum grew up bouncing between San Mateo, California, and Raleigh, North Carolina, but ran away to New York City at the age of 16. He didn’t stay there long, and soon headed back to California, but college drew him toward the Art Institute of Chicago.
Moving back to N.Y.C. after dropping out of school he published his first book of poems “From the Silence of Duchamp to the Noise of Boys” in 2010. Quattlebaum counts artists and writers such as Marcel Duchamp, Anaïs Nin, Bob Kaufman and Jean Cocteau as influences. In 2011 he began performing two new projects, crushing industrial rock under the name No Fear and glamorous, ghetto-fabulous riot grrrl rap under the name Mykki Blanco.
In 2012, Mykki made her grand entrance with the Mykki Blanco and the Mutant Angels EP, featuring cuts like “Join My Militia (Nas Gave Me a Perm)” and “Gay Dog.” Dubbed “From Teenage Runaway to Hip Hop Queen” in a profile by the New York Times Mykki Blanco was solidified as a young artist whose creative work with hip hop has just begun.
