Mykki Blanco

Supreme Cuts, the Chicago producers responsible for Mykki Blanco‘s mean machismo rap track ‘BUGGED OUT!!!!’, have a second album, Divine Ecstasy, coming out on Memphis Industries in October. Their first single, ‘Envision’ featuring vocals from Channy Leaneagh of synth pop outfit Poliça and is soaring rave-friendly pop sprung from the duo’s house and footwork roots.

Other artists set to feature on the forthcoming record include Shy Girls, French performer Mahaut Mondino and Barbadian teen rapper Haleek Maul. Apparently its title comes from an infomercial where televangelist Peter Popoff “peddles a miracle water that will deliver free money and immerse the buyer in a divine trance”. That sounds like our kind of track.

Listen to ‘Envision’ and see album track listing below. **

TRACK LISTING
Intro
Divine XTC
Gone
Divinity
Cocktails
Envision
Peak Experience 1
Down
ISIS
Break
(Untitled)
Faded
It’s Like That
Outro

So, Mykki Blanco‘s promise of a March EP, Betty Rubble: The Initiation, is yet to eventuate. But in the meantime the NYC rapper has dropped another single to follow February’s ‘Feeling Special‘, produced by one-half 5kinandbone5 member Matrixxman. BUGGED OUT!!!!, courtesy of Ms Mykki and Chicago’s Supreme Cuts  here, seems to be going down a similarly posturing pastiche of macho hip hop tropes.

Where Michael Quattlebaum’s subversive ‘teen raptress’ gives way to a growling masculinity, as he attacks his bigoted detractors with a, “oh, they saying no homo, look at this nigga swingin’, money changes everything.” This, over ephemeral, panning instrumentals, anchored by sub bass tones that eventually fade into an uncharacteristically emotional a capella closer. Witness the evolution of Mykki Nicole Blanco. **

Chicago rapper Sasha Go Hard dropped her new mixtape, Round 3, on Feb 5. Joining a league of DIY artists making their mark on the long overdue rap revolution, including the likes of fellow drill star Chief Keef, suburban white girl Kitty (nee Pryde), New York gender bender Mykki Blanco and so many more, hers is an understated rhythm with a lo fi aesthetic.

Sasha Go Hard is one of a wave of artists with vastly different agendas and approaches to their craft, yet they’re all releasing music under the same umbrella of hip hop, at the same time destroying its associated archetypes at its very foundation. It’s no surprise, then, that UK-born beat-maker Diplo produces urgent opener ‘Damn’, while controversial Oakland performer Kreayshawn features on the see-sawing gangsta rap pastiche of ‘Kill Bill’. And that’s on the same track listing as vocal detractor Le1f who appears on wavy female anthem ‘To The Girls’. He criticised Kreayshawn over her association with V-Nasty and her use of the ‘n word’ in  an interview posted here.

Joining the ranks of other rap world weirdos, this new mix is a welcome step up from Sasha Go Hard’s early rough sketches and a harbinger of the goodness that is to come. Download Round 3 here. **