Andrew Veeder on June 7th, 2013

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There is Michael Quattlebaum, he, a cross-dressing half-Jewish gay black man performance artist and poet; and there is Mykki Blanco, she, the fierce female acid punk rapper alter ego, who shows multiple sides of her persona on the eclectic eight-track EP, “‘Betty Rubble: The Initiation.” She has stated her four role models are GG Allin, Marilyn Manson, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, and was inspired by both the feminist riot grrrl movement and early Eminem. It would be easy to simply lump her in to the rising “queer rap” trend with Le1f etc., but Blanco is more of a hybrid of punk angst and rap shock. The opener “Angggry Birdz” is the peppier, 8-bit fraternal twin of Death Grips’ “NO LOVE DEEP WEB” opener “Come Up and Get Me,” channeling the commanding intensity of MC Ride, but jumping inventively from raw to playful to queeny to brash and back. “Bugged Out,” produced by the dynamite Chicago duo Supreme Cuts, is the most syrupy cut here, with spaced-out synths and double-time drums. “Ace Bougie Chick” is a funky R&B track, with a swagger as if Mary J. Blige was a cocky gay man. And the closer “Vienna” is a spoken-word story over a simple electro beat, a hilarious anecdote of social commentary about getting loaded in Vienna on a tour stop, and being met at the airport “by a really busty German heavy metal chick named Arlene, and this waifish Persian pretty boy named Sammy Nagasaki.” While it may have started as an avant-garde art project, it’s clear that he has the vision, she has the chops, and both are just getting warmed up.

||| Stream: ‘”Feeling Special,” “Bugged Out” and “The Initiation”