So this is Cosmic Angel, the first mixtape from "Acid Punk Rapper" Mykki Blanco, and it's a trip for sure. When I first heard this mixtape, I downloaded it for the single Wavvy, which is linked up above. I still love this song, Mykki's insane vocal delivery overtop of Brenmar's nightmarish beat is a perfect match to me. This mixtape, as strange as it is at times, seems to be bursting with potential. As my first introduction to Mykki I was reminded of other "weird" rappers like Missy, ODB, Ludicrous or Danny Brown who have the most unique and recognizable voices in hip-hop. Her voice is at times eery, twisted but always assertive. When Mykki sneers lines like "I think they forgot what this shit supposed to sound like" on Haze. Boogie. Life. (an album highlight for me), its easy to see Mykki as the kind of rapper who dominates every track she's featured on, not because she's a spitter, but her voice simply oozes confidence.
Cosmic Angel starts off strong with tracks like the aforementioned Haze. Boogie. Life, Kingpinning, Riot, and Wavvy. Mykki manages to destroy the weird-ass production on most of these tracks. One song I can't stand though is Fuckin the DJ because I find the hook, with Mykki's pitched up voice, to be annoying as hell. There are also a few mediocre tracks on here like Virginia Beach and YungRhymeAssassin. After all of this however, the mixtape takes a real turn for the strange from tracks 10 to 15. Here we see Mykki pitching her voice to a mouse-like squeak, with the effect of sounding like the bad-bitch version of Quasimoto. This kind of works for Betty Rubble, and I love the hook "I wouldn't try to do the things that I do, you should pray to God and do not play with false idols" but I feel that I would like the song even more if Mykki wasn't pitched so high. It's unnecessary. Her voice is already interesting. She doesn't really need to mess with her vocals even more, a trick usually reserved for producers who sound kinda boring when they rap with their normal voice. But this gets even worse with the following two songs, on which Mykki's voice is so high-pitched that she sounds like the world's most foul-mouthed 5 year-old.
With all that said, Cosmic Angel is the reason why Mykki's first full length, called Michael, is one of my most anticipated releases of 2014. Listening to the single tracks she's dropped on SoundCloud has only got me more stoked as I find myself genuinely curious to hear what her full length debut will sound like.
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