Mykki Blanco found paradise on the other side

The American artist – who has worked with the likes of Madonna and Charli xcx – has spent his whole career shirking labels and butting heads with boundaries. With Blanco, no adjective sticks around for long. From his rugged first EP Mykki Blanco & the Mutant Angels, to his holistic fourth studio album Cafe Paradiso, he has consistently refused to conform to genre, gender, and expectation.Over Zoom, Blanco is sharp and articulate. He’s calling from London, but just moved to the Moroccan city of Tangier, having lived in Hollywood, New York, and all across Europe too. “It kind of feels like you’re in a noir film,” he says of his new home.With several releases under his belt, one could safely describe Blanco as a music industry veteran. But releasing Cafe Paradiso feels new and strange to him. “I think this feels distinctly different,” he explains slowly, taking time to hand-pick his words. “This is the most different it’s ever felt because the digital landscape has changed so drastically just from the last time I released an album, in 2022. I think the infrastructure around what it used to be to promote an album has completely shifted.” That colossal shift does not scare him, howe...