Amanda Blank opens up to Electronic Beats

At 27 years old, Amanda Blank has become nothing short of a circuit breaker in the hip hop scene. A linchpin of the Philadelphia dance music scene, you might’ve first heard the comely brunette spreading her gospel on the club hit “Bump” by Spank Rock. Now Blank’s found her own voice and is setting sail with her first solo album on Downtown Records. With “I Love You”, Amanda proves herself to be anything but a typical female rapper; we sat down with her in Berlin and talked failed relationships, sexism in music and being labeled ‘emo’ in high school.

Philly music has always had a strong sense of identity, but also an aggressive nature. Is that representative in the music or the genre that has emerged?

My city Baltimore definitely played a big role in my music; it’s a part of who I am, its part of my upbringing. Your city and childhood, is as much an influence to who you are as anything else. Baltimore and Philadelphia are really similar cities, there has been a lot of crossover with the music, I don’t know, its hard to explain. It’s probably the biggest part of me: where I came from.

I’m interested in the crossover between indie music and dance and electro. How did it come about? Were indie kinds bored with what was happening?

Definitely in some ways I grew up listening to super pop music and rap music cause its what you listen to as a kid. It’s what is on the radio and what you listen to in school and on the street. When I was in high school I was into different bands but I always listened to rap music – it’s one genre I was always into. And it’s funny there is so much hybrid in music these days, everything crosses over.

It comes from a lot of kids from our generation growing up listening to everything. Everyone I know likes everything from Smiths to Biggie to Wu Tang and Bad Brains, and all my friends have eclectic tastes. We grew up listening to everything in the ‘80s and ‘90s, everything was on the radio, so I mean everybody listened to Nirvana and then everybody listened to Wu Tang. It’s that kind of idea that you can mesh it all together in some weird way. NWA was just as punk rock as Bad Brains in the attitude.

But that’s probably because everyone hated the police just as much NWA did.

(Laughing) And then there is that “fuck the man” attitude. I think there is that camaraderie that has been shared across different sounds.

Female and male rappers who come from a white indie background are very in touch with how they are being presented. Would you say that, in some ways, the African American rapping culture might not be?

Well I think it’s different because our audiences are different to African Americans. They aren’t playing to white people and I think white people are self-conscious about their role in hip hop so of course they are going to be more self conscious of what they look. Because it’s not our music it’s black music. I think white people are more aware, as they probably should be. I think that black people don’t care as much because they shouldn’t, I think it’s a white guilt thing. I don’t think black people feel that way.

I think it’s pretentious to think black people aren’t self-aware just because they have a different attitude. Because it’s their music, they are not appropriating or interpreting anything or what their idea of it is.

Maybe white people are over-thinking it.

Yes I agree. A lot of the white people that make rap music have come from backgrounds where they have money or they went to good schools.

“Mum and dad, can I record a demo?”

Yeah exactly, its different point of view or angle.

I recently saw a comment underneath a feature on your alter ego band Sweat Heart: “Art scag posers are ruining Philadelphia.”

Wait where was this? Who said that? Looking bemused.

Some comment on a forum below the video feature.

I have been doing Sweat Heart for so many years. I guess Sweat Heart has some haters? But we have so many lovers and everybody loves us in Philly, all the people in the band are respected artists outside of Sweat Heart.

You know that comment is just from somebody that’s mad that they are not in Sweat Heart, or someone who is pissed off. But I mean there will always be people that think it’s so stupid, I mean, dude we have been doing this forever. That person probably moved to Philly two years ago and now they’re pissed.

No one would dare say anything like that to my face; they just wouldn’t do it, because they would look like an asshole. And that’s because Sweat Heart is so fun, and I think no one in Sweat Heart is an angry person. It’s genuinely about having fun.

Is crunk or styled hip hop the sound of the MySpace generation?

Yeah it’s true no one can listen to anything for too long. It’s so funny because I was thinking about this earlier. I made these tracks with Eli Escobar on this album -- they were long dub edits for seven minutes, similar to the days of Madonna songs being seven and half minutes long. Now everything is two and half minutes. Everything is like crack these days and no one has any attention span. I mean, thank god we had no MySpace when I was in school.

But I do have a Twitter account, which I share with Spank Rock.

What do your tattoos say?

It’s Latin for “to be without”. And the other is my emo girl tattoo when I was in high school. I was never emo but my sister always jokes around that I was.

I can just see you listening to My Chemical Romance.

Oh fuck that, hell no, hell no! I was super shoe gaze-y: Mazzy Star, My Bloody Valentine, like “I’m so tortured”. I loved shit like that. I loved Hope Sandoval -- she’s amazing. So it was more emo-emotional. Elliott Smith was probably about as emo as I got.

You‘ve had some big break ups recently, along with close friends passing away and falling-outs with friends? How much of that influenced your record?

Very much so! Huge influence, I had a very intense love relationship for the last few years and I think it was first time I felt in love and I felt that it didn’t work out and that was really depressing. It was really hard to handle for all the reasons it didn’t work out. I actually touch on that on the record. Also a couple of really, really close friends died and that was really hard to get through.

But you’re trying to be creative and go out on your own tour and then somebody says to you backstage that someone close has passed away and your like, “WHAT?” And it’s hard to keep up this attitude on stage when you’re talking to people and acting a certain way and then you find out somebody very close to you has passed away.

You come across as someone who is more introspective, sensitive and different from other artists. Are you a Virgo?

No I’m a Pisces, I’m super sensitive.

It’s interesting for the genre you are in, because everyone has to be so aggressive or characterized by the music they make. Do you find that there is some part of your image that you feel like you have to maintain?

I think it’s a big part of me. I’m like a small dog that thinks they are bigger than they really are. You see a little dog fight a big dog on the street; that’s like me.

Don’t you find that tiring?

No because I think I’ve always been like this, too much energy bouncing off the walls. If I’m feeling sensitive I’m quick to retreat into myself and distance myself from what’s upsetting me, one way or the other. But I would disappear and not want to talk to anyone else.

It’s funny because “Spank Rock and I always joke around that we are the worst rappers ever”. And whilst we can be boastful, we can also be insecure, like totally emo and sensitive, and that’s why we are so close.

You mentioned in an interview that, “you love girls that are loud and brazen and outspoken, and kinda fucked up.” I remember when Missy Elliot first came out and she was the first female rapper to write actual songs.

I mean Missy is the one we always come back to -- she is the perfect example of someone that has done it really well. She is constantly interesting. She is a thinker; she is herself and is not conforming to fit anyone’s standards.

Is she really a lesbian?

I don’t think she has ever come out, but it’s the word on the street. (smiling) She’s sexual, she’s smart, she knows what she’s doing; she’s a songwriter at the end of the day. I tried to spend the last two years figuring that out. I want to be a songwriter, I want to be good at that, and want to do that forever. It’s a craft you have to hone like an athlete. Everybody has different attitude but there is a sense of camaraderie.

I think Mapei is brilliant but we all look up to some of the older females that have been doing this for a little longer. Karen O, Peaches, Missy rapping or singing. Just strong women and they are all doing something different.

Just a bit of trivia: the first female rap star was Sha Rock, a 10th-grader from the Bronx who helped found the Funky 4 + 1 in 1978. Did you know that?

No.

We both laugh.

Do you think validating female rap with skin and sexual suggestiveness will help or derail female raps future? Or are you just fucking with the status quo?

Absolutely. Women are never on same playing field when it comes to rap, we are outnumbered and we are not taken seriously; there are double standards and a lot of guys don’t like girls rapping. They appreciate girls rapping. But they don’t buy the records -- girls go out and buy both sexes records.

But I think they were programmed to do that?

Yeah, but that’s because we have never been given enough attention or shine, men don’t want that.

Record companies don’t want that.

It’s going to fuck with status quo and their money.

Unless they look like hoochies.

Which is why I appreciate someone like Missy. Because she has maintained her image and she is someone that has never had to be sexual or promiscuous. You would never find her on the back of motorcycle and she would never look like a stripper. You don’t have to blow anyone to get a beat. I stay away from that shit.

So your album is released in July, how you feeling?

I don’t know what it’s its going to be like, I’m nervous. I don’t know because everyone thinks it’s going to be different. I was speaking to my manager at lunch and I was just saying “I think you see this differently, cause I never imagined this when I was operating on such a small scale in the indie scene for such a long time”. So it’s hard to see it going anywhere.

You told Fader magazine you were worried your album was not pop enough for commercial radio but not weird enough for the indie art scene.

Well I think that’s true. My record is weird, it’s like a pop album, but I ask myself is it like everything else on radio? No. And I get worried that it’s not going to fit in, because it’s not so bizarre, that it’s so out there. But the thing is that indie kids and people that were into it first, always resent you when you make music. But me and Spank Rock have always made pop music regardless. But then again, I’m no Katy Perry so I don’t really fit in. I don’t!

Looking extremely nervous, Amanda Blankpicks up her cigarettes.

I’m proud of myself for making a record that doesn’t fit the pop format. But it’s still fun, catchy and poppy and people will song along to it. So I really don’t know where it will go. So I’m like…confused.

Links & backgrounds

Amanda Blank's MySpace

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Amanda Blank, Baltimore, Downtown Records, Electronic Beats, Feature, Ghostface Killah, Philadelphia, Spank Rock, Wu-Tang Clan

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Amanda Blank - I Love You

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