Familiarize Yourself

1998 was a pretty good year for me. I was 9 years old; I mastered long division; and I discovered rap. Jay-Z’s “Can I Get A” played in my boom box every day for months, and I rapped along with all I had in me. When Eminem blew up the charts with “My Name Is” three years later I battled it out with the boys on the playground and I out-rapped them every time. It is a secret dream of mine to be a professional rapper, but unless it’s karaoke night you won’t see me on stage any time soon. Instead I’m going to live vicariously through Amanda Blank.

You might not look at her and think now there’s a rapper but you’d be dead wrong. Not only does she flow expertly, Blank creates songs that make you move fast and hard, and she brings it live. I was fortunate to catch her in June performing to a full room of excited young hipsters eagerly tearing up the dance floor as she ambushed us with an onslaught of musical shock waves.

And it seems I’m not the only one who enjoys her live show (prepare yourself for major name dropping) – she’s opened for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and just came off tour opening for international party-rock superstar Peaches. Blank has also won the approval of Spank Rock, Diplo and Santigold, all of whom with she has collaborated.

Check out her debut album I Love You and you’ll see that she’s just as comfortable stomping on heads with her ballsy lyrics as she is embracing dreamy pop, as on the album’s final track “Leaving You Behind” (featuring Lykke Li).

She has some fantastic collabs and original songs streaming on her MySpace featuring samples from Santigold (”A Love Song”), spins off of old classics (”Might Like You Better” – Blank’s spin on Romeo Void’s “Never Say Never”), and infections dance beats (”Shame on Me,” “Make It Take It”). Even better: You can download several of her songs here for free .

Bottom line: You simply can’t deny the appeal of rapper/singer/remix artist/party-starter extraordinaire Amanda Blank.