HO' NO MO' "I can't imagine wanting to rap for 12 songs in a row about having sex," says Blank. "Sex is a big part of my life, but I'm not, you know, crazed for it." |
"Okay, 3, 4, 5 . . . " Amanda Mallory, a/k/a Philly hip-hop diva Amanda Blank (who comes to the House of Blues Monday), isn't counting down the intro to a new joint. She's counting quarters at the laundromat. "Hey, sorry, my washer and dryer are broken, so I'm doing laundry here. I'll have to keep it rated PG, I guess."Anyone even minimally versed in Ms. Blank's œuvre would chuckle at the idea of her trying to keep things clean. Emerging from Philly dirty-rap crew Spank Rock, Blank distinguished herself among a sea of rap dudes with her dizzying spitfire attack and willingness to get nasty in a manner that was both playful and intimidating. "In my first interview ever, someone asked me what it felt like to be the Kelly Bundy of rap music. I was like, 'I wish!' I'm more like the Jerri Blank of rap music, like the character from Strangers with Candy — that's where 'Amanda Blank' came from. Because, you know, that character is so funny and kind of crazy-looking and all fucked up and whatever — though I'm less and less like that character as I get older."
Whoa, whoa, there: "As I get older"? Is the author of such Lil' Kimisms as "You'll be choking on my dick when I tell you to suck it" (from the 2007 Spank Rock/Aaron LaCrate collaboration "Blow") and "I've got rough-sex hair and a pussy made of gold" (from the 2005 Hollertronix mixtape B-More Gutter Music highlight "Super Freek") mellowing out on the she-gangster tip?
"What people know about me, especially on the Internet, is very specific, and it's very different than what I think I'd want to do. I can't imagine wanting to rap for 12 songs in a row about having sex. Sex is a big part of my life, and it especially was when I was in my early 20s, but I'm not, you know, crazed for it, you know?"
This could very well mean that by the time we get her full-length debut (I Love You drops in July on Downtown), it might be from a new, more mature Blank. "The thing is that when I was writing all of those earlier raps, I was single, you know? And I was just out on the town, 21 years old trying to, you know, get it all in. Meanwhile, in the last two years, while I was working on this album, I was also actually in love with somebody and had a totally different relationship with a man than I'd ever had before. I think that that plays a big role in this shift in my attitudes. My approach to having sex changed because I was having it with someone I was very much in love with."
