Mykki Blanco Reveals He’s Been HIV Positive Since 2011

Cross dressing MC Mykki Blanco recently revealed he has been living with HIV for the last four years. Taking to his FaceBook page, the New York artist said he was tired of keeping his diagnosis in the dark. "Ive been HIV Positive since 2011, my entire career," he worte. "Fuck stigma and hiding in the dark, this is my real life. I'm healthy I've toured the world 3 times but ive been living in the dark, its time to actually be as punk as i say I am."

His announcement comes in timely fashion as Pride week kicked off this weekend in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Born, Michael Quattlebaum Jr., the 29-year-old Harlem-based poet and performance artist brought forth his cross-dressing alter ego, Mykki Blanco,in 2010 and grabbed immediate attention with his spaced out rhymes a trippy visuals.

XXL spoke to Blanco back in 2013 and he talked about the trials of being himself. “My main trials and tribulations have come from thinking ‘Will people understand that I’m doing different things at once?’ One day I may choose to do a photoshoot in full drag, the next shoot I may be an alien, or I may choose to perform out of drag” he said. “A lot of people want musicians to have one image. If I had chosen to do that in a gimmicky way, it may have made things easier at first, but I would’ve lost out in the end because I would be a prisoner of a persona.”

He added, “Everyone needs an introduction. I can just keep putting out more music.”