Née: Melisa Rincón.
Raíces: A realm of raw sexuality, nature, and spirituality. Geographic location: Brooklyn, NY.
Sounds like: Electronic dance music with deep, literate lyrics that sometimes venture to abrasive territory.
You should listen to Bunny Michael because…she has the vision of a true artist. She will also make you sweat and groove.
The venerable rapper Q-Tip used to talk a lot about The Abstract, even going back to his days in A Tribe Called Quest– however, few rappers dedicate themselves to being subjective. If someone is here to take the concept of The Abstract to its furthest iteration, then you’re looking at her.
Melisa Rincón started exploiting her poetics in song when she and then partner Black Cracker (who also did beatboxing for CocoRosie) decided to record together. Adopting the nom de guerre Bunny Rabbit, she and BC mangled folk and electronica together to make their statement, releasing their material on Voodoo-EROS, a label co-owned by CocoRosie and associated with acts like Devendra Banhart and Vashti Bunyan.
Since their split, Melisa has adopted a new name, Bunny Michael, and a new sound for her artistic expression. After writing a poem/manifesto called “Nature Slut,” Bunny began a journey to discover herself both as an individual and as a musician. Producing her beats this time around, she used the Nature Slut banner to make an online fanzine as well as a mixtape, which samples DJ Shadow, Sinead O’Connor, Enigma, and L7 (among others) to explore the relationship between the Earth, her sexuality, and spirituality. Followed soon after by the Rainbow Licker EP (yes, that’s most likely an Aphex Twin reference), she explores a textural and percussive take on hip-hop, unafraid of going to noisy extremes. “Holy Holy” uses screaming in the right places to balance out the nursery rhyme-like, dancey “Cool To Me,” which features downright industrial elements. It’s a very exciting sound.
And just when you think you have her all figured out, she does something like her cover of Daddy Yankee’s classic “Gasolina,” which has a pitch-shifted harmony and drone track throughout. The video for this song is metaphorical and has deep ties to Bunny, making the song all her own.
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Listen to Rainbow Licker EP below and check out her Soundcloud page for more of her amazing music.