Twenty-year-old Bettina Mianzo-Kuna is a conscious hip-hop artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Known as Blicky B, she started releasing music in 2023 at the age of 17. Her lived experience, social environment, and working-class perspectives all inform her songs, like “Nanami” and “F Classy.”
Born in California, Mianzo-Kuna is the proud daughter of Haitian and Congolese immigrants. She attributes her early political and musical development to her father, who holds a PhD in Africology, and would often play songs like Michael Jackson’s 1985 hit “We are the World”. She would begin to make music to reckon with her discontent with the brutal realities of US history.
“Growing up I learned about slavery early,” she said. “I learned about the massacre of the Native Americans early, so my views on the world were already skewed in a favor that made me want to fight for what was right.”
When Bettina was 16, she used her brother’s recording equipment to experiment with hip-hop. Soon, writing, rapping, mixing, and audio engineering became a daily practice. Her flow is sonically resonant with that of Megan thee Stallion and NBA YongBoy, specifically their disciplined-though-dynamic stanzaic composition.
While Lil Baby hasn’t impacted her sound like the others have, she says he influences the way she articulates her own values and beliefs. However, she was equally inspired by the disparities in Wisconsin schools, working conditions, and quality of life. This is clear in her 2023 song “Nanami”.
Forty week hours and still got no money
There is no government helping us, honey!
They’re taking our money and calling it tax
When I get in office, I’m gettin’ it back
They throw ’em to jail just because they was Black
It don’t make you angry? Well me, I’m gon’ spazz
Originally titled “Overtime”, Mianzo-Kuna named the song after the “Jujutsu Kaisen” character Kento Nanami, a sorcerer whose power is boosted at the end of his workday. In her senior year of high school, she struggled to balance family hardships with her jobs in food service and retail. That precarity was worsened by national political turmoil, namely, the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“I don’t feel like people are picking poverty,” she said. “I don’t think anyone would choose the system we’re having right now unless they were benefitting at the top … I don’t want to get to the top and benefit like that, and talk like that about the people who I struggle with … I was like how much are we going to take until they put us in shackles and tell us we have to work for them?
Similarly, her 2024 freestyle “F Classy” was a response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Its first verse alludes to a popular uprising, the call for a ceasefire, and use of tax dollars to fund the bombardment. Inspired by a loved one’s advocacy, Blicky B used the song as a fundraiser and sent its proceeds to Palestine. Her lyrics exchange the principle of respectability for enthusiastic self-defense.
Pissed off as fuck, might just start a riot
‘Cause our leaders don’t wanna call a ceasefire
We seen it on the news and we know what you did
Got ’em out here hungry, got ’em out here sick
Mianzo-Kuna stresses not only raising awareness, but nurturing enthusiasm and capability. She says, “People aren’t going to turn to these issues if it just makes them mortified, if it just makes them sad, if they feel like they have no liberation, like they can’t do anything … We can dance through the fire and put it out at the same time.
However, Blicky B is one of many politically engaged artists in Wisconsin. Peoples Dispatch spoke to Joshua Taylor, a coordinator at the Milwaukee Liberation Center, which organizers say is a space where culture work meets revolutionary politics. Describing the community’s passion for liberatory aesthetics in poetry, painting, drumming, and mural-making, he describes art’s impact on perseverance.
“A powerful aspect of culture, art can broaden the horizons of our imaginations through how it engages us,” he said. “It doesn’t just say something; it allows us to feel it, intellectually, emotionally, and sensually. Artists of all types have the power to affect consciousness in meaningful ways. It may not be the sole determining factor, but it is a factor. When it comes to the issues of class struggle and imperialism, culture is a weapon.”
Read more: Studying the changes: a Palestinian music teacher’s lesson on will
Despite her temporary hiatus, Blicky B is actively developing music, recording, and preparing to perform. Her current project expresses goals of serving her community while maintaining her self assurance, confidence, and bubbly affirmations. Mianzo-Kuna says she has dedicated her life to “making something that people can hear and believe they have a fighting chance.”
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