Mykki Blanco has nothing to hide. The California-born rapper has never been shy -- onstage or off -- but the 29-year-old really opened the book on Friday when he revealed that he's been HIV-positive for nearly five years.

"There's not been a lack of sunshine," Blanco told MTV News, in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, about the long road to sharing his status with fans and the world. "Because a lot of people just found out that I'm HIV-positive they have this idea that I'm ... let's just put it like this: I've known I was HIV-positive for five years. So while it may be news to you -- it's certainly not news to me."

The Moment Of Truth Came At The Strangest Time

Rewind to last Friday, when "Wavvy" rapper Blanco (born Michael Quattlebaum Jr.) was hosting a pool party for his friends at Los Angeles' legendary Chateau Marmont hotel. "After everyone left, after I took my medication out of the drawer where I hid it, I took my pill," he said. "I was so nervous and I cried there by myself and I did it. I just said, 'I'm so done with this.' "

Blanco had gotten fed up with concealing his status.

"Every time I had a friend over for drinks, I'd be hiding my medication in the cabinet," he said. "Every time I'd meet a guy I'd say, 'Yes, I'm Mykki Blanco and I'm HIV-positive. Are you cool with that? Can you keep it to yourself?' "

Mykki -- who earlier this year said he was considering giving up music for a life of investigative journalism -- got tired of worrying about being outed for his positive status all the time. "I hit a breaking point. I realized that I value my real life over this entertainment career. All the negativity in my life stemmed from this constant fear of hiding. This HIV being this monster in my closet."

Yes, he was worried about potentially negative reaction, but he'd achieved so much in such a short time -- touring the world three times, opening for Bjork and Death Grips, getting offers to collaborate with producers like Woodkid -- that he realized "real life matters more than this sh-t."

The reveal was emotional and unplanned, but after thinking about it, Blanco realized he had taken a page out of the book of his beloved Olivia Pope from "Scandal" by keeping things 100. "Whenever they're trying to cover things up [on that show], she says, 'You know what we should do? Just tell the truth.' "

HIV Won't Be The Headline That Defines Him

Blanco wasn't sure he wanted to do any interviews about his announcement. He wasn't sure he even wanted to do this interview. But he decided that he won't be defined by his status and he won't let it define him.

"I signed with !K7 Records out of Berlin [earlier this year] and they allowed me to start my own imprint. I'm putting out music by three new artists and I've been touring the world, but now that I'm home I want a boyfriend, I would love to have a husband some day and get married," he said. "It's not as if people did not know. My group of close friends did know and I'd be honest with guys I was intimate with. But the level of anxiety was not healthy. It was starting to adversely affect other parts of my life."

Is Blanco Ready To Be A Role Model?

As the most high-profile rapper in an emerging LGBT scene that includes friend Le1f as well as Big Freedia and Angel Haze, is Blanco willing to be a role model to educate young fans about safe sex and living with HIV?

He said he is, but that phrase, "role model," is a tricky thing for an artist who pushed against being simply labeled a gay rapper by releasing a 2014 mixtape called Gay Dog Food.

"If you asked me four years ago, I would say no," said Blanco, whose announcement came more than 20 years after the world learned that former N.W.A rapper Eazy-E had been diagnosed with AIDS. It's also in an era when young black gay and bisexual men are the group most heavily affected by HIV. "But I am way more mature now than I was [then]. I think, if anything, the conversation about safe sex has to be super prevalent. I know so many heterosexual hipsters who don't use condoms."

Blanco also knows one other thing for sure: he doesn't want his revelation to become the leading narrative about his music career. What he wants is to exceed people's expectations every time, with everything he does.

Which is whey when he was talking to his best friend the other night about how he can't wait for his next album to roll out in January, exceeding expectations was on his mind again. "When I started out, people called me a 'gay rapper,' but I knew that I would do so much that they would not just call me a gay rapper," he said. "Then more and more people stopped writing 'gay rapper.' I'm aware that HIV is part of my narrative. But my challenge is to do things that are so f--king awesome that they'll talk about HIV lastly."

It's yet another new challenge in a five-year ascent that has been filled with seemingly impossible hills to climb in a genre that's been notoriously slow to accept openly LGBTQ rappers. "The music industry ain't gonna like [that] I admitted this," he wrote on Facebook last week. Being open and HIV positive? Unprecedented. "I love a challenge and it's about creatively transcending this news story about me."

Hip-Hop Has Never Been Home To Mykki, So Why Start Now?

Even though he's been on the scene for more than half a decade, Blanco has never really been part of the hip-hop community, which has actually made things easier for him. He's more likely to get coverage in NME or Pitchfork than XXL or a mainstream rap site.

"When I first came out I made a big deal about breaking down barriers and saying 'f--k homophobia and transphobia,' " said Blanco, who often performs in gender-bending costumes and makeup. "I love hip-hop, but I don't care to necessarily be in that community because it hasn't done s--t for me."

Like any indie act, he earned his fans on his own, one by one, and they've told him how much they appreciate his honesty.

He didn't know how they'd react to this, though, and his biggest fear was that it would be an outbreak of "poor Mykki," which would have driven him crazy. "I was most fearful about heterosexual people trying to give me this pity party," he said. " 'Even though your life is more fabulous than mine now, I have to pity you.' For me, it's really good because I like polarizing [people] and seeing where they really stand."

If he's being really real -- which it's clearly is the only way Blanco knows how to be -- hip-hop is not alone in turning a blind eye to the impact of HIV. "No, there isn't a conversation about it in hip-hop, no one talks about it," he said. "But it's not happening in indie music, not in underground music, not in pop music. We have definitely slid back into a very quiet, complacent late-'80s way of not talking about it."

You Can Count On Hearing About It Next Year

There's no putting it back in the box now. He may not be doing a string of interviews or a reality show about last Friday's announcement, but Blanco knows he'll deal with this artistically on his next album.

"A producer whose actually really big invited me to come to Paris to work on music in July and I have to address it," he said. "Maybe in one song, two songs. Right now, I know many of my fans don't see me as any different. On the other side, I know a lot of fans might feel a bit awkward. They know me and my songs and like me, but feel a bit funny about it now."

He realizes he's the first person in a long time -- perhaps the only rapper of note ever besides Eazy -- to come out as HIV-positive. And he doesn't know how the world at large, or even his fans, will react. But he knows this: "I will be the one in control."

The Question Everyone Wants To Ask

And as for the question everyone wants to ask -- Is he sick? -- Mykki said, "I don't want to answer that because it's feeding into that dialogue and I don't want people to think it's a publicity stunt or a gimmick. I haven't been able to have a personal life for so long because this has been in the dark and I really want to f--king have a personal life."

He'll say this though: He takes his medication every day, sticks to his "super-healthy" macro-biotic diet, eats raw garlic, avocados, limes and smoked salmon on the road and feels good right now.

"These are things that are good for everybody. I don't want to become the poster child for how to stay healthy; that's too much pressure," he said.

A Legend Calls And Makes Mykki's Mama Proud

Just moments before picking up the phone for our interview, Blanco got off a call with his mom and he was still a bit breathless about it.

"I just got an email ... from Gladys Knight!" he said, giddy to share the news about the biggest artist to reach out to him so far. "She said, 'God has a way of doing things we never deemed possible. I heard your story, you're an exceptional young man.' "

Blanco plans to keep "talking about" his story for sure. "I'll be an advocate for it," he added of his newly public status. "But I think people are gonna be really into the fact that I'm still going to be doing Mykki Blanco and this is just a part of it."