Anthony Blunt

One night after helping the UMass Lowell men’s basketball team to an early-season win at home over Saint Peter’s University, graduate student Anthony Blunt ’24 found himself on stage at the Strand Ballroom & Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island, opening for multiplatinum rapper Polo G.

Performing under his rap name, Ant Blunt, he wore a light gray T-shirt with a matching knit cap. “BlunTIC,” the name of his family’s budding clothing line, was on the front of his shirt. On the back was an alien-looking cartoon character that Blunt once sketched called a “TIC,” which now serves as the brand logo.

Standing before a constellation of camera phone lights, Blunt experienced the ultimate distillation of his passions for music, art and fashion. 

“When I get on stage, I’m excited to showcase what I can do,” says Blunt, who began focusing on music when a knee injury forced him to miss his junior year of basketball with the River Hawks. 

Blunt’s first big musical break came in January 2023 when he opened for Trippie Redd at the Tsongas Center. In September 2024, he opened for one of his favorite rappers, Sheff G, at Roadrunner in Boston. As fans swarmed Blunt for selfies after the show, he wore a black tracksuit that had just dropped on bluntic.com. 

“It’s crazy to think about the shows that I’ve done in this short amount of time. People I've met have been doing music their entire life, and they look at me and I’m doing the most extravagant stuff,” he says.

Blunt has been painting and drawing since he was “wee small” in Glenn Dale, Maryland. He chose to major in digital media at UML, where he joined his older brother, Allin Blount ’23, on the men’s basketball team. Blunt earned his spot (and eventual scholarship) as a walk-on and was named to the America East all-rookie team. 

Meanwhile, Blunt started customizing shoes with paint and sharing his creations on social media. When the likes and shares started to pile up, he realized he could help his father, Alvin, promote the family fashion business that he’d launched in 2015. He started by sketching the TIC, which was Allin’s family nickname as a child. 

“We always knew that he could succeed in whatever he decided to do,” says Alvin, who personally embroiders the BlunTIC logo on all of their garments.

As an MBA student in the Manning School of Business, Blunt tries to connect everything that he’s learning in the classroom to the brand. 

“When I’m learning a concept, I’ll think about how it can influence what we have going on,” he says. “I think my MBA is going to help this grow.”  

And of course, being able to model BlunTIC on stage, in his music videos and on social media has been a boon. 

“It’s cool seeing people wear it, or even just friends of mine having it in their wardrobe,” he says.