FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
Part Forty-Six: Princess Nokia
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WHEN it comes to women in modern music…
PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Knott for NME
who have the promise to become icons and inspire the next generation, Princess Nokia comes to mind. Destiny Nicole Frasqueri is the woman behind Princess Nokia. She is a New York rapper of the highest order. Princess Nokia released her debut studio album, Metallic Butterfly, in 2014. That was by the 2015 mixtape, Honeysuckle. As Princess Nokia, she put out the 2017 studio album, 1992 Deluxe. She released a further mixtape, A Girl Cried Red, in 2018, followed by the release of two studio albums, Everything Sucks and Everything Is Beautiful, in 2020. I am going to bring in a review for those albums to end with. As I always do with Modern Heroines, I shall have a playlist at the bottom of the feature – a selection of the best tracks from a superb talent. I also want to bring in a critical review for the superb 1992 Deluxe. I am fascinated to see where Princess Nokia’s music heads this year and what direction her next album takes. I feel she is going to be an icon of the future. She is most certainly a hugely fascinating artist whose music and image evolves and continues to venture into new ground. Before I bring in some reviews, I want to source from a recent NME interview. It is a deep dive that spotlights and goes deep with a terrific artist:
“It’s the beginning of a new era for Princess Nokia. The star, who first appeared on the cover of NME back in 2017, has spent nine years releasing and navigating the industry as an independent artist. International tours, a consistently jam-packed release schedule and masses of critical acclaim later, Princess Nokia has now inked her first ever major-label deal with Sony Music at the age of 28. This was marked by the release of her stellar latest single ‘It’s Not My Fault’ (“It’s not my fault / That I’m that bitch”), a no-nonsense anthem that offers no apology to the haters.
In 2021, Princess Nokia 2.0 is making an unmistakable play for the commercial rap scene. “I think my mission and goal in this business was always to be a representation of strong independent ownership and creative legacy,” she says. Preparing and writing her next record already, after releasing two full-length albums – ‘Everything’s Beautiful’ and ‘Everything Sucks’ – on the same day early last year, Destiny Frasqueri is ready to up the stakes once again.
Born and raised in the birthplace of hip-hop, New York’s Bronx, the 28-year-old has been immersed in the culture of the genre since before she can remember. She describes her parents as ‘nuyoricans’, a term used to represent the Puerto Rican/New York hybrid community, and as a result her Latinx heritage is also a huge part of her identity too. But from a young age, she was also drawn to the fringes in the form of punk, rock and the queer club scene on the city’s Lower East Side.
“I think hanging out at raves, at skate parks, at clubs – all of those experiences allowed me to be a more experimental, fully-fledged artist that consciously wanted to do a lot of different types of music,” she reflects. And that’s precisely what she did.
And Nokia went on to defy all expectations. ‘1992 Deluxe’ – an extended studio version of a mixtape she released for free the year before – was her very own kick-your-teeth-in brand of classic hip-hop meets NYC nightlife. Standouts ‘Tomboy’ and ‘Kitana’ established her as a force within the rap scene, referencing her androgyny and nerdy gamer habits with an unabashed confidence, “My little titties and my fat belly” becoming the mantra of a generation determined to love themselves fully even when the world didn’t.
“Growing up with the night life of the queer folk in New York City, it all just made me more OK with myself and more at peace with being different,” Princess Nokia says, “[and with] maybe being misunderstood or not immediately accepted.”
“I think it’s really special that there’s less pressure for people of colour to fit into a mould,” Princess Nokia beams. “And that’s all that any individual deserves to have: a chance at having a little bit more peace, a little bit more fun, a little bit more room… I know what it is to have people raise eyebrows at you for certain ideas or thoughts or set identity. I know what it’s like to feel confined. It’s a beautiful thing that art has transcended and young people get to be themselves and to explore themselves.”
Alongside her outlandish versatility, there’s another key aspect that kept Princess Nokia’s name and the forefront of industry lips: her independence. Since she began to make serious waves around 2016, Princess Nokia has never been without major-label offers. But up until 2020, she declined them all and continued to create, release and tour independently, even directing the majority of her own music videos. Of that arduous but rewarding task, she notes: “I have a very resourceful spirit, that’s the most helpful and apparent thing… a survivor’s spirit.”
It was a decision she made precisely so that she was only accountable to herself and whatever fulfilled her at any given moment. “I just really wanted to be creative without feeling pressure,” she explains.
As she works on her next album, and more major label releases, Nokia’s sights are set as high as they’ve ever been. “I’m in this part of my life where I’m just continuing to create new music in a new way. The signing, making the project, uncovering new levels, it’s all been really cool and I’m just excited to elevate as an artist and continue to inspire through music with storytelling and colourful narrative.”
And with the meteoric rise of women in rap – with Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Saweetie emerging as some of the biggest names in music right now – the scene is bursting with creativity and charisma, as well as hugely broad commercial prospects. There’s no time like the present for Nokia to stake her claim”.
I wanted to quote quite a big chunk of that interview as it is a compelling and arresting read. I love when you get these extensive and immersive interviews! Although Everything Sucks and Everything Is Beautiful did not score the same huge reviews as 1992 Deluxe, I think they are terrific albums with many highlights. I992 Deluxe was met with huge acclaim. In their review, Drowned in Sound noted the following:
“1992 Deluxe is much more than just a cheap re-release of her breakout 2016 mixtape, it’s a complete reimagining. The record features 8 brand new songs that help to cement Princess Nokia as one of the key voices in modern hip hop. Of these new tracks “ABCs of New York” stands out, the track is a love letter to her city of birth, and sounds like the musical equivalent of a sunny day in the city, spent with plenty of orange juice, ice cream and pizza. On the song Nokia covers pretty much everything of musical value that has happened in the Big Apple since the turn of the twentieth century, delivering verse after verse of alphabetised facts that would make Blackalicious proud.
Nokia delves into the past, present and future of hip hop, jumping from sub-genre to sub-genre with relative ease. The wild southern tinged trap of 'Tomboy' and 'Kitana' meld seamlessly into the almost, whisper it, commercial beats of 'Saggy Jeans', proving that when you do something with confidence, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want.
Grand Finale 'Chinese Slippers' haunted house synth drawls and bouncy beats initially feel like a strange choice for the last track on the record, but after a few a few rounds of the almost painfully catchy “Kentucky fried chicken and a pizza hut” you can’t help but want to visit her weird world of irony, rainbows and funky bass lines just one more time.
The most exciting thing about 1992 Deluxe is that it can clearly get so much better for Princess Nokia. This is only the beginning. With more time and space to create, who knows what she could be capable of? World domination? I wouldn’t put it past her”.
I do love it when artists put out a double album or two different albums close together. It is ambitious and really interesting. It is wonderful to hear the differences between Everything Sucks and Everything Is Beautiful. Although some were mixed about the albums, I think that Pitchfork were able to find some strengths:
“Everything Sucks was made primarily in the span of one intense week in New York, with friend and producer Chris Lare (aka owwwls), and that tight turnaround is evident. Its 10 songs are a locust swarm of angst, restless and frantic, as one can become in a city so densely populated. The first four tracks are zealous fight songs with lyrics like, “I’m the monster under your bed/I’m the goblin from the dead” and “Who dat, who dat, who dat?/The bitch is back/Who dat, who dat, who dat?/I will attack.” You can practically see a moshpit forming while a devil circles her left shoulder. There’s a preemptive, almost B.Rabbit-esque listing of her flaws: she’s crazy, she’s gross, she’s generally a mess, and what of it? The closer “Just a Kid” is an exception to the aggression, an awkwardly delivered but vulnerable story of the traumas of her early years, including a stretch in foster care.
Nokia finds more success on Everything is Beautiful, which, in comparison, is warm and expansive. Made over a span of two years, including some time in Puerto Rico, it has the optimism and groundedness of being in a place where you can occasionally look up and see a wide sky. The production, with beats primarily by Tony Seltzer and 1-900, are peppy and bright, and the themes spiritual and forward-looking, like an antidote to the hellishness explored on Everything Sucks.
The jazzy sounds that have shown up in segments of New York’s reinvigorated independent rap scene offer a welcome complement—via the downtown crew Onyx Collective and Los Angeles saxophonistTerrace Martin—to Nokia’s experiments with effective but technically imperfect vocal styles. One song, the gentle and self-deprecating “Heart,” is ready-made for a sync on a future season of Insecure: “I hate social media, I wish it all would end/I’m not like those other girls, in fact I’m fucking worse,” she raps. This is Nokia at her best, a relatable, unpretentious narrator of her own growth.
For someone proud to have resisted the industry machine, both albums show that Nokia is adept at making music that fits neatly within its bounds. There are familiar flows and familiar sounds throughout: she out-Chances Chance the Rapper with a version of his signature sing-songy delivery, snarls in Cardi B’s clipped flow, and resuscitates the plonking piano that gave OG Maco a hit some years back. It’s easy to grow tired of her insistence that she’s a misfit, until you consider that scores of artists have built careers on similar narratives with far less self-awareness. And yet the album’s best moment comes in the form of a poem on an outro track: “I survived from trauma and I’m living out my purpose/And I’m sure you are too, we’re really not that different”.
I will end things there. Although I have not included a few other interesting interviews and reviews, I feel what I have included gives one some story and detail regarding Princess Nokia. I think we are going to hear a lot more from this tremendous artist. Go and follow Princess Nokia, as she is a definite superstar of the future. She is most definitely an inspiring artist who will compel…
THE next generation of rappers.