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CMU Approved
Approved: Princess Nokia
By Aly Barchi | Published on Wednesday 14 May 2014
In ‘real life’, whatever that means post-‘The Matrix’, Princess Nokia is tri-state-based rapper and singer Destiny Frasqueri. And additionally, on early 2012 single ‘Bitch I’m Posh’ and ‘Puerto Rican Judo’, an atypically lite interval in hip hop trio Ratking’s grimy first LP, ‘So It Goes’, she’s Wavy Spice.
And, in fact, while I’m at it, she’s fiancés with Ratking MC Wiki, and gets pretty NSFW with him in the clip for ‘Dragons’. Which, since that’s a track off her new mixtape as Princess Nokia, ‘Metallic Butterfly’, I guess brings us back to that.
Following on from a caustic bit-part on Mykki Blanco’s slick rap disdain-athon for ‘basic bitches’, ‘Wish You Would’, Frasqueri dials back the bad gal schtick a (tiny) bit on ‘Metallic Butterfly’, a collaboration with NY producer OWWWLS.
Her first real body of solo work (so give it a break), it foams over with a misc fizz of beats, motifs and Manga TV clips, splicing the trip-hoppy mysticism of ‘Seraphims’ with ‘Matrix’-hacking html pop coda ‘Cybiko’ and tribal trap mantra ‘YaYa’. Then there’s petrifying mind-freeze ‘Felicity Island’, which is… well, it isn’t the best bedtime song.
Anyway, like I said, give it a chance. Here:
