Princess Nokia flexes on “G.O.A.T.” And she deserves it, too: coming off the explosive 1992 mixtape and riding high on a worldwide fanbase cemented by a blistering world tour, the New York rapper has earned a ride on her own coattails. And if the accompanying video for “G.O.A.T.,” Destiny Frasqueri’s first track since 1992, is any indication, Princess Nokia is enjoying her life at the top. Lounging on the three-wheel Polaris Slingshot as comfortably as she luxuriates over Wally West’s icy throne of a beat, Frasqueri issues one-liners like edicts from a gold-bedecked (and gold-betoothed) monarch. Clad in “skinny jeans and a studded belt,” Princess Nokia reminds us that she’s become “that weird girl that’s running shit.”
When she stares at the camera and declares that she “changed rap forever, man,” it’s no coincidence that she includes the word “man.” Eyes directed at the male-dominated, patriarchal industry, Frasqueri sets her sights on label bosses and other suits that stifle and marginalize femme voices, and brandishes normative signifiers of both masculinity and femininity to explode them both. Atop the rubble s(p)its Princess Nokia, festooned with a Yankees Cap and Air Force 1s.
Princess Nokia brings her explosive live set to Brooklyn’s Villain September 29.