Princess Nokia

One Liner: Rapper walking a line between Cardi and Nicki

Wikipedia Genre: emo rap, trip hop, experimental
Home: NYC

Poster Position: 8
Weekend Two Only.  Saturday.

Thoughts:  Destiny Nicole Frasqueri is quite a name.  She has apparently also gone by Wavy Spice, Destiny Nicole, and Ortiz.  I like the idea of Wavy Spice being a part of the Spice Girls, but the rest of them were like "whazzat Wavy den, yeh?  Sporty and Scary, yeh, sure, innit, butsa Wavy?  Quite right."  My goodness, catch the vibe on this passage from her Wikipedia page: "When Frasqueri was ten, she lost her mother to AIDS. Between the ages of nine and sixteen, she was in foster care, during which her foster mother was physically abusive. After Frasqueri left foster care, she went to live with her grandmother. She subsequently started writing rhymes."  That sounds freaking awful.

She started with some homemade songs on Soundcloud back in 2012, and then released her debut album in 2014.  That disc - Metallic Butterfly - is very different from the later sounds - much more of an electronic music album and she does more singing than rapping.  Feels like a totally different artist, and not in a good way.  I much prefer the new stuff to this high-pitched singing and tinny beats.  Seems to be a common idea, as none of the songs from this album are in her top ten.  The top one is "Dragons," with 4.3 million streams.

See?  Like I'm in a lame London club in the 90's.  "Versace Hottie" from this album is the one where I feel like you can hear the direction she is going to take on her next albums.  For some reason, Spotify lists that album as from 2018, so it sounds like it was her second album and she took a weird detour on sounds...

After that, she released 1992 in 2017, Everything Sucks in 2020, and then Everything is Beautiful also in 2020.  These are much better than that first album.  She sounds alternately like Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, just depending on which of her tones of voice she is using at any given time.  Her deeper voice stuff is Cardi, her high-pitched goofs are Nicki.  It sounds pretty damn good.  One monster hit, that is actually a song by something called Ashnikko, with 212.5 million streams.  And then one lesser but still large song, "I Like Him," from Everything Sucks, with 117.3 million streams.

We left behind that innocent little girl in the earlier video and now have a full-grown fembot from the future.  Definitely one of the ones that sounds like Cardi.  That dude with the tats and the backwards hat is a damn good looking fella.  Pretty good tune.  "Harley Quinn" is a tough banger that would be fun to mosh to.  "Gemeni" has a cool, laid back vibe that I dig.  "Green Eggs & Ham" sounds like Tierra Whack.  "Sugar Honey Iced Tea" is funky.

One more track - her second biggest streamer (for just herself) is "Tomboy" with 21.5 million.  

Good empowerment message.  I mean, look at her look in that video and then the look in the "I Like Him."  Massive difference.  Wearing those glasses, an oversized sweatshirt, etc. versus the sexualized woman.  I crack up when the Blues Clues bit comes during that track though...

I like this stuff.  I do not like the first album, but the two most recent discs from 2020 are solidly rapped, good beats, interesting lyrics, the whole package.  I'd go check this out.