Princess Nokia

Rapper and singer Princess Nokia channels her fierce sense of independence through a sharp, often witty lens while moving fluidly among hip-hop, pop, rock, and dance. The New York native of Afro-Indigenous heritage first gained notice via stylistically diverse releases such as 1992 (2016) and A Girl Cried Red (2018), then the paired projects Everything Sucks and Everything Is Beautiful (2020), the first of which contained the RIAA-certified gold track “I Like Him.” After reaching international charts with the slinky Ashnikko collaboration “Slumber Party” (2021), Nokia issued the i love you but this is goodbye EP (2023) and the paired singles “Apple Pie”/“Wide Brim Hat” (2024) along with several other standalone tracks.

Before adopting the name of a budget-friendly U.S. phone brand, Destiny Frasqueri—formerly known as Destiny and Wavy Spice—linked with Ratking and drew attention for casually delivered cuts such as “Bitch I’m Posh” and “Yaya.” Heightened industry interest sparked her wariness of major-label dealings, prompting the switch to Princess Nokia and the cultivation of an audience through the mixtapes Metallic Butterfly (2014) and Honeysuckle (2015) plus the EP 1992 (2016). A remastered, expanded version titled 1992 Deluxe (2017) appeared on the Rough Trade label almost exactly a year later and registered on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. To promote the project she performed widely at clubs and festivals throughout Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, Oceania, and the United States. In 2018 she delivered the mixtape A Girl Cried Red, an emotional fusion of cloud rap and pop-punk, and received the A2IM Libera Award for Breakthrough Artist.

Following several interim singles, Nokia crafted the half-hour albums Everything Sucks and Everything Is Beautiful (2020) to spotlight opposing facets of her persona. “It’s Not My Fault,” the Baby Tate collaboration “Boys Are from Mars,” and her featured turn on Ashnikko’s “Slumber Party” (a gold hit in Canada and New Zealand) surfaced in 2021. “No Effort” and “Diva” followed in 2022, setting the stage for the Sony-distributed EP i love you but this is goodbye, fronted by the pop-punk breakup anthem “closure.” She resurfaced in 2024 with the lilting pop track “Apple Pie” and the acoustic ballad “Wide Brim Hat.”