Destiny Nicole Frasqueri, an indigenous woman with a spirited intellectual background, projects her vibrational energy unto the harmonic world of music. Heretofore, recognized as Wavy Spice, Destiny transformed herself into Princess Nokia to embody the full breadth of her artistic capabilities. Boricua feminist, “Princess Nokia” is an effervescent woman with liberating tendencies that shine through the anecdotes and narratives she intricately describes.
Princess Nokia correlates her queer and feminist identity with empowerment. Her passionate and forceful voice provides an interpretation for the endeavors and quandaries of life as an urban woman. Princess Nokia embraces her inadequacies and flaws as a means to shed awareness on the strength of her natural aura.
Clearly, Nokia represents deep rooted discovery that disobeys traditional social constructs. Her embodiment of the present relies upon the various cultural entities that molded her into a Nuyorican queen.
Initially, she admired the punk rock scene.
“It was radical, it was fun, it was aggressive, and it had a tone that matched my heart.”
Much of her punk upbringing is accredited to music from the likes of Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and others. A babysitter led to Nokia’s early enticement from the punk rock scene.
Nokia continues to express her inner cyberpunk and rave roots to the present day. “Riotgrrrl” influenced her beliefs in activism, feminism and socio economic awareness. As tribute to Bikini Kill, Princess Nokia designates the front row of her concerts strictly for women in order to create a space for openness and feminism.
Empowerment
Princess Nokia is the epitome of what it means to capture the moment. Her unconventional movement has shifted the paradigms of hip-hop music. Powerful and emphatic identification compliments an audacious character who yearns for ultimate longevity.
Nokia created the “Smart Girls Club” as a platform for “spiritual wellness, divine healing, educational magic and Afro indigenous identity.” Within this space, Nokia emphasizes the importance of owning and expressing your personal narrative with pride. Nokia clearly demonstrates the ability to shape and shift her career on her own terms, within a male-dominated industry. Frequently, she counteracts misogyny with art, positivity and confidence.
Princess Nokia is redefining the hip-hop genre with her eclectic worldviews, multifaceted backgrounds and matriarchal symbolizations. Her recent album, 1992 Deluxe, features remastered songs from mixtape, 1992, supplemented with eight additional records. The self-proclaimed, “Bruja” celebrates mystic women through a multiplex of metaphors and symbols.
Undeniably, this vociferous MC faced her fair share of hardship during her upbringing. Throughout her youth, Nokia would frequent places like Symphon Space and Carnegie Hall with her grandmother. The substantial wealth of cultural capital accumulated from these historical foundations provided marvelous insight for this developing creative.
Furthermore, Destiny continues to cultivate her jubilant cultural backgrounds through attendance of Taino pow-wows such as “Drummers Along the Hudson.”
As her music continues to progress, Princess Nokia does not subscribe to the notion of sacrificing her vision or artistic intentions by any means. She refuses to contort herself in order to conform toward an assigned aesthetic. She is spunky, bitchy, outcast and misfit. Her belief in the trope of sisterhood clarifies that women of color deserve to be treated as radiant beings.
By: Ian Romaker
“Humanism, life, earth, planetary spirituality… all those attributes and dire parts of life should be explored.”
