Princess Nokia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Princess Nokia
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Princess Nokia in 2021
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Destiny Nicole Frasqueri |
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| Born | June 14, 1992 New York City, U.S. |
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| Occupation(s) |
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| Years active | 2010–present |
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Destiny Nicole Frasqueri (born June 14, 1992), known professionally as Princess Nokia, is an American rapper and songwriter. She released her debut studio album, Metallic Butterfly, in 2014, followed by the 2015 mixtape Honeysuckle. As Princess Nokia, she rose to prominence for her 2017 studio album 1992 Deluxe. She released another mixtape, titled A Girl Cried Red, in 2018, followed by the release of two studio albums, Everything Sucks and Everything Is Beautiful, in 2020.
Contents
Early life
Frasqueri identifies as Afro-Indigenous, and is of Puerto Rican descent. When Frasqueri was ten, she lost her mother to AIDS. Between the ages of nine and sixteen, she was in foster care. After Frasqueri left foster care, she went to live with her grandmother. She subsequently started writing rhymes. Frasqueri lived around East Harlem and the Lower East Side of New York City at the time.
Career
2010–2018: Early career and career beginnings
In 2010, Frasqueri recorded and released her first song, titled "Destiny", under the stage name Wavy Spice on her SoundCloud page, and later released the song on her YouTube channel in mid-2012. She next released "YAYA", a song that chronicles her Taíno ancestry. Frasqueri later changed her stage name to Princess Nokia, which she claimed was an alter ego, and introduced the character with the song "Nokia". On May 12, 2014, Frasqueri released her debut studio album, titled Metallic Butterfly, which debuted on Vice and SoundCloud. On September 8, 2017, she released her second studio album, 1992 Deluxe, an expanded version of her 2016 mixtape, 1992. It peaked at number 25 on the US Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart. NME listed it as the 32nd best album of 2017.
Nokia debuted a radio show on Apple's Beats 1 Radio on February 18, 2018. Episodes aired every other Sunday and allowed listeners to get acquainted with the inner workings of Nokia's mind. The show has a total of six episodes labeled "The Voices in My Head with Princess Nokia." In September 2018, she was chosen as one of the six ambassadors by Maison Margiela to promote their new fragrance, Mutiny. In December 2018, Nokia released a "remastered and expanded version" of the album Metallic Butterfly, which includes three new bonus tracks. That same year, she released a mixtape titled A Girl Cried Red. Stefanie Fernández of NPR deemed it an expression of Frasqueri's artistic and emotional versatility and praised how she "transcends them."
2019-present: Everything Sucks And Everything is Beautiful
In 2019, Nokia had her debut performance as an actress in the independent film Angelfish. In September 2019, she released a song titled "Sugar Honey Iced Tea (S.H.I.T.)". It was described as "a bouncy, empowering bop built around dismissive lyrics about Nokia's enemies." In February 2020, Nokia released two albums: Everything Sucks and Everything Is Beautiful. Pitchfork described Everything Sucks as "locust swarm of angst, restless and frantic" and regarded Everything Is Beautiful as "warm and expansive" in comparison to the former. In March 2021, Nokia released a music video for the song, titled "It's Not My Fault". The single was released through Arista Records and marked the first one Nokia released through a major label.
In 2022, she voiced LaBrea, LaCienega's cousin in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.
Artistry
Nokia's musical style has been described as "experimental" and "eagerly floating between genres such as rap, soul, rock and house." She lists rappers MC Lyte and Queen Latifah, girl group TLC, singer Shakira, as well as nu metal bands Korn and Slipknot as musical influences. Nokia also cites hardcore, punk, and rave cultures as influences for her performances.
Personal life
Frasqueri identifies as a gender non-conforming person and uses both they/them and she/her pronouns.
Frasqueri is a strong supporter of intersectional feminism, founding the Smart Girl Club with Milah Libin, a podcast where she discusses healthy living and urban feminism. She is a practitioner of Santería, and has shared her own experience with clairvoyance and spirituality that she infuses her music with.
Discography
Studio albums
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions |
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| US Heat |
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| Metallic Butterfly |
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| 1992 Deluxe |
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| Everything Sucks |
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| Everything Is Beautiful |
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Extended plays
| Title | Details |
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| I Love You but This Is Goodbye |
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Mixtapes
- Honeysuckle (2015, as Destiny)
- 1992 (2016)
- A Girl Cried Red (2018)
Singles
As lead artist
| Title | Year | Album |
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| "G.O.A.T." | 2017 | 1992 Deluxe |
| "Tomboy" | ||
| "Brujas" | ||
| "Kitana" | ||
| "Sugar Honey Iced Tea (S.H.I.T.)" | 2019 | Everything Is Beautiful |
| "Balenciaga" | Everything Sucks | |
| "Green Eggs & Ham" | Everything Is Beautiful | |
| "Practice" | 2020 | Everything Sucks |
| "I Like Him" | ||
| "It's Not My Fault" | 2021 | Non-album singles |
| "Boys Are From Mars" (featuring Yung Baby Tate) |
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| "No Effort" | 2022 | |
| "Diva" | ||
| "Closure" | 2023 | I Love You but This Is Goodbye |
| "Complicated" | ||
| "Lo Siento" |
As featured artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certification | Album | |||||
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| US | CAN | IRE | NZ Hot | UK | WW | ||||
| "Puerto Rican Judo" (with Ratking) |
2014 | — | — | — | — | — | — | So It Goes | |
| "Wish You Would" (with Mykki Blanco) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | Spring/Summer 2014 | ||
| "Steep Tech" (with Ratking) |
2015 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 700-Fill | |
| "Take Off" (with Branko) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | ATLAS | ||
| "The Last of the Real Ones" (with Fall Out Boy) |
2017 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Mania | |
| "Outro" (with K. Michelle) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | Kimberly: The People I Used to Know | ||
| "Spit" (with Show Me the Body) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | Corpus I | ||
| "Fanta" (with Josh Forehead) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | Summer 2014 | ||
| "Lmk_What's Really Good Remix_ feat_Princess Nokia_Junglepussy_Cupcakke_Ms. Boogie_100 Bpm" (with Kelela, Junglepussy, cupcakKe, and Ms. Boogie) |
2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Take Me A_Part, The Remixes | |
| "Dame Aquí" (with Wiki) |
2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Oofie | |
| "Get Paid" (with Aluna and Jada Kingdom) |
2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Renaissance | |
| "Cynthia" (with Tony Seltzer and A. Lau) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | Avenues | ||
| "Madness" (with Silverstein) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | A Beautiful Place to Drown | ||
| "Slumber Party" (with Ashnikko) |
2021 | — | 91 | 57 | 30 | 70 | 174 |
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Demidevil |
Other certified songs
| Title | Year | Certification | Album |
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| "I Like Him" | 2020 |
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Everything Sucks |
Awards and nominations
| Award | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
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| Sweden GAFFA Awards | 2018 | Best Foreign New Act | Herself | Nominated | |
| The A2IM Libera Awards | Breakthrough Artist | Won |
See also
In Spanish: Princess Nokia para niños
- Nuyorican
- Puerto Ricans in New York City
