Princess Nokia - 1992 Deluxe

The Quietus

Princess Nokia’s debut album is oscillating, introspective and at times chaotic. It serves to complicate rather than explain or define the New York rapper’s own identity. She is an urban feminist, a ghetto bruja, an Afro-Latina, a New Yorker. She is all this and more. Released on Rough Trade records, 1992 Deluxe remasters and extends Princess Nokia’s 2016 EP with an additional seven songs. It is the zenith of half a decade of hype, during which the rapper has released three EPs under three names (Wavy Spice, Destiny and her current moniker).

1992 Deluxe confirms Princess Nokia’s versatility and wide-ranging musical education – the thematic range is matched by the eclecticism of the sonic influences here. On opening track 'Bart Simpson', she demonstrates masterful restraint and stamina, but on the confrontational 'Kitana' she spits fire over a hard-as-nails trap beat: “I step in this bitch and I do what I want / I don't give a damn and I don't give a fuck!”

She's most at home on tracks like 'Green Line', a wonderfully nostalgic ode to New York which runs like a stream of consciousness. Her bubbly tone and undulating flow echo that of Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, while the soft swell of horns and keys evoke late-90s neo-soul. Princess Nokia relaxes into the song and we as listeners exhale with her.

Although she casts herself as hip-hop’s rebel outlier (“When I’m featured in serious hip-hop blogs, the commentary is negative,” she said in a Guardian interview earlier this year), the legacy of East Coast rap is palpable in her music. Afrocentrism, Yoruba spirituality and black femininity are threaded throughout 1992 Deluxe, most discernibly on the standout track 'Brujas' in which she raps: “We is them ghetto witches / Speaking in tongue bitches / Fall on the floor / Got sage on the door.”

It is difficult to gauge whether the amateurish production adds to the album’s charm or acts as its major downfall. Princess Nokia is outspoken in her rejection of labels and the mainstream music industry, so the DIY sound is fitting. But on older tracks like 'Wish You Would' (her 2014 collaboration with Mykki Blanco), Brenman’s stellar production facilitates a more polished performance from Princess Nokia. She glides across the beat rather than fighting with it, as she does at points on 1992 Deluxe.

1992 Deluxe is a powerful starting point from which the “New York aficionado” can further hone and refine her sound. For longtime Princess Nokia fans, is is also the climax of a five-year crescendo and satisfying evidence that she has retained her powerful sense of self.

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Drowned In Sound 90

Last year the NY native released 1992, a quite frankly ridiculous collection of off-kilter beats, aggressive verses and body positive messages that melted together gloriously to create something that just felt, and sounded, fresh. From the beginning of 'Bart Simpson' right up to the final bars of 'Tweety Bird Freestyle' Nokia managed to break down any remaining barriers in genre, and, more importantly, get people in the increasingly hostile US of A talking about gender politics and identity.

1992 Deluxe is much more than just a cheap re-release of her breakout 2016 mixtape, it’s a complete reimagining. The record features 8 brand new songs that help to cement Princess Nokia as one of the key voices in modern hip hop. Of these new tracks “ABCs of New York” stands out, the track is a love letter to her city of birth, and sounds like the musical equivalent of a sunny day in the city, spent with plenty of orange juice, ice cream and pizza. On the song Nokia covers pretty much everything of musical value that has happened in the Big Apple since the turn of the twentieth century, delivering verse after verse of alphabetised facts that would make Blackalicious proud.

Nokia delves into the past, present and future of hip hop, jumping from sub-genre to sub-genre with relative ease. The wild southern tinged trap of 'Tomboy' and 'Kitana' meld seamlessly into the almost, whisper it, commercial beats of 'Saggy Jeans', proving that when you do something with confidence, you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want.

Grand Finale 'Chinese Slippers' haunted house synth drawls and bouncy beats initially feel like a strange choice for the last track on the record, but after a few a few rounds of the almost painfully catchy “Kentucky fried chicken and a pizza hut” you can’t help but want to visit her weird world of irony, rainbows and funky bass lines just one more time.

The most exciting thing about 1992 Deluxe is that it can clearly get so much better for Princess Nokia. This is only the beginning. With more time and space to create, who knows what she could be capable of? World domination? I wouldn’t put it past her.

The Guardian 80

(Rough Trade)

This “Jewish, Puerto Rican, and a little bit Italian” rapper from New York, a “nerdy girl with nymphomanic tendencies”, who refers to Emily the Strange as well as cooking crack, delivers on her potential as one of 2017’s most exciting new MCs. Over gorgeous beats that range from head-nodding old-school loops to a vogueish kind of haunted industrial emo-trap, Princess Nokia asserts ownership of every part of her being, from her weave (“It’s mine, I bought it” she says, adding to Solange in the canon of anti-hair-touching classics) to her “little titties and fat belly”. Her flow has the freewheeling energy of the battle freestyle, and often forgoes narrative in favour of a stream of boastful non-sequiturs about Mortal Kombat and Blue’s Clues, but, through sheer force of charisma, her blunt edges still cause major damage. Tracks like Brujas and GOAT are equally arresting, though, for their sharper, steelier focus.

The Guardian 80

(Rough Trade)

The much-hyped MC’s first outing on Rough Trade sears with her trademark eclectic vitality. 1992 Deluxe revisits last year’s 1992 mixtape, with remasters of original tracks plus seven new songs, all of which find her rapping over tantalising production with nonchalant confidence – whether it be a love letter to her native New York, a boisterous ode to witchcraft, a cool takedown of people trying to touch her hair, or even a surreal rendition of the Fast Food Song to close the album. One of the most exciting, assured hip-hop releases of the year, on which Princess Nokia asserts her claim to the throne.

Pitchfork 62

On her newly reissued and expanded 2016 mixtape, Destiny Frasqueri—aka Princess Nokia—raps with granular detail about mysticism, childhood, and her native New York City.