As headliner of the 2019 lineup of the Noise Pop Music Festival, Princess Nokia played a show at the UC Theater on Saturday, March 2nd. Born Destiny Frasqueri, Princess Nokia is a rapper of Puerto Rican descent from New York who openly discusses her life in hardships as a child in the foster care system, her spirituality rooted in Afro culture, and feminist ideals. Openers for the show included local acts from Oakland, black female artists Queens D. Light and Tia Nomore. This ethos of community and spotlight on minoritized voices persisted through the entirety of the show.
All bodies on stage were women, trans women, or femme — people she wanted to specifically welcome into the space at the concert, to feel loved and to let them know that the people around them were their family. Her first half of her setlist regulated this idea of oneness, as the intensity of the bass enveloped everyone and lead a synchronized bouncing. From her album 1992 Deluxe released September of 2017, she played hits like “Kitana,” “Tomboy,” “ABCs of New York,” and “Mine” which has been in contention with Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings”. Princess Nokia acknowledges in the lyrics of her track “Mine” how “I love how West Indies do, it’s gossip with hair and food” specifically shouting out: “Dominicans,” “Boricua girls,” and “Africans who braid”. Grande’s track plays on the same theme of buying hair, but, her track and music video are based on simply an elaborate shopping spree, contradicting Princess Nokia’s deeper message of appreciation of the black and brown women and the community around their hair. On stage, Princess Nokia discusses this recent controversy, and states it was worth addressing for the sake of the community at large, like those people she sees in the audience.
But, that’s not what she wants to delve into further, and she continues on playing hits from the same album, like “Goth Kid” and “Brujas,” and even “Dragons” from her debut album Metallic Butterfly which was recently reissued. “I’m a shapeshifting bitch,” she raps in “Brujas,” which perfectly prefaces the second half of her setlist. Before beginning to sing tracks from her most recent album, A Girl Cried Red, she tells the audience that if she doesn’t have her band with her she will typically sing these songs acapella. The ephemeral experience of a Princess Nokia show allows for one to see the true reason why she endures, though some say they question her emo rap direction taken in her most recent album A Girl Cried Red, it’s really her expressing her artistic versatility. And it works because it’s rooted in genuine intentions and self-confidence.
In between some of these songs, Princess Nokia recognized a member of the audience that she acknowledged has been a fan for years and whose artwork is hanging up in her bedroom. She greets this fan with a hug, and even gets to meet her mother with a special, affectionate exchange which the audience overhears. Then, she asks the audience to all hold hands, really emphasizing this concept of love and erasing the barrier at concerts of trying to maintain personal space in a crowded area with sweet, consensual linking. The show wraps up with her singing acapella a song she released back in 2015 under her given name, Destiny, called “Apple Pie.” It’s a sweet lullaby that acts as the perfect cool down from a night of moshing and dancing, sending off her audience with love and what feels like a personal hug and kiss on the cheek, as Latinos affectionately do whenever we greet or say goodbye.
Article by Celia Davalos