Harlem’s Afro-Boricua rap star, Princess Nokia is planting her rock alternative roots in her forthcoming mixtape, A Girl Cried Red.
The 25 year-old, née Destiny Frasqueri, has always been candid about citing alternative rock as one of her biggest musical influences, even before actual rap music. In a recent interview with Dazed, she revealed her new music will be a compilation of “emo girl” tales. “I’m about to release an emo mixtape in the next month and a half,” she said, adding that it will be littered with just her and authenticity. “It’s real alternative music. There’s no features, it’s just me.”
In the same interview, she also talked about her personal radio show, Smart Girl Club, where she plans to have conversations about alternative rock making a comeback, and what that means for its legacy and diehard followers. She also discussed how the genre has always had a presence within communities of color, which is why it’s creating such a statement now:
“Alternative culture has always had a populace within the black and brown community. With every resurgence or generational turning, fashion and music becomes reiterated. In the early 2000s we were really into 80s retro. Then the (early) 2010s, we were super obsessed with the 90s and now we’re obsessed with the millennium. Also, because we don’t have those representations, so there’s a lack of identification. We [emo fans] come from a place in the urban world where there are no boundaries. People still have stereotypical urban-identified communities, but at the same time boys have green hair and girls are lesbians. It’s super alternative.”
A Girl Cried Red is due out this March.