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Published on December 14th, 2019 | by Dr. Jerry Doby

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Rapper Princess Nokia Catches a Feature in the Playboy Equality Issue on Stands Now

Princess Nokia Photo Credit Lou Escobar for Playboy

Princess Nokia is one of the voices that will ring heavy in the upcoming decade. Born Destiny Frasqueri this multi-threat dynamo is a beacon of possibility as she stands for those whose voices are often ignored, cast aside and/or devalued as people. She’s featured in the Playboy “Equality” issue currently on newsstands.  “I’m a gender non-conforming androgynous person,” she says in her feature story with Playboy entitled “Force of Nature” by Jhoni Jackson. “I love being proud of how studly I am, how boyish and how manly I can appear. I love being androgynous. I feel beautiful like that. It’s just another beautiful side of me.”

It’s a well-known fact that in Hip Hop, successful women often had a male sponsor that ushered their careers (think Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne or Timbaland and Missy Elliott). Today, rising rappers, including Megan Thee Stallion, City Girls, and Saweetie often have to perform as vixen archetypes and reflect mainstream ideals, which are often sexist and racist in nature, to gain attention and stardom.  Frasquari actively rejects these values and refuses to be anybody but her authentic self. – Playboy

Beyond being beautiful in whatever manner she appears, Princess Nokia is a heavy hitter within the music world with an international audience and tour schedule that speaks volumes. Breaking out in 2017 with her indie hit “1992 Deluxe [Rough Trade] which found itself in the Top 25 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart while NME touted it amongst its Albums of the Year her highness went on to begin regularly selling out headline tours. In 2020, she takes over Europe with appearance ranging from Zürich to Dublin beginning March 1st through March 25th get more tour info on Songkick.

Playboy’s “Force of Nature” feature with Princess Nokia is a full-ride showcase done in a stellar editorial fashion and with none of the trickeration. JHONI JACKSON does the exceptional deep dive and the eye of LOU ESCOBAR adds the perfect visual finish for this piece.

 

Here’s another excerpt from the feature!

“Every day I feel different. Every day it’s either masc or femme or in between. Every day is goth or bohemian,” Princess Nokia tells me. “When I wake up and feel an energy, I coexist with it.”

The performer, born Destiny Frasqueri, is fluid in more ways than one. “I’m a gender-nonconforming androgynous person,” she says. “But some people are like, ‘What happened to your tomboy phase?’ ”

That question is a reference to Frasqueri’s breakthrough 2017 single “Tomboy,” off the album 1992 Deluxe. The song’s music video sees her on a basketball court in an oversized T-shirt pulled over a sweatshirt. She later raps about her “little titties” and “phat belly.” Those who inquire about her lost era of tomboyishness seem not to realize that Frasqueri’s presentation will never be absolute and thus defies tidy categorization.

In a culture that encourages us to divide—by religion, economics, race, age, sexuality, the list never ends—the multi-hyphenate Princess Nokia persona sets out to represent the complexity of women, artists and human beings. She’s a lover and a fighter. She’s a rapper and a singer. She’s masculine and feminine. She’s a pragmatist and a dreamer. And no matter the haters, Frasqueri is unstoppable.

“It’s so much easier to understand artistic men,” Frasqueri remarks. “But women—especially brown women—we think they have psychological issues.”

Read the full article on Playboy.com https://playboy.com/read/princess-nokia

Along with the powerful story of Princess Nokia, the Playboy Equality issue takes a look at the self-made businesswomen of the sex worker industry and features Puerto Rican plus-sized model Riley Ticotin as their January Playmate!

Playboy “Equality” issue cover

 


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About the Author

Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.


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