Bi Artist Spotlight: Radical Self Love with Princess Nokia

At only 24, New York artist Princess Nokia is changing the landscape of feminism in music. She embodies hip-hop like we’ve never seen before–following in the footsteps of Erykah Badu and Missy Elliot, but with a millennial individuality that denies comparison.

Her breakout hit “Tomboy” is an anthem of radical self love. In the music video, her outfits alternate between baggy sweatsuits and tight bandeaus with cutoffs. She raps about her “little titties and fat belly,” exuding a jaw-dropping confidence in features that our culture has somehow deemed undesirable.

That’s the beauty of this song: In interviews, Nokia has spoken of taking the parts of herself that our society deems “ugly” and upholding them, allowing her inner beauty to shine through. And she succeeds: Attend one of her shows and you’ll find a teeming crowd of women joyfully screaming those lyrics back to her. This is a truly radical example of self-love, delivered with a confidence that all women can aspire towards.

As if her radical, cool-girl feminism and spellbinding rhymes weren’t enough, Nokia also identifies as bi. At the beginning of the month, she retweeted this from one of her fans: “Princess nokia is bisexual? I knew it! I knew she was too dope to be straight lol.” Enough said.

By any standard, this badass queer woman of color wears the crown of hip-hop, and we can’t wait to see what she does next. Keep watch for new material on her instagram page: @princessnokia