New York rapper and impresario Princess Nokia has dropped “1992,” a mixtape that follows her well-received single and video “Tomboy.” Referencing her year of birth, “1992,” the nine-song production speaks to Nokia’s love affair with New York and its artfully grimey side, a city that she has described as her “biggest inspiration and love affair.”
Listen closely and you will discover through her beats, ad libs, spoken word interludes and r&b musical snippets that Nokia’s relationship with the City is deep and complicated. At times it’s an all embracing warm and beautiful mosaic, and at points it’s an icy cold lover only interested in the highest bidder.
What’s amazing about “1992” is that it so perfectly is (a certain) New York City; what’s a little difficult to bear is that perhaps it’s actually the oral realization of a place that is no longer in existence decimated not in the usual way by the passing of time but by the influx of money.
Check out the mixtape and watch our interview with Nokia below in which she discusses some of the music that influenced her growing up in New York.
Image above via Alberto Vargas.
