Princess Nokia

About

Also known as: Destiny, Destiny Frasqueri, Destiny Nicole Frasqueri, Wavy $pice, Wavy Spice

Princess Nokia, born Destiny Nicole Frasqueri in New York, built her name in hip hop by genre hopping with genuine confidence, pulling from rap, soul, rock, and house in ways that rarely feel forced. Her stage name came from the Obama phone she qualified for through a low income assistance program, which says a lot about both her wit and her roots. She first recorded under the name Wavy Spice before switching to Princess Nokia and releasing her debut album Metallic Butterfly in 2014. It was her 2017 album 1992 Deluxe, an expanded version of her 2016 mixtape, that put her on the map more broadly, landing at number 25 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and earning a spot on NME's best albums of the year list. She kept the momentum going with the mixtape A Girl Cried Red in 2018, then dropped two contrasting albums on the same day in February 2020: Everything Sucks, which Pitchfork called a "locust swarm of angst", and Everything Is Beautiful, described as warm and expansive by comparison. She also voiced a character in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder and made her acting debut in the indie film Angelfish. Her influences range from MC Lyte and Queen Latifah to nu metal acts like Korn and Slipknot, and she draws on punk and rave culture in her live performances. Most recently she signed with NYC independent label Artist House and released the album GIRLS in October 2025.