Princess Nokia has released her self-directed, double-feature music video for slow, synthy, horn-backed tracks “Bart Simpson” and “Greenline.” Both songs are off her new album 1992 Deluxe, a combination of her previously released soundcloud mixtape by the same name and eight new songs including “G.O.A.T.,” “ABCs of New York,” and “Flava.”
Reenacting her high school experience, Destiny Frasqueri again steps into her “Tomboy” persona for “Bart Simpson,” clothed in either oversized cargo pants or a Slipnot t-shirt she says she stole from the boy who took her virginity. As always, Princess Nokia oozes sass throughout, smacking on some awfully sticky-seeming gum as she walks down her high school hallway and taking hefty swigs out of a tall can in a darkly lit New York apartment. Shots of the rapper getting pelted with dodgeballs are juxtaposed next to shots of her blatantly falling asleep in class to fearlessly kissing her friends and drunkenly reading the label of a Colt 40-oz beer. “Bart Simpson” tells the classic story of a high school student with her own secret life, but with the twist of Princess Nokia’s own personal brand of “New York mood.”
Moving away from Frasqueri’s distinctive story-telling directive style, the second half of the double feature is reminiscent of 90’s hip-hop music videos with a shot of Princess Nokia speaking directly to the audience through a fisheye lens threading together scenes of her romping about NYC. Between shots of her smoking cigarettes and flirting with another woman to pictures of her sitting wide legged and slouched on the New York subway, Frasqueri paints a picture of her day-to-day experience as a New Yorker--an experience that playfully pokes fun at established in-public etiquette. In general, the double feature shows a Princess Nokia that is perhaps more realistic to the life of Destiny Frasqueri--one that might not be as glamorous as she paints it in videos for “Flava” or “G.O.A.T.” but still uniquely carefree.
