Music is a beauty pageant. When I go put myself out there, I'm going to compete.
— Princess Nokia
I truly have a lot of faith in the universe even when I'm down, I'm always good.
I had been introduced to rapping in a way where women and people did it, it was structured. It had this very very political structure to it and if you didn't follow the structure, you weren't considered validated or real and that just gave me anxiety.
I was a happy-go-lucky gothic girl who had an optimistic spirit cos I was suffering a lot at home.
There's no money in music. I know that. I think the whole world should know that.
I just want to purify my body, purify my mind, and make good music and keep living my life.
I started modeling before '1992,' and I had already done Calvin Klein and Target and Gap and Diesel, Reebok, so I had been modeling for a little bit.
That's why I created Smart Girl Club in the first place because I really wanted to combat the non-inclusion that I felt in a lot of places.
I think that the power of reinvention is very important.
My mother picked my name with a spiritual intention: Destiny, 'what was meant to be.' She was a very special woman, and a gifted witch.
It took me a long time to get to where I am, but I am here and it is everywhere I want to be. A place where both my artistic merit and hard work meet. A day where I can say, ‘Yeah, I'm a musician. A good one.'
Black people created punk - the band Death was way before The Ramones. Same with Bad Brains. If you think about it, the wool has been pulled over our eyes.
Growing up in the '90s was the coolest thing to me.
Oh, I never fit in anywhere. I'm a loner. I don't even have many friends.
I don't have a make-up artist and I don't need a stylist.
I don't have much in life but my work is what makes me alive.
I don't think many people have met someone like me. I don't think the world gets to see too many women like me, and I enjoy being that woman.
I model a lot and I'm very fortunate and blessed to be able to do as many partnerships I do for an underground musician such as myself.
I used to go onstage with no makeup on. And then I realised I was looking a little crazy and I had to grow up a bit and look more presentable as a woman.
I'm not a docile, complacent person when it comes to racial aggressions.
My place in New York is very authentic, very old New York. I love old New York.
I think Yara Shahidi is amazing.
I don't even know how I became cool.
I like a lot of older rock ‘n' roll artists, like legends like Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. They really influenced me to be very, very androgynous and very commanding, and very very - I wouldn't say odd, but I would say eccentric.
The music that I will continue to make will certainly draw upon those experiences of being a loner, of being an emo goth kid, of being a New York City aficionado, of being a witch, a feminist, a brown radical woman.
I like to honor my West African and Taino ancestry, I consider it sacred and divine.
Black people have always loved the blues - they basically created the blues.
Black people created rock music, it's a fact. Black people created bluegrass and rock and roll way before Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
I like Marvel because characters look like me and women don't have roles that make them look too sexual.
I try not to be overly nostalgic, and I don't use nostalgia to be kitschy.
Queer culture was introduced to me at a very early age. It was introduced to me with a semi-positive facet because no one in my family is remotely homophobic or closed-minded.
I literally have my hand in every aspect of the art world that you could imagine. That's what I've always done.
I was just a queer theater kid from New York City.
I actually didn't own any North Face until I was 18 and the first one I had was a gorgeous Blue Extreme and I loved it.
I'd been suffering all of my life. I think comedians and artists, we do that. We know how to be the life of the party and enjoy exuberance outside of pain.
I'm very 'nothing-bothers-me,' laissez faire. Everything works for me.
The street-wear and the very androgynous tomboyish girl, that's just not this new persona I'm introducing… it's me 24/7.
Alexandria Ocasio? I think she's dope.
When I was little I wanted to be like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love or be attached to the X-girls and hang out in downtown culture.
I feel like I've had a really great time just being able to make all the music that I've always liked to make and listen to and expressing it in different ways.
My ancestors had to keep their customs secret for fear of death or persecution, so it's common to be secretive and discreet about Regla de Ocha. But it's my family's spirituality, so I don't want to keep it secret.
I'm a Puerto Rican woman whose family has roots in Regla de Ocha, also known as Santeria.
I always wanted to make rock music as well or as an element of what I do.
The principles of punk-rock culture, of self-expression and DIY culture, that really spoke to me.
To me, the music industry doesn't exist, it's like the devil, it doesn't exist if you don't believe in it.
Everything really came together on ‘1992.' That isn't to dismiss my earlier works - they were great - but when I focused myself on hip-hop everything just clicked.
Growing up, I loved Boy George, George Michael, Annie Lennox, Queen, Freddie Mercury, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross.
