Eyes Bleeding

Right now there’s an insane amount of genuinely good new music, and I’m barely keeping up, but I fell for Princess Nokia pretty much immediately. Destiny Nicole Frasqueri’s the full name—born in ’92, performing as Princess Nokia—and she makes this laid-back feminist hip-hop that works everywhere. Put on Metallic Butterfly or Honeysuckle or 1992 and suddenly you’re in a completely different headspace, whether you’re smoking or fucking or just doing dishes.

What I respect most is that she doesn’t tolerate any sexism bullshit. During a Cambridge tour stop, she actually got off stage and beat down a heckler who’d been talking shit. That’s not manufactured drama—that’s someone who means every word she’s singing. Tomboy is her queer rap anthem and the response is enormous, the kind of thing that tells you something cultural is actually shifting.

She just dropped a new mixtape and Your Eyes Are Bleeding is the lead single. It’s so hypnotic and chill I’ve had it on repeat for days. The kind of track that makes you want to do anything while it plays—smoke, dance, kiss someone. Eventually I’ll end up smoking with her while this is on, most likely, but right now it’s just one of those listens where the vibe is everything.