[Album Review] Princess Nokia – A Girl Cried Red (Mixtape)

Princess Nokia identifies herself as a tomboy, a classic New York Boricua shorty, a feminist, and queer woman who isn’t burdened, but empowered by her complexity. She is a versatile artist that can switch from singing to rapping, and vice-versa. A Girl Cried Red is an eight-track mixtape of alternative music.

‘Flowers and Ropes’ is the first track on this mixtape. Her voice is unique and her harmony adds a spice on this track. The instrumentation on this track is seasoned with different flavors of string sounds and percussion instruments. They are latent, yet they bring out the best out of this song. She sings about being lonely after being in a relationship with a beautiful female who turned out to be “just like the rest”.

‘Your Eyes Are Bleeding’ has a heavy bass beat that supports her vocals on this track. Her lyrics on this song paint the image of a meek and honest lady who has been emotionally tortured by the hands of the cruel world. On ‘For The Night’, she abandons her broken heart and tries to find comfort in money, fun and getting high. She also develops a level of self-confidence that makes her sound really strong emotionally. Although, you can tell she’s still a hurt girl inside.

She sings about herself using the second person narrative on ‘Lock Up Kid’ exposing herself as a lonely girl, who tries to hide everything she’s going through with a fake smile. She presents an outstanding alternative sound on this track. The ‘Interlude’ encompasses one of the best features of this mixtape — great instrumentation. Without words, she succeeds in conveying the emotional message she’s been singing about on this mixtape.

‘Morphine’ is a trippy, lonely song that describes her lonely experience in bed before she started chasing money. Even with the money, some part of her still wants someone to hold her. The 25-year-old sounds more confident on ‘At the Top’. She replaces her coat of loneliness with a classy and expensive one. She addresses haters and flaunts her achievements with an outstanding rhythm. On ‘Little Angel’, she doesn’t sing about herself or loneliness. Princess Nokia dedicates it to a little boy who she describes as a “golden boy” and an “angel”. She reminisces about his time alive in a way that any listener would miss this boy without meeting him. The singer does know how to elicit emotions from her listeners.

On this mixtape, Princess Nokia effortlessly expresses her emo-rap anthems about loneliness, against a backdrop of melodramatic guitars and club-focused beats. She emphasizes: “Smash my heart in pieces, It looks so good on the floor” in the intro on three songs. Those lines encompass her mood on this project. A broken-hearted lonely girl who struggles to get out of the cage of depression while finding comfort in a lot of money and a fake smile. The instrumentation on this album is excellent! Not only does she share her loneliness with great lyrics, she succeeds in making us share a bit of her loneliness. This mixtape is like a short story that is intriguing, engaging, and addictive.