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Princess Nokia constantly reinvents herself, both musically and aesthetically. The cover art for her first single as Princess Nokia, “Versace Hottie,” found the Bronx-born rapper looking like a Victoria’s Secret Angel in a pair of white wings and a lacy black bra. Just a few years later, the artist started releasing soulful songs under her birth name, Destiny Frasqueri. In the ’70s video for “Soul Train,” Frasqueri does the Hustle to a disco beat, clad in bell-bottoms and vintage shirts with bright prints.
More recently the artist, who’s back to releasing work under the name Princess Nokia, is channeling a tomboy look with her laid-back ’90s style, including baggy sweatpants, oversize T-shirts, chunky white New Balances, and Calvin Klein sports bras. Now she’s sharing a TBT on Instagram that shows off yet another one of her stylish past personas: teenage raver cybergoth.
Nokia’s breakout full-length debut, Metallic Butterfly, weaved together references to anime, hackers, and feminism. In the Hackers-esque video for “Cybiko,” a highlight from Nokia’s debut, the rapper played video games and commandeered multiple laptop screens, which felt appropriate given the song’s refrain: “Confessions of a cybergirl/Escaping out the Matrix world.”
Nokia’s TBT clearly fits within that Matrix world—in the first photo, the artist wears an ombré blue wig, a peachy tank top that she overlays with black fishnets, a tie-dye skirt that she cinches with a chunky black belt adorned with bottle caps, and a choker, of course. And in the second photo, she goes for a more cohesive color palette, appearing in a tutu, a matching bra, and a studded choker. So before you go out this weekend, maybe use Nokia’s youthful cybergoth aesthetic as inspiration for your next club-ready look.