Watch Princess Nokia Honor Harlem in ‘No Effort’ Video

Are you from New York, even? Princess Nokia brings the early 2000s movement together with her new single “No Effort” — and makes us envious of her puffer jacket-rockin’ crew as she “reclaims the co-opted aesthetic” and “brings it again to Harlem” within the music’s video.

“Take a look at me, so clear, no effort/Ponytail, ripped denims, no effort,” she raps within the refrain. “Face clear, gold ring, no effort/Insane, my chain, huge strain.”

The visible follows Princess Nokia hanging out together with her associates, all sporting North Face puffer jackets, at an East Harlem park as they showcase their dance strikes and, nicely, easy appears to be like. The video is impressed by a photograph from a 1996 New York Journal article by Nancy Jo Gross sales titled “Prep-College Gangsters.” The quilt story delved into the story of a gaggle of wealthy youngsters at New York’s upscale personal faculties who fetishized hip-hop tradition and dedicated petty crimes.

“Understanding the topic of the article and the ironic juxtaposition of social and financial illustration,” Nokia wrote, “I wished to recreate the picture and symbolize the great thing about the precise internal metropolis [from a] feminine perspective.”

For the rapper, “No Effort” retells the “story of sisterhood and the origins of our backgrounds and upbringings.” In different phrases, it’s a “love letter to the ladies within the hood.” The video was devoted to Sebastian Sdaugui, the New York Metropolis-based movie and music video director who died in February.

The monitor is the primary style of what Nokia described as a “new period. new music. identical me.” She dropped the only “It’s Not My Fault” final yr, and albums The whole lot Is Lovely and The whole lot Sucks in 2020. Nokia is ready to carry out at Coachella in April and can open for Haim at Madison Sq. Backyard in Might.