Jesus Christ!
They call her the female Eminem, but she’d sooner answer to Shirley Temple. Better still, PRINCESS SUPERSTAR wants you to call her the fun feminist. Words: Jan F. Zeschky
hat kind of Frankensteinian creature is a ‘fetninem’
anyway? The only reference you‘ll find is to New
York‘s classiest. sassiest. street-smartest rap-artist Concetta Kirschner — Princess Superstar to you and me — who‘s set to supernova shortly on these shores. Surely you couldn't put such a crass tag on such a class act'.’
Alas. some bored hack somewhere has spotted that the Princess is white. female and raps. so she‘s just got to be the female Eminem — or. get this wit — ‘feminem‘.
‘Y'know.' Kirschner tells me in her excitable New Yorican gztbble. ‘I used to get pissed off with that immediate comparison. but inevitably everyone has to be compared to someone. People are gonna seek my music out anyway. so I’ll leave it to the fans. 1‘“ give them the benefit of the doubt that they see me as something more.’
So what's her opinion of that naughty white boy‘.’ ‘I think he's a really good lyricist.‘ she says. 01‘ as recent track ‘Welcome To My World‘ better elucidates: ‘livetyone tells tne I‘m the female Eminent/Well all I‘m gonna talk about is getting fucked up the ass then.‘
Kirschner has countered that she's more the ‘black Shirley Temple.‘ at rapping. wise-cracking cutesy princess. So has the stage name — evety young girl's dream — come true'.’ ‘Yeah. I guess it has. I mean I‘m not super-famous. though
much better understood than pounding people over the head with ideas.‘
('ertaiuly New York needs a good humorist in titnes like these. ‘1 almost gave up music after ‘)/I l. witnessing everything first-hand . . . ‘ she says. ‘My love for New York is so deep that it was a great personal blow. But now I think it‘s even more important that tny songs keep the humour. that
I don‘t really care seeing as I‘m getting attention ‘I subvert the people can haye fun again.~
for doing what I love. But I reallv do feel like As I offer my a iologies she breaks into hysterical fake sobs. - C - ' ~ order of ~ ’ * ' . Princess Superstar sometttnes. (lCl this: today I ‘\ou made me cry you bastard! l m gonna be crying on
got a Chanel tnotorbike helmet sent to my hotel bltCheS and 'lbp ()f The I’M/ts and it‘s all your faultl' (‘ue more sobbing. room.‘ she cackles. ‘I mean. what the fuck‘.’ That has but itss followed by a now—familiar cackle. definitely makes today the pinnacle of tny career.‘ 5 Picture the scene: a white. bloude. female rapper. sobbing
It‘s certainly distant from Kirschner‘s New a" done inside her (‘hanel helmet. is singing catchy new single ‘Bad York roots. having been born to musically fanatic humorously! Babysitter.~ about how babysitters love doing it with their
Russian-Polish-Jewish and Sicilian-American parents. Armed with an education in music from Zeppelin through Stevie Wonder to Miles Davis. she first did the rounds of New York‘s indie scene in the late 80s before getting hooked on [MY beats and rhymes. ’I just grew to love
it as a form of expression] she says. ‘Rap is really a love of
language. The spirit of hip hop was so great back then as well; you had Public linemy. Salt ‘n' Pepa. Queen Latifah. It was like my soul generation.‘
Having established her own label and liner tuned her distinctive sound over three albums since l‘)()5. the Princess now presents her tnost defining record to date: Prim-ms .S'upwis‘Iur Is. It‘s one hour of refreshingly intelligent hip hop. featuring collaborations with Kool Keith. JZone and Beth Orton. and dominated by the Princess' takes on the sex-mad hip hop industry of today. 'lt‘s a very feminist record.‘ she says. ‘I subvert the order of “bitches and hos". but it's all done humorously. Humour is such a powerful thing. it‘s so
20 THE LIST 1/. VP, l of) 7032
boyfriend on their employers bed. (‘ould be one of the more interesting things you‘ll see on 70/) Urn/71v l’U/M’ this year.
Princess Superstar plays King Tut’s, Glasgow, Mon 25 Feb; Princess Superstar Is, out now on K7 Records.
WIN tickets to see Princess Superstar
We have four pairs of tickets to see the Princess herself at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow on Monday 25 February. For a chance to win a pair. just stick your name. address and phone number in an email to promotions@list.co.uk or on a postcard to: ‘Stop Callin’ Me Eminem’, The List Ltd, 14 High St, Edinburgh, EH1 1TE by Friday 22 February. Usual rules apply and you must be over 18.