Believe it or not, King Princess hasn’t actually been around that long. After releasing her debut single in 2018, she has already amassed a following of loyal, loving fans, and is set to release her first full album Cheap Queen this fall via Mark Ronson’s Zelig/Columbia Records.
Her latest single “Prophet”, the second single off the upcoming album, is her most nuanced to date. “Prophet” has two applicable meanings, as the 20-year-old’s plucky baseline creates the ideal high energy background for her obsessive lyrics, it’s impossible to know what her obsession is crystalizing on. There is the obvious meaning, fame, money, power. But there is also the personification of all of these things. A lover whom she covets, but resents all at once.
“You know what you want, it’s / Only ’bout the money and control / Can’t step off it, someone else will cop it / Like it’s gold, you’re a prophet / Someone’s gonna profit,” KP muses darkly on the second verse.
With these greedy, grand lyrics, King Princess tracks the dichotomy between getting what you want and knowing that it isn’t good for you. We’ve all wanted something badly enough to ignore the red flags surrounding it. Sometimes we achieve exactly what we want, and only then do we realize, it’s still never enough. It’s lyrics like these paint an artist into an icon, and for King Princess, that title has been a long time coming.
