King Princess’ debut record has finally arrived.
Mikaela Straus’ new album Cheap Queen follows last year’s Made My Bed EP, which featured the 20-year-old Brooklyn artist’s breakout singles “1950” and “Talia.” It features a wide swath of collaborators including Tobias Jesso Jr. (who features on “Isabel’s Moment”), the xx’s Romy Croft (who has a songwriter credit on “Homegirl”), Father John Misty (who plays drums on “Ain’t Together”), Justin Tranter (who has a songwriting credit on “Ain’t Together”), and others. Listen below. The album’s title track was co-written by Amandla Stenberg, who also contributed King Princess’ 2018 single “Pussy Is God.”
Ahead of the record’s release, King Princess shared visuals for album’s title track (directed by Symone Ridgell), “Prophet” (directed by Cody Critcheloe aka SSION), and a homemade dance video for “Hit the Back.”
In her cover story for them.’s Pride Issue, King Princess spoke about her intentions behind her debut. “My new album is the culmination of so much of my recent growth, most of which is really painful for me to revisit and relive through my music,” she told Willa Bennett. “But it is definitely cathartic, too. I exert so much therapeutic energy when I’m performing, and I feel infinitely lighter after sharing pivotal hardships — deep-seated feelings of loss, conflict, and pain. When I get it all out there, it feels so freeing. Recently, I’ve been playing the album to everyone in my life that I love, and their admiration makes it feel more complete. It’s crazy that this is my career.” She added: “And when my new album finally comes out, I’m just going to fucking cry.”
