By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
She raps. She is female. She explores her sexuality
unapologetically. She is white. Her rhymes are sharper and her
image is sicker than damn near anybody out there. Oh, yeah, and
she’s royalty, so come off it.
Well, Princess Superstar is “¦ but that’s already
getting so tired. Who is Princess Superstar? Is there anyone or
anything she’s comparable to? Any takers?
“No, I have my own category,” said Superstar
herself, in a phone interview.
 Girlie Action
Princess Superstar co-produced six of the tracks on her upcoming
CD, “Princess Superstar Is.”
Princess Superstar, who in some circles is known as Concetta
Kirschner, will be invading Los Angeles this Saturday night via the
Knitting Factory. Her performance comes in anticipation of the
release of her fourth album, and promises a dynamic rap show that
will satisfy, as well as entertain.
“I’ve been touring for a long time now, but this is
the first time that I really feel like my live show is almost
better than my album. I’ve never felt that before. But I have
some incredible people that I’m with right now, like Curtis
Curtis “¦ the way it’s all come together is just
incredible,” Superstar said. “It’s super
important, I mean, I love to perform and I always make it really
theatrical, ’cause I think people really want to see a show.
And so when I perform and there’s costume changes and I go
crazy, it’s cool.”
Superstar has been trained in experimental theater at NYU, she
spent time in an indie rock band called the Gamma Rays, and now she
is the white female rapper on the underground hip-hop scene. Her
live show draws on all of these things as well as the sensation
that Superstar is herself.
 Girlie Action
Princess Superstar, shown living the glamorous life, knows what
she wants.
Since her debut album in 1995, Princess Superstar has not so
quietly become a credible artist in the fickle hip-hop community.
She combines her outrageous persona, with eclectic, innovative
production and witty lyrics. Her style hearkens back to a more
adventurous time in hip-hop, and has helped her transcend
stereotypes and earn her peers’ respect.
Despite her critical and underground success, for reasons both
self-willed and otherwise, Superstar hasn’t had massive
commercial success. She owns her own label, called Corrupt
Conglomerate, and has maintained her indie status even in the face
of mainstream interest.
“That’s the way I chose to have my career so that I
could have a long, long, long illustrious career and not sort of
like be in the hands of a major label who would market me and get
paid real quick and then dump me or anything like that. And
I’ve always been a huge DIY fan, and Fugazi and Discord are a
big inspiration to me. On the other hand I would like to start
getting some money sometime soon,” Superstar said.
She refers to the sound she has cultivated on her records as
“flip flop,” because of its tendency to resist any
traditional genre classification. Superstar feels at this point
that she has one foot in hip-hop, the other foot in indie rock, and
then a hand each in classic rock and drum and bass. Part of the
desire for this diversity comes from the necessity she feels for
experimenting, which is not fully embraced in the hip-hop community
right now.
Superstar furthers her musical evolution on her most recent
album “Princess Superstar Is” by exerting creative
control. She calls herself a perfectionist, writing her own lyrics,
and co-producing six of the tracks on her upcoming album herself.
Another source of sonic excitement for Superstar comes from the
chance of collaborating with other artists.
“I love, I love collaborating with other people, cause
they bring stuff to the table that you would never have thought
of,” Superstar said. “It really varies, I mean, because
like with (Kool) Keith, I really wanted to leave it open, but I
knew I wanted to do a love song. And with Beth Orton I kind of
explained what I was going for, but she and I wrote that together
and that was like a really awesome organic experience.”
The album itself is a diverse offering of weird, funny, and
emotional rap songs. On it, Superstar runs through the gamut of
possible interpretations of her image and the human being who lies
beneath it.
This theme is most explicitly explored on the song
“Dichotomy,” where Superstar raps about the opposing
forces that tug at the narrator’s life.
The dark and humorous opening track “Super Fantasy”
introduces a unifying theme to the album.
“Curtis Curtis made that track and I love it so much
“¦ It sets up the fantasy world and then … the album takes
you on a journey where you’re getting far away from that
world and then you come back to it at the end,” Superstar
said.
 www.princesssuperstar.com
Princess Superstar shows off her avant garde side.
Princess Superstar also exhibits an uncanny ability to allude to
and pick apart pop culture with songs like “You Get Mad At
Napster,” or “Welcome to My World” in which she
references Shirley Temple, Pepto Bismol, and the “Safety
Dance” in one song. She says her ability to pick up on pop
culture is unintentional, and comes from her talent for close
observation. She doesn’t even have cable.
Her perceptiveness has served her since an early age, when she
began to pick up on the music her parents were playing.
“My parents were hippies. They were really cool. They
turned me on to a lot of cool music,” Superstar said.
“You know anything from Pink Floyd to Stevie
Wonder.”
Her parents are both psychologists ““ her mother attended
UCLA ““ and Superstar giggles when she explains that she tries
to give them clean versions of her raunchy tunes.
When Superstar left home it was to go to New York and pursue
acting at NYU, which was a refreshing change from her days at a
private Pennsylvanian high school.
“It’s pretty cool. When I got to New York everything
was just about being weird and that was like such an amazing
opening experience,” Superstar said.
While quickly trading in theater for the music scene, where she
still gets to act on her songs she says, Superstar embraced that
vibe of freedom she felt upon her arrival in New York, and
hasn’t looked back since.
This includes her unabashed use of her sexuality as an
empowering tool wholly her own. Not only does Superstar get to be
the master of her sexual domain in a strong, sensual, and even
domineering way, but she also gets to play the girly-girl.
“It’s the best of both worlds of being a woman. I
mean, it’s the greatest,” Superstar said.
Even more important to Princess Superstar’s success has
been her sense of humor. As sexual as her lyrics and persona are,
there’s always an element of wit and humor in the power.
“With humor you can get across any message you want
really. I mean it’s one thing to be a feminist and another if
you’re a funny feminist. I think people might listen to you,
it might get through a little bit better “¦ and humor is just
so amazing because I mean you can feel upset and then like turn on
“˜South Park’ or something and be screaming
hysterically, and I just love really smart humor. That’s what
keeps me going in my life,” Superstar said.
Princess Superstar works because she is not satisfied to settle
or stop trying new things, because everything she does happens in
three dimensions, when so much out there is getting flatter and
older every second.
Princess Superstar works, because she’s constantly pushing
it.
“Exactly,” she said.
MUSIC: Princess Superstar will be performing on
Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. Call (323)
463-0204 for tickets.