I recently discussed Azealia Banks’ Playboy interview where she alienated almost everyone. She ranted against America, fat people, straight people, gay people, athiests, and men. The piece was an epic mess, and that’s exactly what Azealea wanted to happen. That’s the weird thing about Azealea. She’s a thinker and an occasionally insightful one, but her delivery of any message is awful. She ends up insulting everyone and ruining any tiny ounce of truth that comes out of her mouth. And it’s impossible to give her any credit (for anything) when she regularly spouts anti-Semitic and anti-homosexual rants on Twitter. The last I heard about Banks, she was sending out photos of various body parts to male bloggers who criticized her Playboy interview. No joke.
This new Billboard interview is slightly more nuanced. For one thing, Banks quickly dismisses her foil, Iggy Azalea, with a simple, “she just sucks” and moves onto other topics. Perhaps Banks is learning to not dig herself into the deepest of holes. I won’t deny that Azealia Banks is an incredibly talented rapper. She’s also an incredibly unpleasant, hateful person. So there’s plenty of WTF in this interview:
The responses to her Playboy interview: “It’s the responses to what I say that prove my point. I was making a joke because American culture is very gluttonous. We’re very, like, Big Gulp. You want Cup O’ Noodles? Here’s 24 in a box. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but who cares? When you fail, you’ve got to fail fast.”
On her issues with labels: “I felt like a caged animal. I’m this twentysomething who just became a millionaire, and I’m just like, ‘F***, where’s my album?’ Things started to blend together, and I was driving myself past certain points of insanity.”
Her work process: “I drink, I smoke weed, I don’t really bathe. I might go off … talk to myself in the mirror for hours. It’s a sort of psychosis. I work during witching hours, 3 a.m., 4 a.m., when the dead writers, the failed writers and the failed musicians who are dead are roaming around.”
She wants reparations: “That’s the only way black people are going to move forward. I get what people like Pharrell are saying, like, ‘Oh, you just have to work hard, but we aren’t given the tools.’ But he’s implying that he is the first and only person to ever try, and if you try like him, then you can get to the top of the ivory tower. It doesn’t work that way. You and I, Pharrell, we have assimilated. We’re the most nonthreatening black people. Well, obviously, I’m very threatening. But I’m harmless. I wouldn’t, like, run you over with my f***ing car.”
On Barack Obama: “He’s so fine. Those big-a** white teeth and ears hanging off his head? I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I want to f*** the president.'”
Her usual bedmates: “I sleep with my security guards. I love security guards. They’re these big meathead bald white guys with blue eyes. And I have had sex with a lot of my female friends. It’s a proximity thing. It’s why I am going to call my next record Business and Pleasure, because I’m always mixing the two.”
[From Billboard]
A few of Banks’ associates chime in during the interview to call her “a tortured artist.” I think she’s incredibly self-defeating.
Banks has more to say, including her expanded feelings on Kendrick Lamar’s statements about Ferguson. The rest of the interview is bizarro-land. She talks about doing witchcraft on an ex-boyfriend and gives tips on cooking chicken soup. She insists that she’s not anyone’s idol, but it would sure be nice if people “celebrated” her because she’s a celebrity. Did you see the part up there where Banks claimed to be a millionaire? Ha. If she hadn’t gotten herself canned from two record contracts, that could be true.
Photos courtesy of Ramona Rosales/Billboard & WENN
The real problem is thinking that these singers (or actors, or faux-celebs) have something to say. They don’t. They live in a tiny little world and don’t know much about anything. I think they are interviewed because the media knows they will say something ignorant, and that creates news.
glad she mentioned who she’s slept with, i was SO dying to know…sarcasm
I know very little about her but after reading this my impression is she could probably use some serious rest.
Yes, she’s very incoherent.
I find this woman repulsive.
‘I think she’s incredibly self-defeating.’
Agreed. She’s talented and there’s some kernels of truth amidst the ranting, but I think if you’re a woman in entertainment and you’re as confrontational as she is, it’s a difficult road ahead. She does more than rap, she sings and her album is one of the best dance albums of the past year. It’s a shame that she’s blowing what could be a strong career with idiotic statements. Just shut up and let the work speak for itself. But nobody really does that anymore.
you are testifying Neelyo, she is THAT good but she is so absolutely stupid about picking her battles and letting her work shine
She often says very smart things about racism and I feel like I can listen to her music again (since she is very talented) but then she’ll spew out something transphobic or anti-black and then I’m obligated to boycott her music again lol
I read her stuff and just think tries to hard.
She’s one big gulp of thirsty.
Hahah love it.
This could be mental illness. Serious.
I was thinking she sounded manic.
I know some producers that were trying to work with her when she was first signed. It was a disaster. She suffers from mental health issues. Serious ones. Everyone knew it,her manager, the label, the producers etc. Instead of recommending treatment and going slow with her they just put her to work and pushed and pushed. Obviously this wasn’t the right thing to do.
This women has suffered and continues to which is a real shame because she is really talented. Ugh her interviews just make me sad.
That is sad. Reminds me of Brittney Spears, with people caring more about her earnings than her health. So horrible.
I agree that her talent is legit, but her short temper overshadows it almost completely. Not too different from Kanye.
I don’t know who she is and after reading some of her comments, I don’t want to know.
Just the opposite here. She’s piqued my interest. It may not last long but she’s piqued it. I truly get the big gulpazation (lots of it low quality) of America and the dead writers, reparations / assimilation / sex with bodyguards proximity thing. Hmm. Interesting. Very interesting.
She’s very talented and I do enjoy some of her music. It’s sad that she doesn’t have more fans, but she alienates people because of the things she says. Well actually, there’s a lot of truth to what she says, but her delivery is awful. And I also think some things are just best left unsaid. She’s had a very rough upbringing, so I do understand why she is the way she is.
Self-defeating is exactly how I would describe her. I used to love her being outspoken when she first started out but in the long run her need to always say something with an offensive delivery just to create controversy has bored me. It’s such a pity because she has an enormous talent, her album is one of the best records I have heard in years, but her whole persona has become just ugh.
She’s always talking about witchcraft on Twitter. But yes she is RACIST which is funny considering her boyfriends are usually white dudes. Her last one was her producer but since him she hasn’t mentioned any. They probably run from her crazy ass. Plus the cooking thing, also something she posts a lot about.
She is incredibly smart, sometimes it encroaches crazy too many times, but the sad thing is that she’s such a racist I’m starting to just find that I don’t care. And her last album SUCKED. Chasing time and Ice a princess were the only good tracks, the rest sounded like fashion music garbage.
She gets money somehow though because she has a home in NYC and LA. I doubt she’ll be making much longer though. She’s just too off putting.
I can never look away from a Banks interview.
Polarizing, and sometimes offensive, I still find her to be an interesting and unique character.
Same.
She’s a mess but she’s somehow captivating to me. I think because she’s one of the few artists who walks the walk and you can see with her how incredibly foolish and hazardous that is. If she hates a celeb she doesn’t do the cutesy Taylor Swift thing of writing an ‘anonymous’ song. If she’s slept with someone she’s cool with admitting it. She speaks her mind completely, sometimes her opinion isn’t worth the drama but I like the honesty and sometimes she speaks some hard ugly truths among her idiocy.
She kind of lit the fuse that resulted in Kendrick Lamar’s “The Blacker the Berry”, which blew my mind. That song is so powerful. Even though she was just a tiny part of the impetus behind that song, I am glad it eventually came about.
What do you think about Mel Gibson? Just wondering since you support homophobes
You forgot to mention her anti-Black men and pro Middle-aged White men rants because according to her old White men have money and nice places whereas Black men don’t. As a teen she had a long term relationship with some old white man who showed her the good life. At least she’s honest about being a superficial materialistic woman who prefers dating a race and age group of men that can buy her things. Millionaire my foot. LOL.
Maybe she saved some of that money/gifts from her various “boyfriends”….I would.
Because publicly stating you want to f*ck the president is normal?
I think at this point she’s just trying to stay in the spotlight/relevant. She’s so belligerent that even when she does have a coherent, meaningful thing to say, it’s near impossible to take her seriously because all that comes to mind is how rude and ignorant she really is.
She’s a mess. 1 out of every 50 comments of hers is worthwhile, this one I’m going to focus on her comment about Pharell.
I like that she admitted that a lot of the ‘non-threatening new blacks’ have an attitude that if you simply work hard enough and smile big enough that riches will be showered on you. They ignore so many aspects of WHY they’re accepted and simply keep preaching that message insulting those who’ve worked just as hard and didn’t get that brass ring.
As for everything else…gurl…
I thought that was interesting too. It’s a very Booker T. type of argument in someways.
I was going to ask this upthread but I’ll ask it here: does she see herself as some sort of new styled Sista Soulja? I’ve honestly never listened to or read anything in-depth about AB. I just know that she has a feud going with the chick from Australia who raps for/with TI. (I’m old school hip-hop. I don’t really keep up.) Thanks.
I got nothing. She is whacked.
Nope she doesn’t get a pass- even if she is talented or had a hard life or whatever her issue is that people want to highlight. I see such a double standard. She is beyond hateful- just hateful. No excuse. If anyone else said the things she has said they would have lost their the jobs , been splashed all over every news outlet and everyone associated with it would have as well. And rightfully so. But yet here she is opening her mouth again. Nope! All set with her.
She comes off as somewhat Rihanna-esque.
I’m curious. In what way? I guess I could see it in the IDGAF attitude they both give off.. But that’s about it.
oh geez. why are you even giving this chick the time of day? She is the worst.
I had no idea who she was – I don’t listen to rap – but I feel like I need to have a bath after reading that. She exemplifies what I dislike about rap. Once an artist makes it big they all seem to develop the same schtick – angry, arrogant, profane, sleazy, rude. It was bad enough when it was just male rappers espousing the rap persona, but now it’s becoming the norm for many women and it means they’ve sunk to a place that cheapens them.
*shakes head and goes for more coffee*
You clearly don’t know much about rap if you think that’s all there is to it; it’s really not a fair judgment if you’re basing your opinions on mainstream nonsense and you obviously don’t realize there is a vast array of artists in the genre who exemplify nothing of the “angry, arrogant, profane, sleazy, rude” (not to mention, these are very easy to find in OTHER genres of music as well…but go ahead and throw only rap under that umbrella). That whole “rap persona”? Girl, please.
Jaded, have you ever heard of Common, J.Cole, Kendrick Lamar and Queen Latifah? Just to name a few. Please don’t make sweeping generalizations about a whole genre because of a few people that have shown themselves to be unsavory. There are angry, arrogant, profane, sleazy and rude people in all music genres.
Others have appropriately mentioned the flaws in your argument, I’ll just say what you dislike happens in artists of all genres not simply rap. Attaching it only to rap demeans the depth and wealth of the music while also whitewashing the inherent misogyny and sexism in all those country singers gleefully telling women to hop in their truck and shake it for them.
Furthermore that ‘shtick’ that Banks developed once she made it big? Uh no she’s always been like that. Loud, rude, opinionated, offensive and talented as hell. It isn’t something that appeared only when she became successful.
Finally I’ll just say female rappers have been similar to Banks for decades so there hasn’t been some new transformation where they’re acting like men, but you did say you don’t even listen to the music so maybe that’s where the confusion has come in.
I thought Azealia Banks was Iggy Azalea’s real name.
I remember reading ages ago that her earnings in 2013 alone were over a million dollars from touring etc, and this was AFTER she’d pissed everyone off. I guess she made more in the years when she had endorsements and more tours, but yes, she could plausibly be a millionaire – just about.
And she is talented, but needs help. I’m with people here who think she sounds manic.
How do you tour with one song?
She could stand to be a little less Kanye-ish but a lot of what she says is the truth. The part about Pharell is dead on. It’s frustrating to hear the “play nice and pull yourself up by the bootstraps” because it basically means that we as black people can flourish in society as long as we are on our best behavior at all times. No one should feel as if they have to walk on eggshells so as to not scare or offend other people, if they want to “make it”. I have my moments when Im so pro black that it borders on the line of being racist against white people cause I get tired of my husband getting pulled over on a almost weekly basis, or when my Post Partum nurse at the hospital I delivered my daughter at to be corrected multiple times when she kept referring to my Husband as my Boyfriend, or the look on my classmate’s face, who happens to be a Italian who immigrated here less than 10 years ago and has trouble with the English language, when I told her my Husband was working on his Masters in Education..she had the nerve to say how great it was that my Husband and I were successful despite being a young black couple. So when you have to encounter such ignorance and stereotypical attitudes and beliefs, it’s hard not to become jaded and hardened. So although I feel like she suffers from verbal diarrhea, I can identify with her anger and disposition.
Azalea Banks is plum out of her head a lot of the time, but she is the very definition of a stopped clock and I feel the pain, exhaustion and anger. She’s right about Pharell: Pharell Williams wanders lost. Common pulled some ‘New Black’ nonsense about ‘extending the glove of love’, but that means little if it’s met with a kick in the teeth, which it so often is. Wasn’t it about a fortnight after his ‘love is all you need’ session that his amiableness was forgotten by ‘the good people’ who said that he is to blame for white kids using the n-word, that he is a dangerous subversive who should be all but hanged for sedition and that he’s contributing to the downfall of the nation because of his song about Assata Shakur? Yes? ‘Glory’ be.