Iggy Azalea has always said that her rap voice is “ironic and cool“ because it’s nothing like her speaking voice. She doesn’t understand why that upsets a lot of hip hop fans and artists; those cultural appropriation claims are not coming out of nowhere. Iggy’s not budging from her opinion. She refuses to listen to anyone’s criticism, but she keeps tweeting about it and sounds dismissive and rude. Iggy truly feels that people criticize her rapping only because she’s female. She’s not interested in any other possibility.
Another critical pile-on went down. You can read about it at The Root. The complaints concern Iggy’s fake rapping accent – because she’s clearly not using her Australian accent to rap. Iggy popped off again:
(1) There’s a difference between being yourself and being your stereotype. When people I’ve never met say I should act more like “myself”
(2) I feel like they’re really saying “act more like how I sterotype you to be, so I can feel comfortable”
(3) I’m myself as strange as I may be, daily. I think it’s really important we all feel free to explore or feel passionate about whatever u wish
(4) And I hope all my young fans take what I’m saying and remember it if you ever find yourself in similar shoes.
(5) Be as complex and multidimensional and interesting as you possibly can.
[From Iggy Azalea on Twitter]
Iggy demands to not be stereotyped, yet she uses a stereotypical accent when she raps. And she’s made so many stereotypical statements during her history of racist tweets. She’ll never understand, right?
Things are only going to get worse with the Grammys approaching. Iggy won this past year’s AMA and PCA awards for hip hop. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Grammys rewarded her too. If that happens, there will be Twitter wars all over the place. Nicki Minaj will toss a ton of shade. Azalea Banks will implode. Yes, it will be a righteous mess.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
She is such a child. I’m just gonna leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IosP8iSnwNk
She’s just as manufactured as Katy Perry and whoever else. You’re not fooling anybody, Iggy.
Terrible Britney rip off,lol what happened to her accent then.
A petulant self entitled child. Eve and Jill Scott called her accent; blaccent. Most cutting, polite shade it was.
Even as an Australian, I’d never heard of her until about a year ago, and still haven’t listened to any of her stuff. I’m not sure I want to. I hate the fake American accents that certain Aussie singers adopt. Case in point: Lee Kernoghan. He’s an Australian country singer who constantly praises himself as being a proud and truly Australian artist, yet always sings with an American accent. Then we have The Hilltop Hoods – not sure if anyone outside Australia has heard of them – , a rap/hip hop crew, who always proudly perform with Australian accents. I’m an oldie, and think they’re fantastic, but I wonder how they’d fare in America with Aussie accents in this genre?
PS:
“Blaccent”… Perfection. As if I’m not going to steal that…
Oh, honey. Nooo.
Sometimes I wonder where all the PR people are. They’re undervalued. Hire one. And then read a book.
THIS. Read a book or take a class. Otherwise, just keep your ignorant mouth shut so people can’t tell how uneducated you really are.
She just doesn’t get it and never will.
Her willful ignorance use to enrage me. Now, I think she’s just stupid and feel nothing.
She’s already a stereotype: the entitled, over privileged, racist white woman.
She didn’t have any issue with hash tagging #stereotypes in a tweet discussing black men being arrested outside a Popeyes tho 😒
YES i forgot about that stupid Popeye’s tweet, she’s such a joke.
That is exactly what she is: the entitled, over privileged, racist white woman.
+1,9999999
Iggy…STOP TALKING.
I don’t understand why she refuses to listen to criticism instead of dismissing everyone as #haters. Jill Scott was super respectful in her opinion and all Iggy grasped was “being stereotyped”? girl, bye!
Like a lot of racist, when the criticism(respectful or otherwise) comes from a black person all the racist sees is a hysterical, overly sensitive subhuman, that is trying to infringe on their God given rights. But let the same criticism (word-for-word) come from a white person, all of a sudden the racist can sort of process what they are saying and may actually give some thought to their actions.
Also the fact that she has these idiots like T.I. coming to her defense every time makes her feel like she can’t be racist because she has black dudes caping for her and backing her up.
Exactly this. I also think her refusing to respond to any respectable people from the music genre she supposedly loves also speaks to how much she actually thinks of it.
She thinks her lame rapping is the end all be all. She doesn’t want to hear from other truly amazing people who have had longer careers than her because she doesn’t respect (and likely understand) them or their contribution to the hip-hop/soul/R’n’B genre.
Like you said it doesn’t help that TI is running around after her whenever someone speaks up on her issues.
She’s dumb. And doesn’t know what the word “stereotype” means, clearly.
She should ask us to stop asking her to be herself, rather that stepping into a stereotype.
IDIOT.
I just read about her complaining about a “disgusting” Steve Madden shoot.
Why don’t you people leave her alone? Stop picking on her. Poor Iggy
HaHaHa
– Is a white chick from Australia.
– Uses fake black American southern accent to rap.
– Gets fat injections in her butt & thighs to resemble the physical traits of a black woman.
– Makes racist tweets
– Gets upset & throws tantrums when folks call her out about her insulting fraudulence.
Smh. That “privilege” is somethin else…
Only black people can have fat arses…?!
Ever heard of a pear shaped woman? Iggy has very small breasts, a tiny waist and a big lower half (even her calves/ankles) – she is a pear shape which occurs in nature. Blame nature?
Yes, because white women are known to physically have hips, thick thighs, and plump asses. *rolls eyes*
Girl, bye.
Emily, while there are white woman with big arses and hips, Iggy’s are as fake as Nikki’s. Yes, she brought hers.
Lol, Emily.
Iggy’s body is manufactured. So is Nicki’s. If Iggy’s Britney Spears act had worked out for her I’m guessing she’d later call those body types gross. So I believe shade is absolutely acceptable here.
Of course not. But when someone raps with an accent that clearly isn’t part of his/her culture/roots, is known to have black boyfriends and injects her butt (before and after pics) to achieve a look that is generally appreciated in black culture it may seem like this person is trying very hard to imitate traditional black physical traits. In my experience, if something comes naturally to someone it shows.
Also, responding any critisizm with people “being haters/because I’m a woman” is not a good way to be taken seriousely. Who dat, who dat?
I’m sorry, but how is desiring to look like someone of another race racist? Stupid, yes. But racist? No.
LOL let’s ignore Nicki’s ridiculous plastic surgery to give her an inhuman giant ass and tits. She’s black so it’s fine and is coz she wanted it. Iggy did it to be racist.
So are you all going to take Paul McCartney to task for not singing in his British accent? People don’t sing like they talk…it’s not a new phenomenon she came up with. Pop Muisc is performance and shouldn’t be seen as any different than a movie or a play. Seriously, you guys are way to bent out of shape over Iggy’s domination of the genre. Kinda like when Eminem hit the scene and blew it open…music is the universal language. It has no color or creed. It belongs to everyone.
I hope you have the good grace to be embarrassed by the fact that you just compared Iggy Azalea and Paul McCartney.
Most British people that have been famous and sing you can’t even hear a accent.It’s not like they do it on purpose.
Paul McCartney called and he wants his name removed from this thread immediately.
What Petee said. The difference is that with British people it’s not intentional, they’re not trying to mimic an American accent.
Iggy’s imitation over the top, but generally speaking it’s not just a British thing, Australian singers all have that generic accent too. The only English-speaking singers where I can reliably pick their country are the Canadians (and it’s only a couple of words).
And, honestly, rapping with an Aussie accent sounds stupid (I’m Australian, so I should be used to the accent.) There was one Aussie group (I’m not big rap, so can’t remember who), whose songs used to drive me insane because the spoken word sections were heavily strine (think Steve Irwin) and the sung sections were in the generic accent. Just didn’t mix right at all.
LOL I almost threw up in my mouth having those two in the same sentence.
Lucrezia – “The only English-speaking singers where I can reliably pick their country are the Canadians (and it’s only a couple of words).” Wait, what?
What words, haha. I can see if we were speaking – some people from even just parts of my own province, NS, have varying ‘accents’, and those from Newfound Land, and maybe Ontario also have noticeable differences in their speech, but most of the country doesn’t have some sort of profound difference- especially when singing. My job is based in NS, but it’s a branch of a large US company – when I speak with clients over the phone, I’ve had numerous people say “wait – you’re in Nova Scotia – but you sound just like us!” which makes me laugh every time. I’ve even had the odd client go as far to say “But you didn’t grow up there, did you?”. I personally sound no different from most people who you’d say don’t have an accent living in the US, if that makes sense. I don’t have the Boston or New York typical dialects, or the Southern drawl. I guess it’s a non-descript kind of well enunciated speaking for the most part. I’m sure there’s words that do have a bit of a weird sound when I say them, but I’d say they’re very few and far between.
Erinn – I agree it’s totally weird that I can pick Canadian singers, when it’s not a particularly heavy accent to start with. (Compared to, say, an Irish or Scottish singer, where the speaking accent is often so thick I can barely understand what they’re saying in an interview.) But there’s just something – a slight twang or something? It’s not even a stereotypical accent (i.e., not like they’re all singing “this song is a-boot mounties”). It’s just enough that I go, “there’s a hint of a cute accent there” … and it always turns out to be Canadian.
That’s no fun for whingers though who want to complain so people know they exist
First of all – whiners, no g.
Second of all much like Iggy you’re not even formulating actual responses to people’s legitimate criticisms.
Just denouncing them as ‘haters’.
If I took a guess at your skin tone and fave rap artist how correct would I be?
“Whingers” is British/Australian term for “whiners”.
i learned this from Harry Potter!
Little Whinging, Surrey. i belatedly learned the clever wordplay.
I stand corrected, lol.
You’re right about whingers Sarah.
@Sarah: Both Eminem and Macklemore (2 of the only prominent white rappers I can think of at the moment) worked for years and developed a distinctive sound that was all their own, and also BOTH acknowledge the privilege their white skin has given the in the larger music industry (a fact that Iggy stubbornly refuses to acknowledge). Iggy isn’t singing accentless like many British or European singers do – she essentially heard the Southern rap accent, thought to herself “that sounds cute, I’m going to do it!” and ignored every ounce of context.
Again and again, people have brought a valid point to Iggy and she’s looked for every excuse in the book to ignore it. It doesn’t matter how it’s worded.
And I’ve gotta point out, if your biggest argument is “people are just jealous” or “people just need something to whine about” I’d suggest bowing out of the conversation entirely, because you’re bringing a ping pong paddle to a knife fight.
It’s not because Iggy is white. It’s because she is manufactured. Eminem lived the life that he was/is rapping about. He wasn’t creating an image, he was being himself.
The image that she portrays is contrived. Which appears disingenuous and rude. Especially when she refuses to acknowledge any type of struggle that goes along with the culture that she is appropriating. There’s a difference in saying “this is my inspiration” and “this is just who I am.”
She has often discussed the struggles she faced – you just aren’t listening? She essentially ran away from home at 16 to chase her dreams. Her song Work is about her early struggles getting into rap.
It WOULD be disingenuous for her to go on and on about it when her main struggles are now behind her.
@Sarah
So the struggle to make her music career is why she decided to mimic the accent of Southern black rappers?
Hmm. So when she was making those ignorant comments about black men and lesbian women that was her doing what? Mocking pther’s struggle?
@Sarah: Her ‘basically’ running away from home doesn’t excuse her bad choices.
But Eminem actually had talent…
Haha how is that relevant though? Katy Perry has no talent and the only talent we’ve seen from Azealia Banks is fighting people on the Internet. Talent is not important in the music business. She’s popular and people want to bring her down. Live and let live!
@Sarah I’m curious about what you think about the hypersexualization of Black children by non-Black people, an example of which can be seen in Iggy Azealia’s early videos titled “pu $$ y” . The featured young Black boy is seen riding a wooden horse as she raps (for lack of a better term) about her sexual prowess. Considering the noted history of hypersexualization being used as a tool by White racists to further dehumanize Black women, men, and children, perhaps you can provide some insight or elaborate on what the intent or thought process creating and releasing that (without the approval of her label initially) might have been. Thoughts?
@mina. Sarah won’t have any thoughts because she can’t see anthing past her own skin color. She’s probaly the same type of person who pouts and stomps her foot because she can’t say the n- word when the “blacks” use it all the time. Her only argument is to “whinge” about unfairness of white not being able the same thing black people do.
You really can’t compare singing to rapping. The elongation of words while singing is why an accent can get lost. Rapping is speaking. Accent stays true.
Ah poor Iggy.
Man this ‘Runaway Slave Master’ is really struggling.
Btw for those saying, “Lots of people don’t sing with their accents”
When you sing your mouth forms the words and gives the sharp impression of what we consider to be an ‘English’ accent. When you speak however you speak the words with your natural accent because now your mouth is forming the words as you’ve grown up doing so.
It’s why Ed Sheeran sounds (and loads of other people) sound American when he sings and then when he does spoken verse you can hear his accent more clearly. The quicker the words flow the less you hear an accent. So no, Igloo Australia has no legs to stand on.
Her attempt at an accent is a deliberate play on what she thinks rappers should sound like which is a play on black southern rappers. Even Aussie rappers are taking her to task for inventing this persona and how much they’d hate it if someone came and Did the same thing with them.
I try not to bother with her anymore. She doesn’t seem like someone who’ll have a long and succesful career, and she actually knows that. So I’m just like, okay, let her be as annoying as she wants. 3 years from now we’ll just have a bigger laugh when we see this bish in “wtf happened to her career?!” specials on E!
re accents: i remember Adele getting some flack for being very thickly-accented in her songs. that’s staying true to herself. Iggy’s accent imho is not, i don’t think.
But it’s OK for her to make stereotype jokes about us coloreds right? How dare we stereotype this precious girl by pointing out her stereotypical accent and racist tweets. Shame on us haters. Don’t worry Iggy, I have white people in my family so I can post all the stereotypical white jokes I want.
Okay, so we should all feel free to yell “shrimp on the barbie” at Igloo Australia, righ t? And call her mate every five seconds? And do it all in a bad Australian accent. Because we’re just being ourselves.
Sit down, Iggy.
Lol Igloo Australia, I luff it.
You’re AUSTRALIAN-be Australian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thnaks, Tropic Thunder. I have been waiting for this for a long time.
I love the irony in everyone saying Iggy is racist for co-opting “black music”. You do realize that for decades now the largest consumer group for rap music is whites, right? And you do realize it’s a racist stereotype to say rap and rap culture somehow equals “black” or “black culture”? Right?! An are you really that naive that you think pop music (including rap here) isn’t a product? The artists’ persona, the songs, the image, the publicity…it’s all a crafted image. It’s a product that a lot of money and effort goes into. For all of them! Open your eyes people.
Yes and it’s interesting how even though white people are the largest consumer of rap music, it’s always the black folks that get blamed for rap music being misogynistic and glamorizing violence, and that right there is why people have a huge problem with Iggy.
She reaps all the benefits without having the actual responsibility and without paying any dues. She gets the glamour and the accolades, none of the onus, and that’s the essence of privilege.
+1 kitten dressed in a Revolutionary War costume
I’m about to get all Paul Revere on your ass, mimif.
You’re proving my point, black people aren’t blamed for the violent mysoginystic message, rap music is. But you equate “rap” with “black”. Eminem has gotten quite a bit of heat over his violent mysogynistic lyrics over the years while Jay-Z is pretty much given a pass. And as for mysogyny, how is that relevant to Iggy? Shes a woman an therefore a victim of it. Where’s the privilege?
Yup, and yet for the same amount of decades rap music was looked at as something white kids only liked to ‘rebel’ and not given equal respect and presentation. Rappers are constantly accused of misogyny while genres like country can sing about their women getting in their truck with no criticism.
Rap and rap culture doesn’t equal black and black culture but it does make up a part of its history. Much the same way many dances done today have a history in the rhythm dances from Africa and Jamaica. That’s not racism btw, maybe we could first learn the definition before trying to spin into a tizzy to defend
She’s not rap. She’s a hybrid of rap. She rap-lite/pop star, nothing more.
What is going on with her hand in that last photo? Lobster claw craziness!
Meh. I’m on the fence when it comes to cultural appropriation. My hair dreads up naturally, I just got tired of paddling it down for a couple of hours every night and let it do it’s thing. I’m not trying to take anyone’s culture away, I’m just tired of spending two hours in pain every night. Keith Urban is Australian, and he sings with a Southern accent. I don’t care. I agree these dialogues need to happen, but I disagree with assuming someone is wrong because they prefer something different than what they “are supposed to be.” It’s like telling an African-American, “You’re acting white.” We act how we act, we let our hair be how we want it … I just don’t see the bfd.
Well said
oh please, she is a singer (or whatever she calls herself). She can make her music in whatever style she likes. Just because other people have a problem with her being white and copying US rappers/hip hop whatever doesn´t mean she has to hear it and “know her place”.
That “know your place” stuff is the biggest bs i´ve ever heard. NO ONE HAS TO KNOW HIS PLACE. We are free to do what we want, we are free to change out lives. We can choose who we want to be!
SOOO TRUE
Is it that Blacks in the US cannot wear Punk clothes or skateboard because they didn’t create that scene? I cant understand these rules. I’m not from the US I don’t mean to offend
But they did/were and are a large part of that scene too. Um… Ever heard of BAD BRAINS and the DEAD KENNEDYS? I guess I just don’t understand your point here.
@ Amy, Ed Sheeran sounds 100% British when he sings–his accent is very clear. Listen again.
I liked Iggy for about a minute when she first got popular but she got old fast, for me anyway.
Oh Iggy, you made yourself in to a sterotype.
I see a few comments defending Iggy and to that all I have to say is NOPE!! I just read her tweets via the link provided in this article and I can’t believe how incredibly stupid she is. Her tweets are so outrageously ignorant and dumb that its hard to believe her twitter account is real and not satirical. Maybe its just that she is young, but this is obviously a white woman trying to “play black” because she thinks it makes her cool, and that is unacceptable. I’m pretty sure her fan base is largely children who listen to whatever is popular and on the radio anyway so she won’t be around in a decade, but they need to chill out with giving her awards like she is doing anything special or exhibiting any true talent.