Rapper Azealia Banks is stunning as she lays on the chest of electronic dance music super producer Diplo on the cover of this month’s Vibe magazine. While her music has garnered her the attention of music fans across the world, it’s her mouth that has the spotlight here in America.
When asked whether she felt her buzz in America was built more on controversy than her music, the 21-year-old MC couldn’t disagree.
“Of course, because Americans are distracted by sh*t like that,” she says. “It’s like, ‘listen, T.I., if I was a f*cking boy you wouldn’t say anything to me.’ But when I’m a girl and I say something back, the media wants to turn it into all these different things. Rappers beef all the time. I said what I said about [Iggy Azalea] and kept it moving. Then a month later you said what you said. And it keeps coming up. Leave it alone. I didn’t say she couldn’t rap. I said something very real. Out of everything, she had to [call herself] ‘a runaway slave master’? C’mon, that’s not swag. That’s not fly s**t.”
While there are some who love Banks’ take-no-prisoners attitude, there are some who question her intentions behind calling out artists via social networks such as Twitter. Female hip-hop pioneer Lil Kim became her most famous target after Kim declined to make a song with her.
“That’s what we did, and that s–t is over. Yo, listen, [Lil’ Kim], this black cloud you got over you—don’t try to push that over me. You can keep that, because as soon as I released ‘Jumanji’ is as soon everybody forgot about you. I have my hand on the dial; I can control how hot and cold you are right now. So I’m not even going to give it to you. I tried to make a legitimate track with you, tried to collaborate. I was bigging her up and she keeps throwing it back in my face. I tried.”
Her feuds with rappers such as Lil Kim, Kreayshawn, and Jim Jones aren’t the only controversy the newcomer to the American scene has stirred up. According to the Huffington Post, Bank’s August cover of British fashion magazine Dazed & Confused has been banned in 7 different countries.
The yet-to-be seen cover features Banks posing with an inflated bright pink condom between her lips like a cigar with the headline “Azealia Banks Blows Up.”
