Azealia Banks (Vevo Facebook)
After Azealia Banks’ alleged dust-up with actor Russell Crowe made headlines Monday, the rapper is speaking out about what really happened.
Initially, Banks said on Facebook that Crowe “called me n—–, choked me, threw me out and spat on me” at his party in suite 117 of the Beverly Hills hotel.
Witnesses at the actor’s party disputed her story, however. They told TMZ she threatened to stab attendees in the throat with glass. Then, Crowe was forced to wrap her in a bear hug and physically remove Banks.
The rapper promised to provide evidence of her story, and in a new interview with UK’s The Sun, she’s telling all. Banks said Crowe drank a variety of alcoholic beverages and began smoking.
“Moonshine, whisky, vodka, and smoking cigarettes and smoking weed,” she said. “Russell and I get next to each other. He’s talking to me, I’m talking to him, and we start flirting. We’re having a really good time. He’s got his knee on my knee, he’s touching my leg.”
Banks also played him her music, and that’s when he tweeted her video for “The Big Beat.” He later deleted it.
Next, a woman approached, whom Banks believed was Crowe’s girlfriend. She told Banks Crowe found her attractive, but Banks backed away from the compliment.
Then, Banks made fun of a hopeful horror filmmaker. It is unclear if this is when she deemed the guests “boring white men,” as TMZ originally reported.
After that, Banks said, “Russell just kind of switched. He was like, ‘Well you know what? You’re young and you’ve never done anything in your career so you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ ”
Rather than becoming upset, Banks tried to joke back, replying, “Your best days are behind you.”
When a woman approached to take up for the Australian actor, Banks said she gave the following response. It is somewhat different from what witnesses originally reported.
“Girl, this is not the right time or place for us to be fighting, like what would happen if I got up and I slapped the s— out of you, or I took a glass and f—— threw it at you and you were bleeding all over the place? I would be wrong and we’d all be wrong, and the party would be done.”
After that, the rapper said Crowe hurled a racial slur at her under his breath before whisking her out of the suite.
“Russell turns to me and he goes, ‘Well, you wouldn’t even get close enough to get the chance, n—–,’ ” Banks told the tabloid. “Then [he] grabs me, picks me up, he chokes me by the throat, picks me up, throws me out of the room and then spits on me.”
Crowe dismissed Banks’ story that maintains her Quentin Tarantino-referencing threat.
“You would love it if I broke my glass, stabbed you guys in the throat, and blood would squirt everywhere like some real Tarantino s—,” a witness reported Banks as saying.
“Azealia’s behavior that night was abrasive, shocking, rude, offensive, abusive and erratic,” an insider told The Sun. “She used the N-word repeatedly and hurled that insult at others repeatedly. Russell never used that word.”
Currently, Beverly Hills police are investigating both claims by Crowe and Banks and contacting them for interviews.
“I think he’s a racist, misogynist pig,” Banks said of the altercation. “This is a stain on me. My femininity feels stained. I feel stained as a woman, I feel mishandled, I feel mistreated, I feel dirty. I feel very f—— low.”
