I had the pleasure of being acquainted with some cool folks during my former days in H-Town. One was a very popular local photographer and DJ who went by the alias of Third World TV. Dude had a fantastic ear for sound and made more than his fair share of dope beats. In fact, before I made my trek back to Los Angeles several years back, he left me with a handful of instrumentals as a going away present. To this day, that’s one of the best mementos received from a friend. Plus, that shit still knocks. Hanging around him and attending a few of his shows, eventually became fans of Machinedrum and Lone. For those out of the loop, Machinedrum is a North Carolina native who has made some of the best experimental electronic music (not EDM) this past decade. Those willing to expand their musical pallet should check out the jaw-dropping Rooms and Vapor City (which featured a really cool marketing campaign). The same could be said for Lone’s albums ranging from Galaxy Garden and last year’s Reality Testing. I’m not going to lie, I was sort-of late to Azealia Banks’ “212” bandwagon. However, her music peaked my curiosity when I heard the Harlem rapper/singer do her thing on Machinedrum’s “SXLND” for “NeedSumLuv.” Journalists, peers and everyone in-between have felt the wrath of Banks at one point. Most importantly, the Twitter beefs and controversies made her an exciting shit starter. By the time she dropped her debut mixtape Fantasea and Interscope-backed EP 1991, interest turned into light anticipation.
Let’s be honest, Banks is a tough sell. Especially, in today’s urban market that has strict rules for what defines R&B and rap. Her particular brand of House/Electronica influenced music just doesn’t hold much clout in terms of musical palette. Most of 1991 was produced by Machinedrum and Lone outside of the Lazy Jay produced “212.” I’ve had the pleasure of seeing phenomenal sets from both producers and they’re pretty lit. Unfortunately, they’ve also come with the “few black men in the room” syndrome. This essentially makes her grievances against mainstream Hip Hop press and black media almost natural in terms of music taste. She’s an obscure artist whose mouthiness makes her likability difficult. Simply put, Banks is one walking contradiction. Watching talking heads, media, fans and everyone in-between react to her has been nothing short of fascinating from all angles. It’s flat out entertaining and mind-blowing in that reality television show surprise revelation kind-of way. The reason? Like many 20-somethings occupying the “next popular hashtag” social media realm today, her ideologies are widely all over the place.
Who doesn’t remember Perez Hilton and others within the LGBT community dubbing Banks homophobic despite being openly bi-sexual herself? Last year’s Hot 97 interview following the release of her often delayed and eventually independently released Broke With Expensive Taste opened up serious dialog about cultural appreciation in Hip Hop. Fast forward to last weekend, she’s blasting Hip Hop and black press for never showing her love, which, is debatable. Turning her back on that segment of the media, she essentially praised “white” publications before raising her flag as a proud black women days later. The flip between black feminist warrior and damaged victim is jarring and strangely enough, grounded in reality. These types of opposing attitudes aren’t new. There are people who find Kendrick Lamar’s black-on-black crime stance on “The Blacker The Berry” troubling regardless of how aggressively well meaning the Compton emcee sounded. A few years ago during the 2012 campaign for U.S. President, Lupe Fiasco and Roland Martin had a twitter spat over voting. These are the staunch racial views that are prevalent today and understandable if one looks beneath the surface. Blackness is just that damn hard to contextualize sometimes. Just to think, she openly opposed dating black men due to their “lack of appreciation” but, stood in support of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. It’s honestly no different than Donald Trump’s various disparaging comments regarding African Americans yet, actively going after their vote and some-what succeeding. The difference is that Banks comes from an honest and thoroughly asinine place while Trump sounds like an opportunists. In Bank’s case, she’s split between her inner Ben Carson and Angela Davis. When it comes to Hip Hop, inconsistency can be a human badge of honor.
That level of spectacle is relative to her musical output as well. Banks burned a lot of bridges before leaving Interscope. Losing powerhouse producers including Diplo, Pharrell and others should have put a cap on her musical output. Industry politics should have wiped her out completely. Regardless, Broke With Expensive Taste managed to become one of the most talked about albums of 2014 and still sets at a 77 percent Metacritic score without selling much. It was disappointing for Machinedrum and Lone to have a handful of beats hit the project though, hearing Banks tackle beats from Lil Internet and M. J. Cole came as a pleasant surprise. For someone dubbed a one hit wonder (another debatable claim considering “212” never charting well within the U.S.), Banks continues to have successful tour runs both domestically and internationally. Backed by well-known Los Angeles collective 1500 or Nothin, her recent performances could be some of the best this year. Ironically, a show some months back in Downtown LA’s Club Nokia featured an opening set by Zoe Kravitz fronted punk band Lola Wolf. Banks may never enjoy the potential of crossover success she had a few years ago but, that doesn’t mean she going to find herself irrelevant anytime soon. That is, unless she loses favor for making universally panned music.
A cunt from the whiney cunt generation…. No more. No less.
Is she still a thing
I loved 212 when it dropped and was intrigued with her. Then I started reading her Twitter feed. Damn. What a fucking piece of shit! She starts beefing with peoples I like, Action Bronson. She comes off as petty, vengeful and holds grudges. She blocked me on Twitter because I noted that record was selling like Kreayshawn the first week. Boo-hoo.
Anyhoo, I deleted her shit off my iTunes and whenever I see her name I just shake my head. Bitch ruined her career all by herself and I enjoy watching her crash and burn from the sidelines. Positive thing is she can’t release music for a year or so. She’s washed.
I liked that one song, 212. Made me think she might be something. But she being a super racist has really put me off.
Very interesting read. Banks is a good artist despite the opinions of most HipHopDX’s readers. Her music is fun and has a lot of replay value, she’s a pretty good lyricist, she touches on different subjects, I appreciate the originality of her sound and her Twitter antics keep her in the consciousness without music. I don’t always agree with what she says, but I always appreciate her realness, and many of her problems with the industry, as well as with African-American men, cultural appropriation, and how hip hop treats Black women are grounded in reality. To get some background on her is pretty tight, especially when all you get outside of her Twitter is people calling her, as one HipHopDX reader put it, “a cunt from the whiney cunt generation.” Looking forward to some new music from her. You got to work on these typos though Ural. You’re a great writer, but you guys have to address the unprofessionalism on the site.
Thoughts from a DX fan. Peace & Love
@markl180, I agree with everything you said 100%! So glad that someone on this site has some sense and actually knows and can appreciate GOOD music when they hear it amongst all this straight up BS that get’s played continuously on the radio. I feel bad for the “millennials” because most of you have NO IDEA what real music is, hip hop or otherwise, so when I read the ignorant responses to some of the articles on this site (and others) regarding the artists/music of today all I can do is smdh. This is why hip hop has gone to hell in a hand basket…nowadays BS junk music is praised while the REAL artist’s get treated crazy and have to fight to remain relevant in a sea of foolishness. In closing, Azealia Banks had the best album of 2014 hands down!! Sorry millennials but you have got to do better with your taste in music because you look like fools. Peace.
This is well thought out, especially considering many of the comments that I’ve read come across this site. All of the points you made about her are pretty much true and I guess she sticks to her own. Last year I started getting into her music for a short while until I started reading some of her comments and it didn’t seem as attention grabbing as it did downright ignorant. I’m not of the mindset that ignorance is tolerable or should be celebrated and just because she’s an “artist” people dissect her comments differently, like they’re somehow deeper. If she didn’t do music she would be just another ignorant person with misplaced views and happy to be that way and I think we have enough of those people as it is and don’t need to reinforce them further.. Let’s celebrate passionate artists that strive through their music and their actions to make an impact..
I think ppl white and black get so caught up in trying to identify every black person as one individual that it makes it more difficult to understand than it needs to be, so I’ll do one better and split us into 2-3 groups.
1. There are the ignorant impoverished black ppl that only understand yelling, violence, and ignorance
2. There’s the black ppl that either grew up in or lived in the hood, but are no longer there.
3. Then there’s the black ppl who have experienced poverty much less the hood and don’t identify with “black” culture because they’re told they act “white”(they don’t act white they’re just rational/not ignorant).
So what happens is instead of ppl distinguishing the group that intend a message for, they just lump everybody into one category and it comes out looking ridiculous or confusing. For ex. Azalea says she doesn’t date black men because of blah blah blah ( I didn’t know that, I’m just repeating what the article said, she’s ugly anyway) but instead of saying she doesn’t date ghetto, gangster black men, but would consider an educated brother, she just lumps every black man into one category and says she doesn’t date black men at all knowing full well that not every black men is ignorant. The same can be said for black lives matter, Donald trump, etc. Not every black person thinks we need to be protesting trap niqqas being shot by cops and success driven ppl (black n white) tend to support Trump’s get off your ass and make yourself into something rhetoric, and so on and so forth. Stop thinking everybody agrees with your opinion, stop watching CNN/fox news, and stop lumping all black ppl into one category and it won’t seem so confusing when someone is trying to make a point or get a message through
Is she an artist? I thought she was just a twitter troll, she does that the best. She should stick to twitter trolling.
Wow, an article tolerating this nonsense bitch and another one trashing Macklemore like “fuck this annoying man.”
*Banks’
If a surname ends in S then the apostrophe goes after the S
Cant get into her music but I love this chick. I don’t know why but I do.
How is this chick any less annoying than Macklemore?
This site has gone to pure shit.
but atleast macklemore has had success at one point, all this girl does is trash on people. i agree this site is going downhill if its not already at the bottom of the hill
Eminem should join the band wagon of nascisists too …highly vulgar deregotory insensitive n instigator of violence sexism to a point of racism with his music