Break The Bank
Her foul-mouthed rhymes and fearless attitude make Nicki Minaj look like Taylor Swift, so it’s no surprise that in a few short months, she’s wrapped every discerning music blogger around her little finger. Celina Murphy gets an earful of Azealia Banks.
Celina Murphy, 11 Nov 2011
A chat with 20 year-old Harlemite Azealia Banks is not like a conversation you’ll have with any other artist. The game-changing, ass-kicking singer and rapper speaks with zero reservation, and with no concern for how bonkers she sounds. she’s an interviewer’s dream, a walking soundbite.
Of course, I was expecting to be impressed by Ms. Banks’ outlandish quick wit. I have, after all, heard ‘212’ the very, very pottymouthed electro hop number that countless bloggers have already dubbed their track of the year, on which she repeatedly snarls, 'I’m-a ruin you, cunt!'
“I’m insane,” Banks bawls, with all the certainly of someone saying, “I’m hungry” or “I’m left-handed”. “I’m fucking insane. I’m fucking insane. The music industry has fucking made me insane. It’s made me insane but it’s made me a really good crazy and it’s made me a really strong animal. A lot of people who fucked with me don’t know what they’ve created. There’s a monster inside of me right now and that monster is ready to tear shit up over the next couple of years.”
As you may have gathered, Banks is well aware that the life of a music industry bootlicker is not for her. Three years of dealing with managers, lawyers and record label execs has been enough to leave an unsavoury taste in the New Yorker’s mouth.
What does work for Banks, however, is downloads, viral videos and word-of-mouth. Any muso worth their salt is bigging her up online right now, although it’s worth noting that most of the attention has come from this side of the pond.
“I feel like shit’s gonna pick up here in the US,” she hums, “but Americans just aren’t as forward-thinking as the rest of the world. American culture is just like, rigid and really stale and really stupid. It’s just fucking stupid. Bleugh. Americans like to have everything done for them. They want to have it put on a plate, they want to have it cut up, salted and fed to them.”
The girl’s got a point. While many listeners have drawn comparisons to Peaches, Amanda Blank and the ever-controversial MIA, the American press seem to have written Banks off as a Nicki Minaj soundalike.
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