AZEALIA BANKS
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The cover art for Beyoncé‘s upcoming album Cowboy Carter has stirred up some interesting discussions, most recently and notably from Harlem rapper Azealia Banks. The opinionated MC took to Instagram Stories on Tuesday to give us all a little lesson in cultural criticism.
First, Banks takes aim at the album’s title, writing, “Wow we didn’t even try to put even a little effort into a more artistic title?” Now, to be fair, we don’t know what Beyonce‘s thinking is as it pertains to the title. Some fans believe it’s a play on words. Obviously, Carter is her last name through marriage to rapper/businessman Sean Carter, aka Jay-Z, but it’s also the last name of the family widely seen as the first family of country music. It could be anything or nothing at all. The only person who knows is Cowboy Carter herself.
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Banks then takes issue with the cover’s overall aesthetic, asking, “how u switch from baobab trees and black parade to this literal pick me stuff,” referring to the Grammy Award-winning single from The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack Beyoncé executive produced back in 2019. It seems all the Americana imagery is too on the nose for Banks and misses the mark, as she accuses Beyonce of being in “white woman cosplay” and “reinforcing the false rhetoric that country music is a post civil war white art form. And subsequently reinforcing the idea that there is no racism, segregation, slavery, violence, theft, massacres, plagues, manifest destiny craziness that form the bedrock of epithets like ‘proud to be an American,’ or ‘god bless the usa.’”
As if that weren’t enough, Banks also brought up the 2016 CMA Awards performance Beyoncé did with The Chicks (then called The Dixie Chicks), writing, “u do lame stuff like bring out some black listed white women (Dixie Chicks) at the country music awards and they would never ever do the same for you.”
It’s all…a lot. You can check out all of what she wrote below. But it’s interesting to see Banks read so much into the album title and cover when Beyoncé herself took to Instagram on Tuesday to explain to fans why she decided to make Cowboy Carter.
Beyoncé didn’t mention the 2016 CMA Awards specifically, but she did write that the album “was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed.” And while Banks believes Beyoncé is unaware of the genre’s history, Bey explained that after the experience of not feeling welcomed she did “a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive.” Similar to 2022’s Renaissance, on which she worked to reclaim Dance music, many feel she will be doing the same with country on this project. But hey, like she said in her IG post, “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
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Source: Lexie Moreland / Getty
Just when we thought female Rap beef couldn’t get more petty here comes Azealia Banks. She says Nicki Minaj is broke.
As spotted on XXL, the Harlem, New York, native has decided to give her two cents on Nicki’s recent behavior. On Thursday (Feb. 1), Banks took to Instagram Live with some observations about her financial status and physique. “It’s pretty clear that Nicki’s f**ked up, like she’s f**ked up financially, you know?” she asked rhetorically.
“I realized it when she was f**king frying the can of creamed corn in the Teflon pan. I was just like, ‘What in the welfare is happening right now? This is insane.’ And, whatever, I’ve probably like made some crazy looking s**t on here, but I’m also not going around trying to menace other artists and call them broke and tell them to pay rent and all that other s**t like that,” Banks said.
Banks went on to speculate that Onika has fallen victim to some bad cosmetic surgery, specifically to her derrière. “Because there’s something very f**king wrong with the butt, and I don’t know what it is but I do know that the surgery to get that s**t out of there is a pretty penny. It’s not like a boob reduction or like switching out for a new pair of bags” she explained.
“It’s not like a Rhinoplasty. No, it’s like, I know that procedure, just considering, ew. Like, you know how many just f**king little pockets of just migrated stuff there probably is?” the Anna Wintour artist said. “Yeah, that’s a very tedious thing and it’s also a very risky procedure that she can’t afford to have right now.”
This is not the first time Azealia Banks has been critical of Nicki Minaj. In the past, she has claimed the “Big Foot” MC needed to “slim down a bit” and decrease her butt size.” In 2017, she shared screenshots of a text she sent Nicki apologizing for her catty behavior and confirming their feud was officially over, but here we are.
You can see Azealia Banks be messy below.
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Azealia Banks is more known for her acidic remarks against fellow entertainers than her music these days but often displays a softer side despite her reputation. After apologizing to Lizzo, the Harlem rapper took aim at Busta Rhymes and essentially body-shamed the veteran MC.
Over the weekend, Azealia Banks took to her Instagram Stories feed and issued a written apology to Lizzo, complete with a tag.
“I was having a conversation last night and realized that I owe @lizzobeeating a huge apology for popping so much shit,” Banks began in the Stories thread.
She added, “If hip hop will allow a 55+ severely overweight @bustarhymes who exhibits major signs of anabolic steroid abuse, adrenal gland failure, and constipation, and will also allow him to have a face full of blackheads and acne from what appears to be testosterone shot abuse ALL whilst drinking molly water in 2023 and wearing cartoon-like Neon yellow fake gold slick Rick chains…We have absolutely no right to be trying to skewer a YOUNG black woman – for anything.”
For the record, Busta Rhymes turned 51 this past May.
It isn’t clear why Banks took the shot at Busta Rhymes but her apology to Lizzo seemingly stems from comments she made in 2019 about the singer’s weight and appearance and referred to her as a “millennial mammy” all while acknowledging her talents.
As of now, neither entertainer has responded to Azealia Banks.
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Photo: Lexie Moreland / Getty
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Source: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty / Azealia Banks
Azealia Banks didn’t bite her tongue when addressing Drake, who has been a bit emotional responding to criticism his latest album is receiving.
Banks is no stranger to letting the chopper spray when giving her opinion on matters regarding the music industry, and that continues to be the case here.
The “212” crafter had some harsh words for Drake after he decided to clap back at Joe Budden for levying some fair criticism about his latest project, For All The Dogs.
Like always, Banks took to her Instagram Stories to address the Canadian musician for using his success to shame Budden for his “failing rap career.”
Per HipHopDX:
“Does drake know his nose job and liposuction is not Hip Hop??” she shared on her Instagram Story. “Does drake know that no one who actually understands Hip Hop — a culture born from oppressed, don’t reeeeeeeeallly care about his soft-toothed colonized confused mixed-race facsimile attempts to exhibit the true authenticity of an actual MC?
“Does drake know his desperate attempts to gangsterize Canadian ‘street life’ is an all encompassing failure in and of it itself?”
Azealia Banks Also Called Out Birdman
Banks wasn’t done. She also directed some vitriol towards Cash Money Records owner Bryan Baby Williams, calling Birdman out for caping for Drake after Budden’s take.
“Does birdman know how low iq, tacky and how much of a fucking loser he looks threatening joe Budden via the internet,” Azealia Banks wrote in a following IG Story post. “Can u just make some more lug and quit threatening people online before you get arrested? Shit like that really makes the genre look trashy and low budget as hell… and sorry… you’ve kinda just made it so hot that if anything happens to joe Budden it’s certainly getting traced back to you and drake. LOL
She continued, “Loved ur verse on ‘constantly hating’ but it has been a minute since anyone cared for your music, and drake is redundant as hell. Only weird nepo babies and Eastern European immigrants who wear USS polo association, cool water and media fuck boys actually care for him.”
Banks ended her Birdman rant by saying, “Work some magic and bring back young thug please.., that man is very very special,” eventually shifting the focus back to Drake.
In her final scathing remarks, she reminded the world that Drizzy’s momma is white and that he probably wouldn’t be such a cornball if he had a Black momma.
“Honestly, if drakes mother was black he’d probably not be so corny. White mom syndrome is very real,” Banks said in her final post about Drake.
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Photo: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty
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CLOSE
Azealia Banks is one of the most talented recording artists of her time but has found more infamy in her social media responses and commentaries on pop culture. The Harlem star took a shot at The 1975 band member Matty Healy over his insensitive comments toward Ice Spice.
Azealia Banks went to her familiar space of Instagram Stories to unload off a series of shots toward Healy, who back in February of this year had some pretty unsavory things to say about Ice Spice. Adding to this, the Bronx rapper was recently added to a remix of Taylor Swift’s “Karma” from her Midnights album. Further, there are rumors that Healy and Swift are dating, which added fuel to Banks’ attack.
“Does Matt Healy know that no one thinks The 1975 makes good music and that he’s a lame poser with a trash cliche band name that actually means nothing,” Banks said, adding, “He’s clearly so pressed that a black girl who knows nothing about him or his music is making more moves and more money than him.”
Banks continued, “Does he know that black women are more coveted in the industry because there’s BIG BUSINESS in female rap. He is so obviously weak in the knees, thin-jawed, and drug addicted that it’s easy to catch his crusty ass lackin.”
Healy was a guest on The Adam Friedland Show earlier this year where the hosts referred to Ice Spice as “Inuit Spice Girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady,” prompting laughter from Healy. Healy did apologize for his comments on the now-deleted episode but hit back at critics in a new profile piece in New Yorker.
In the piece, Healy says of the controversy, “But it doesn’t actually matter. Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy.’ That doesn’t happen.”
On Twitter, reactions to Azealia Banks banging the gat on Matty Healy cropped up and we’ve got a few of them listed below.
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Photo: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty