Break The Bank

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.
“It makes me really on edge seeing good female rappers being pitted against each other and manipulated by men,” she says. “Not to get so deep, but it’s like light skin against dark skin. It’s like, c’mon America! When are we really gonna start changing? We’ve got a black president, but I don’t really see a change happening. It’s like, fuck! Fuuuuuuck!”
Needless to say, outbursts like this are a million miles away from anything you’ll hear coming out of rap queen Nicki Minaj’s mouth. In fact, Banks’ straight-talking, no-nonsense approach to music will probably make her the hottest new thing in hip hop before the year is out.
“I wrote ‘212’ after being dropped from XL,” she explains, “so it came out of that rejection and betrayal. It was really just me laughing about it, and having a bit of fun after being fucked around, and realising that all of the power really rested in me. All those people who fucked with me are now gonna have to watch me fuck with them, because my music is fucking with people right now. I’m fucking sure that all the people who passed me before, all the shitty managers, all the stupid-ass people at XL who were running their mouths at me, I’m sure they’re looking at me now like, ‘Oh shit. Oh. Shit!’”

You can download ‘212’ for free from azealiabanks.com. Broke With Expensive Taste is due for release in December.