by BREANA BACON
The ongoing feud between rappers Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks has escalated these past few days after an emotional interview from Banks with Hot 97 on the discrediting of Black artists, using Iggy as an example of what she felt was the degraded standard for excellence.
“I feel just like in this country, whenever it comes to our things, like black issues, black politics, black music, there’s always an undercurrent of ‘f**k you, f**k y’all n**gas, y’all don’t really own s**t’…..the Grammy’s are supposed to be accolades from artistic excellence. Iggy Azalea’s not excellent.”
Banks said she considered artists like Iggy, who win awards over Black artists such as Nicki Minaj, artists who participate in “cultural smudging” and doesn’t categorize their music as hip hop.
The New York native, who has become infamous for Twitter beef and her carefree attitude, explained to Hot 97’s Morning Show team that she hates to be the “bitter Black b**ch,” but she is always going to speak her mind about what she feels strongly about. She also explained that Iggy’s music was no better than Black female rappers, yet she is being hailed as one of the best female rappers of this generation.
This isn’t the first time she has spoken out about the Aussie rapper and her “imitation” of Black culture but hesitation on commenting on problems affecting the Black community.
The artists took to twitter yet again as Iggy Azalea fired back calling Banks a “bully” and a “bigot.”
Azealia Banks has countered Iggy’s response by saying that she is being attacked for being a Black woman speaking her mind. She also made a statement about her opinion of “White Guilt” in regards to the beef.
A twitter account mimicking hacker group “Anonymous” has also gotten involved with the issue, tweeting several threats to Iggy Azalea, demanding an apology to Azealia Banks and the protesters for Eric Garner in New York City. The group threatened to release snapshots from a supposed sex tape starring Iggy if she did not respond to their demands.
The group posted several pictures of racially insensitive and homophobic tweets posted by Iggy Azalea over the past few years, while Banks has strongly criticized Iggy for her controversial lyrics in the song “D.R.U.G.S,” where she called herself a “runaway slave master.” Since Banks’ criticism of the song and a gesture similar to the cracking of a whip in the song’s video, social media erupted with disgust calling the Australian-born rapper a racist. Iggy has since apologized for the lyrics in a letter posted to MissJia.com , calling them “tacky.” The website has taken down the letter but several other hip hop news outlets have posted it to their websites.
In the aftermath, Solange Knowles has sided with Banks in the beef and tweeted expressing gratitude for the rapper’s words.
Banks posted a part of a short story on slavery on Tumblr this afternoon in light of the racially-feuled drama. Read it here: http://azealiabanks.tumblr.com/post/105699768586/idle-delilah-snippet
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