Many sit and wonder what Azealia Banks’ career in the music industry could have been like if she hadn’t caused so much controversy with her actions throughout the past few years. She blasted straight into the mainstream with her song ‘212’ and looked set to become one of the biggest stars of the business following her 2014 debut single’s success. Now though she’s known more for her controversial actions than for her sound. Here, we take a look back at some of her most shocking moments, kicking things off with her cleaning out her closet of the remains of ritual chicken sacrifices…
Azealia Banks
Yesterday, Banks uploaded a number of videos to her Instagram account which saw her attempting to clean the dried blood out of her closet where she claims years of ritual chicken sacrifices have taken place. She had to sandblast to even get close to turning the closet back into what it once was. Unfortunately, the videos are now gone and Azealia hasn’t spoken anymore (yet) about the incident.
When she wishes death upon the Stone Roses
Banks took to her (now-deleted) Twitter account at the Future Music Festival in 2013, after deciding that the Stone Roses and her former tour manager were working against her. She said they were hoping to ruin her set at the festival after the manager was fired from Banks’ team, and wished “nothing but excrement and death” to them, before calling them a bunch of “old saggy white niggas.”
When she almost had a point but homophobia shone through
Many people were annoyed with A$AP Rocky when he said women of colour shouldn’t wear red lipstick, but when Banks decided to let casual homophobia slide into her comments about the situation she became just as bad as the man she was criticising. Insinuating Rocky was gay and saying he should :just come out of the closet”, she continued that he “used to get his d**k sucked by some dude named Kenneth in Harlem” and said his traits were feminine (as if that means anything in relation to sexuality).
The homophobia continues with Baauer
Remixing Baauer’s smash hit ‘Harlem Shake’ without permission, the producer got the song taken down and felt the wrath of Banks, who said that she hoped they would “grab each other’s d**ks in a circle jerk” and “drown in faggotry”.
When she accused Beyonce of being a ‘poacher’
Beyonce’s latest album ‘Lemonade’ was a massive critical hit, loved by fans across the globe, but Banks decided that she wasn’t a fan of the record being put out by the singer. She said it was the “antithesis of what feminism is”, saying Beyonce is “not an artist, but simply a poacher”. She also said of the album’s themes: “Don’t think for a second that Beyonce was intelligent enough to come up with any of those ideas on her own. She takes food out of darker skinned women’s mouths and pretends to be inspired.”
Battling Perez Hilton with homophobia
Perez Hilton has done many questionable things throughout his career and he is one person who probably deserves a verbal beat-down, but not in the way Banks decided to give it. Calling Perez a “messy faggot” and saying he should kill himself, charity GLAAD decided to call out the rapper for continuously using homophobic slurs. Banks refused to apologise and continued to use the slurs on future occasions.
When she decided racism was a good way to get Zayn Malik’s attention
First accusing Zayn of stealing her ideas in a tweet which read: “Damn Zayn be mood boarding the s**t out of me… I’m not mad about this though. Zayn is a cutie pie”, Banks didn’t take kindly to a tweet the former One Direction member sent out, which she thought was aimed at her. Seeing his tweets, she replied: “dude, I make better music than you. Simmer down with that fake white boy rebellion and that wannabe Bieber swag. Lol u a b**ch n***a for even responding like that (sic).” She added: “Keeping sucking this young rapuxel d**k u hairy curry scented b**ch. Imma start calling you Punjab you dirty b***h. You a d**k rider for real. Ride this d**k until the wheels fall off Punjab (sic).”
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