Azealia Banks

Sometimes gossip can be so enlightening. The reflective opener “All Things Go” is pretty solid on its own. But word that this particular best rapper alive just ended a 12-year relationship with her homeboy boyfriend

did he mean to write "black" here or...

I think you know the answer to that.

i thought deans were starting to clamp down on grade inflation nowadays

i mean he's clearly trying to denote that he's the New York guy she was with since before she got famous but it's definitely phrased very awkwardly

who is dismissing banks' point? who is saying only artists who make it to the big time are relevant? idek

you're the one who took banks' recent interview as a jumping off point to make the entire conversation about her commercial viability

my only point there was that she's saying two things that don't really reconcile: she didn't want to record a 'fancy', or any top 40 record; iggy did. At a certain point the argument becomes a tautology. the pop charts work the way they work; we live in a country full of ppl whose experience w/ music is based on very straightforward populist tools, and shunning those tools as a sign of ideological purity isn't going to give you a big slice of the pie. Arguing about jelly shoes and sea punk isn't off-putting to mainstream america; it's just confusing & a conversation that maybe 2% of the population of the country is even able to follow.

fwiw i spent some time w/ azealia's album & found it a lot better than i expected from a personal POV, kind of a cool kitchen sink vibe that is more Deee-lite than I expected. Also, she doesn't do that annoying hyper-enunciated flow that drove me nuts on '212'

"hyper-enunciated"

check out this dog whistle

-_- it's clearly an affect on her part, one that happens to bug me, it is not remotely the same thing as the racism of 'articulate'

and there are plenty of rappers who do 'enunciated' styles i dig (cf nicki minaj, young zee, too short, quik)

if it codes as anything to me its the associations of normcore tbrr

that is, ppl affecting normcore, not the norms themselves

I don't think it's the racism of "articulate," I think it's the racism of "not 'black' enough" (see also "thread for pics of Drake looking ridiculous," ilx's cryptic answer to "Drakes the kinda nigga that..."):

don't wanna open up a can of worms with this but there's something.. kind of... "white" about azealia's intonation on her verses. right? to the point that i actually thought she was white at first. not that i think that's significant or anything necessarily. this has probably been talked about before. but it creates a weird kind of frisson when she's throwing around the n-word, classic thug boasts, etc

she definitely uses at least two registers of voice in 212, the second one which is def a parody of a white bro nerd voice

well i think the question is is she fucking around w/a voice that she thinks codes white, cause the stoner voice in that song is def one you hear people imitating for lolz more than you like actually hear people speaking in, its a well known p clearly identifiable joke mode, tho obvs labeling it white is somewhat reductive as there are certainly many irl not white stoners who speak kinda like that

i didnt know azealia banks wasnt british

apparently she's from harlem! who knew

i'm not saying i thought she was british, just that a casual scanning of that shitshow of a song could plausibly lead one to that idea

xp yeah and then knowing lex liked it i just assumed lol quality zing

Knowing what lyrics "scan as new york" means you listened to more than 30 seconds of Alicia Banks without closing your browser window in disgust; so there's probably a TuNeYardS thread you should be posting in, bruh

Not to downplay the impact of race but I do think its a lil weird how everyone is pretending like she doesn't make retro hip house for hipsters

What makes it "clear" to you that her "hyper-enunciation" on 212 is an affect? How can you distinguish between which registers are more affected than others? How do you decide the authenticity of someone's register?

I can't even parse any sentence where you use the word "norm" or "normcore" and I'm not about to try.

i dont know how i'm supposed to explain to you that her vocal style on '212' never struck me as a normal speaking voice but as an affect, except to say that it seemed to draw attention to its artificiality, its caricature-ness.

i think you are getting at something worthwhile in general, i just think you're wrong in this instance. Look upthread at her shoes: Azealia Banks

i think those are NAGL on white ppl too; the whole style is just goofy to me. her weird enunciated delivery on '212' is the rap equivalent of those shoes.

that's what i mean about 'normcore.' ... actually, a better example is how azealia was also involved in the quest to bring back jelly sandals. i think that's a corny normcore look, and she had a corny normcore flow. it's like this reclaiming of the 'regular' that was more in line IMO w/ art school hipster shit than ... it never occurred to me that she might be parodying whiteness

er, that she was parodying whiteness exclusively, at any rate. i suppose that's the subtext of all 'normcore' looks

What makes it "clear" to you that her "hyper-enunciation" on 212 is an affect?

idk looks like it's right there in the quotes you just posted

I think her engagement with internet microcultures -- including normcore -- is more a reflection of her interest in these things than any kind of conscious statement on race. Same thing with the stoner voice she does -- the point is to demonstrate that her talent is boundless and that she can assimilate whatever she wants into her art without losing control. Clearly, considering her statements on cultural appropriation, she doesn't think that every artist should view culture the way she tends to, as a bricoleur's buffet, but still, if you look at her music it's obvious that she doesn't want to be tied to a constraining ideal of authenticity either. She is a child of the internet and the white stoner voice belongs to her as much as it does any white stoner. The heteroglossia of her best songs feels qualitatively different from like, nicki minaj's parodic "voices" or iggy azalea's exploitative one-note schtick.

yeah i mean like i said, in listening to the album now i was kind of impressed at the kitchen sink pastiche-ness of it the way i would be a basement jaxx record or something ... it's better and broader than i expected.

nb it still does not *shock* me that this isn't hugely popular in the U.S., although it's certainly better than iggy azealia's album, not that this was ever in doubt

She's a very different kind of artist than either iggy or nicki, i think. More gifted but less savvy in terms of positioning herself in the public/establishing a brand.

well, iggy isn't very savvy either. iggy just had a hit record and white privilege

It takes savvy to leverage that privilege into a hit record. Either way iggy's music is boring and azealia banks is a genius.

(which goes back to my original point which was dont discount the 'hit record' part of that equation when pondering why azealia banks hasnt taken off here xp)

really though can we stop talking about why azealia banks hasn't ~smashed, literally the least important part of her argument. what does her making uncommercial music prove? the more interesting discussion is about iggy azalea - white priv, obv, and a great pop song that i'd be more comfortable calling great if it wasn't for everything surrounding her, tip's role in enabling her, the way it looked for years like she was going to be a laughing stock à la so many white female rappers who tried and failed before her, her australian-ness...

and tbh "fancy" did not sound like a surefire hit when i first heard it; the hook sounded too lurching, and there have been plenty of mustardwave knock-offs that never became hits.

the best bit of "fancy" is sort of its most egregious: "first things first, i'm the realest" is such chutzpah

Iggy Azalea is only more interesting from a cultural studies standpoint, Azealia Banks is a far more interesting artist.

I like the line "first things first i'm the realest" though, as a deliberate self-ironizing but anything but self-deprecating statement

It would be better to just appreciate Banks' music as its own thing, without reference to iggy azalea. Commercial hip hop in 2014 is mostly formulaic anyway so it's good Banks isn't trying to make music like that.

What put Iggy over imo is really the Charli hook. I think any number of rappers could have had a hit with that chorus.

Anyway, Twitter beefs and oddly coincidental names aside, there's no real reason to compare Iggy and A.B. They're doing very different things. The Azealia album is pretty strong all the way through, and the best parts of it are really great. Whether she ever has a real hit seems kind of beside the point. If she reminds of anyone of recent vintage, it's M.I.A. (Who did have an actual albeit sort of accidental hit, and then went on doing what she was already doing.)

the quest to bring back jelly sandals

http://www.complex.com/music/2013/03/azealia-banks-is-dissing-rita-ora-because-of-a-tweet-about-jelly-shoes

What put Iggy over imo is really the Charli hook. I think any number of rappers could have had a hit with that chorus.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Monday, December 29, 2014 9:22 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i used to think this but i have come around to the thinking that argues it is in fact her uncomfortable delivery which is the appeal of this artist

What put Iggy over imo is really the Charli hook. I think any number of rappers could have had a hit with that chorus.

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Monday, December 29, 2014 9:22 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think that "fancy" is a duo of white women is prob why the track appeals to a lot of people, so i'm not sure this is true

couldn't tell you how that Charli hook goes because I've never gotten further than "first things first I'm the—"

jelly shoes are no more normcore than trucker hats

i think that "fancy" is a duo of white women is prob why the track appeals to a lot of people, so i'm not sure this is true

― J0rdan S., Monday, December 29, 2014 3:05 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Charli XCX is half-indian just fyi.

Also the chorus is easily the most memorable part of that song's lyrics, so I think that plus the 90s nostalgia-baiting video had a lot to do with it's success.

I think "Fancy" being a really fucking catchy song played incessantly on radio had a lot to do with its success.

I hate the song but its popularity isn't mysterious.

i think that "fancy" is a duo of white women is prob why the track appeals to a lot of people, so i'm not sure this is true

― J0rdan S., Monday, 29 December 2014 20:05 Bookmark

to me it's more that people hear a janky gwen stefani hook see a white blonde and it's like eh fuck it good enough

it's kind of amazing watching iggy deliver lines in that video, she's an IRL uncanny valley of some kind.

ban the '90s and white women

Season 2 of serial will float all these theories

there goes my whole shtick xp

lol

to me it's more that people hear a janky gwen stefani hook see a white blonde and it's like eh fuck it good enough

― r|t|c, Monday, December 29, 2014 3:54 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

gwen stefani's rebooted career would seem to thwart this theory

eh that happened concurrently

i used to think this but i have come around to the thinking that argues it is in fact her uncomfortable delivery which is the appeal of this artist

i agree - my favourite iggy song has always been "murda bizness" and the affect on her twang is ridiculous there, but it's also the most distinctive and best aspect of the track. by comparison both her accent and her lines on "fancy" are pretty whatever - i disagree that it's all about the hook, though charli xcx stanning baffles me in general i guess. i had no idea she was half-indian til today!

re: iggy's accent, i did note the crossover between US critics who were outraged at her mimicry and those who, back in the mockney days of lily allen's debut, were all "oh we don't see the problem why are you britishers always obsessed with class".

do u think iggy would have happened in the same way had she been an actual american blonde white girl?

serious question: do you think the fans who made it a smash know she's Australian?

gwen stefani's new material just sounds like she can't be arsed

eh that happened concurrently

― deej loaf (D-40), Monday, December 29, 2014 6:42 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

it most certainly did not

xp i've no idea who iggy fans even are. like, obviously there are "fancy" fans who just hear and enjoy a good pop song, but i can't imagine why you'd go beyond that and stan for her. i think it's likely that we'll look back at iggy ruling 2014 and go "wtf was that all about" sooner rather than later

At SOBs that night, there was a line down the block, and the bouncers outside were turning people away at the door. The crowd was racially diverse but predominantly female, and there were certainly more white girls than you'd see at your average rap show. Some of them proudly proclaimed that they were "Azaleans," a title reserved for Iggy's most dedicated fans. Angel Haze, one of the most talented female rappers who is not a white Australian out right now, was in the crowd with a friend.

http://gawker.com/5916913/all-the-girls-standing-in-the-line-for-the-rap-show-iggy-azaleas-sudden-rise