Azealia Banks

awful

Ummm are the first couple tracks a portent of the rest? Cause this is sounding fucking great.

Not really, but it goes to a lot of different places.

i'm more and more impressed with this album as it settles in - her loose approach to structure and ad libby raps let it down at times but they're also what makes it stand out, there are so many unexpected switch-ups or extra details that come into tracks midway through. and it really, really sounds great. she does rap in exactly the same way on all tracks but a lot of the things that sounded half-baked at first are now actually the things that help me get lost in it. "desperado" and "jfk" going on longer than you think they will, azealia giving way to the instrumental, before she wraps them up. "heavy metal and reflective" being shorter than you think it should be. the ranting on "yung rapunxel" works so well in album context.

same here! And I can even deal with the Ariel Pink song if I listen to it as if it were a Sunny Delight commercial.

i listen to the ariel pink song as if it was an actual pop-up internet commercial before the bonus tracks (which - in a good, victory lap way - is what the two misses feel like) (ie i don't listen to it)

a few months ago I heard "212" in The Heat, and i was like "this is the perfect final resting place for this stupid overrated song, a Sandra Bullock movie"

xp

― nakhchi little van (some dude), Sunday, November 16, 2014 6:37 AM Bookmark

it still gets played at every other queer party tho

one listen six tracks in and this is very very good

This is an unexpectedly nostalgic listen for me given she uses beats like "wad" and "bandalero desparado". I wish she wouldn’t sing but I can't fault her taste really.

this is really a good album! Definitely some misfires and false directions but the majority of the music is v v solid. I'm impressed.

^^
agreed. I'm hoping it will get more visibility/attention, it deserves it.

Of course things descended into vile homophobia as always with her but Igloo Australia made me chuckle

still descending

https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/540592082277367808

descending further

https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/540596975323062273

wonder if she'll get a thank you tweet from cosby

probably

jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus christ that second one...

Can't pretend to be surprised. Think the Cosby convo is gonna be a powder keg in a lot of black households this Christmas if it wasn't already on Thanksgiving. I'm seeing people perform breathtaking mental gymnastics to make the shit seem untrue.

oh gooodddddddddddd

in her defense, "igloo australia" is kind of funny

She started off so well with this! The tweets at Iggy were righteous and hilarious. :(

She was right but she definitely wasn't righteous

Finally got around to listening to this album and I really like it but she is the least exciting thing on it. I like that she sings like she raps though, with lots of stress on assonance and working with the rhythms and sounds around her, but for someone who seemed to have such an aggressive, intimidating persona on her breakout hit this is oddly lacking in star quality.

Why is she singing in Spanish? The salsa/son break in 'gimme a chance' is so odd but she's actually decent at it.

I'm glad her Twitter persona doesn't bleed much into her lyrics. She seems to rely way much on twitter beefs to remain 'relevant'.

The easy solution to that is to not look at them.

bushra the bitch ‏@bushradaexposah Dec 4
@AZEALIABANKS your teeth can build shelters for the poor

Xpost: i don't look at them, I've never understood the appeal of using Twitter no matter how hard I tried, but this thread keeps reminding me of her obnoxious social network persona.

i think it's a bit off-base to suggest that she does it to cling to her remaining relevance tho

She did an interview and now everyone loves her lol

I'll give her this she's better than action bronson

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 that has little broad commercial appeal (and actually sounds quite a bit like iggy's pre-fancy records that were also not really broadly popular)

i liked her interview

iggy azalea is a fucking cartoon villain

the interviewer, whoever he is, was great. had a nice way of drilling-down deeply into topics.

i think it's a bit off-base to suggest that she does it to cling to her remaining relevance tho

― dyl, Saturday, December 6, 2014 2:02 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

at this point i really have to wonder if she'd be even half as well known if she'd released all the same music but had no public conflicts with other (more famous) artists. i think she's mostly being honest and being herself on social media and not calculating this stuff to keep her in the headlines, but at this point it's her brand. that short period where the label controlled her twitter account and she didn't say anything controversial didn't do anything for her, and she knows that.

Have to assume they know better than we can the damage it caused behind the scenes before they stepped in.

everyone is pretending like she doesn't make retro hip house for hipsters that has little broad commercial appeal (and actually sounds quite a bit like iggy's pre-fancy records that were also not really broadly popular)

no one is pretending this! the conversation this week has barely touched on either one's music. banks can't say righteous things because her music only has niche appeal?

lol i dunno man im seeing lots of people become banks fans off this

but, whatever, good for her—if dudes threatening violence on each other is a legit way to make a career i dont see why this can't be too

to be clear i think ppl are like, she should be so much bigger than she is, and based on the music she's dropped so far i'd say she's doing pretty well for herself. she acknowledges as much in the interview when she says she's not trynna release a top 40 record ...

she could have been a lot more supported by her label and, in the year or so before her album came out, by the media. she's obviously not making top 40 bait but that's not the only marker of success here. this is v much a subsidiary point though.

(i think a lot of the banks fandom that's re-emerged has trace guilt for laughing at her for the past year in it)

"Her label could have supported her" assumes interscope (or any major) is interested in propping up any rap artist uninterested in top 40 hits, which they are not

Unless he's white and maybe kevin gates

*or

(I also think you drastically overstate azaelia's potential for popularity in the U.s. Without a hit vs traditional street or college rap but w/e)

i think she came a bit before her time in a way in that streams weren't yet incorporated into billboard data, so she had a viral hit but nothing to propel it upwards. like, if "212" had jumped into the charts on the back of streams, radio would have paid attention to it, and it might have gotten her a stronger foothold in the industry. instead she used up all of "212" to get a record deal and then basically had to start from scratch.

i doubt it would have materially changed her career but it's an interesting thought exercise perhaps.

i don't really see why the us is even part of this argument

'212' went euro top 20, in a market with no quaint commercial/hipster polar binary where breaking the ice was the hardest part - she and the label p much had a free run at printing money and they blew it

At Hot 97, Banks said that label executives spent 2 million dollars on her album, but "were very specific about wanting something they could play in Top 40" as a return on that investment. But there is no clear slot for a petite, densely lyrical female from Harlem rapping over '90s deep house on today's Top 40, and Banks wasn't interested in becoming anything else.

oh word?

petite, densely lyrical female is like the phrase will self used

After 45 minutes in her presence, alternately infuriated, charmed and deeply impressed, I told her: "You're going to be huge – but probably first you should consider being normal size."

She is indeed a rearview-mirror dingle-dangle of a woman, but her ego is huge. She's also extremely beautiful, yet she's no ingénue: she attended the LaGuardia performing arts school and cut her teeth early doing musical theatre with the Tada! Youth Theater. When, in the course of our talk, she burst spontaneously into song, I almost swooned at the coloratura and melodic purity of her voice.

I know a whole bunch of IRL Banks fans, but they aren't str8 hiphop head dudes so they might as well not exist to deej