There’s a new girl rapper on the block, with the best name ever; Iggy Azalea. She has two singles currently riding high in the Billboard Hot 100, almost out of the blue it seems. Here are ten good reasons to love her;
#1.Iggy Azalea is a rapper and not from LA. In truth she’s a Sheila from Mullumbimby, Australia. She speaks like an Aussie but raps with an accent straight from Alabama. She learned the hip-hop art from the Internet under the influence of Missy Elliot and Tupac. Needless to say, rapping was not widespread at home.
#2. T.I. is master to Azalea’s apprentice. She is one of his Grand Hustle crew. Her relationship to him, is stormy, but also very good for the newcomer.
#3. “Work,” is an autobiographical song by Azalea. It tells of her coming to America via the three cities of Miami, Atlanta and of course LA. Doing cleaning work to support herself she finished her education having dropped out of it back home in Australia.
#4. Azalea’s two Billboard hits – 1 and 2 in the charts – are called ‘Fancy’ and ‘Problem’. This is a music feat unheard of in 40 years. (The Beatles did it in 1964 with ‘I wanna hold your hand’ and ‘she loves you’).
#5. ‘Pu$$y’, her viral raunchy video in 2011. The Beatles never wrote songs about the pleasure girls get from oral sex. It is a subject rarely covered in the rap world, so for a white woman to take it to the streets of LA was a unique and refreshingly new event. The video gained her a modelling contract with Wilhelmina Models as well as turning her into the hot target for every music label in town. T.I. snatched her first.
#6. Iggy says things in her way. She nearly blew all the good publicity she got from “Pu$$y” with the lyric in her song “D.R.U.G.S.”: “When the relay starts, I’m a runaway slave / Master.” Iggy played acrimonious Twitter ping pong with Azalea Banks over this ‘racial’ lyric before grudgingly apologizing. Several labels ran scared from her. Her view was that they think; ‘there can only be one rapper with a vagina,’”.
#7. Iggy is nobody’s puppet. She is critical of the misogyny she sees everywhere in the music industry and especially in the hip-hop men’s world. She feels they hold out of date views, only promote one female rap artist at a time, and the culture extends all the way down to the fans. She won’t crowd surf anymore because some people tried to finger her. She keeps herself at arm’s length during performances now.
#8. Azalea’s lyrics break every taboo, but she’s a class act when it comes to self-promotion. An important part of her brand is the fashion side. She is seen front and centre at New York and Paris fashion weeks. Went to the elite Vanity Fair Oscars party, and is seen as a style icon to watch, in the top magazines. She knows how to play the game and dress to impress. Having her own fashion campaigns will complement her music career.
#9. Iggy Azalea is the only white girl ever to have a No. 1 rap album. The album is very ‘now’ but nods towards classic rap of the past. She says she wants teens of today to value their own culture and to know they are making the classic culture of the future.
#10. Azalea is like no rapper there has ever been. It is her uniqueness that is both her biggest asset and her greatest curse. The rap establishment knock her for being unauthentic. Surely only black Americans do rap? But then they said that about Jazz too.