Azealia Banks

This is NOT what she looks like, mind you.

Azealia Amanda Banks (born May 31, 1991) is a self proclaimed "greatest rapper of all time", singer, songwriter, and actress. From the Harlem neighborhood in New York City, she is known to make songs about feuds with celebrities in social media. Despite having potential with her song "212" featuring Lazy Jay, she blew it with her feuds. She could've been the most influential female rapper ever, but that actually never happened.

Banks is known for feuding with not only other musicians and rappers, but apparently world leaders too such as Barack Obama and the president of the Philippines. Songs based on these feuds were actually made. Recently she has done very worrisome things such as huffing her cat alive and making an NFT based on a sex tape that she did.

Early life

Azealia Banks was born on May 31, 1991 in New York City. She has two other siblings. Following her father's death, her mother abused her physically and verbally, which might have influenced her later actions. Because it was getting worse, she decided to live with her older sister at the age of 14. She tried to have an acting career but that never happened as well. While she did drop of high school, she started to begin rapping and writing songs. Under her first moniker, Miss Bank$, she released her first song, "Give Me A Chance" in 2008, along with another track, "Seventeen".

Career

2011-2012: 1991 and Fantasea

Banks decided to use her real name for her songs in 2011. She uploaded some demo tracks in YouTube at this time and was in Montreal. However, after her visa expired she moved back to New York and attempted at selling keychains and being a stripper. That was unsuccessful. In September 2011, Banks released her real debut song, "212" featuring Lazy Jay. It was a really great song and perhaps one of her best, but unfortunately she will have lots of controversies in her career (more on that later). Then, she would release one of her best works, 1991 in the same year. At the time she was unsigned and would be featured on a Scissor Sisters' album. In July 2012, Banks released her debut mixtape Fantasea, featuring tracks like "Jumanji", "Aquawoman" and "Nathan" featuring Styles P.

She would've released the second single from Fantasea called "That Night" but that never happened because of conflicts. On New Year's Eve 2012 she released "BBD" which would be the lead single of her debut album, Rich With Poor Taste.

2013-2016: Rich With Poor Taste and Kanye Zest

Early in 2012, Banks' debut album title name was revealed to the public. Originally there'd be a track called "Miss Amor" and "Mascara" as the B-side but that plan changed. Instead, the real first official single was "Young Rapunzel". She then was supposed to release "Jellyfish Jam" as the second single but almost no one wanted it. Instead, she released another song that served as the actual official second single called "Metallica and Chill". Rich With Poor Taste was released in November 2014. She was unable to release new music due to the actions of her label, but her contract has since been cleared. In February 2016 she released the lead single to her upcoming mixtape Kanye Zest called "The Big Beat", and the mixtape was released in March 2016.

2017-present: Icy Colors Change and other projects

In early 2017, Banks launched her appropriately named shop called CheapyXO. It also served as a Twitter handle when her first account got suspended for obvious reasons. It would be relaunched 3 years later to include more items. She has a lot of upcoming projects that have yet to be released, such as Fantasea II and Start-Ups and Sex. On June 5, 2017, Banks released a standalone single that was supposed to be in the former called "Chi Chi". 21 days later she released a promotional single, "Escape". Then she goes on tour in America and Canada. At some point she went to Europe to perform there, since that's where most of her fanbase lives. Other singles that she released in the rest of the 2010s include "Moving Down", "Anna Wintour", "Count Contessa" and "Latex Lady". She would then release her first EP in years called Icy Colors Change, a Christmas EP. She'd also release her third mixtape in the same year called Young Rapunzel 2 but that was taken down.

Throughout 2020, she debuted a podcast Cheapy's XO and released more promotional singles, including an Interpol cover that was released 8 years prior, as well as "Salmon", "Diamond Nova" which was supposed to be the B-side of "Jellyfish Jam". It was also revealed that Banks knows Spanish and released a song that was entirely in that language, "Nirvana". Banks finally released the lead single of her yet-to-be-released sophomore album, "Blessed Madonna". More singles were released, including "Mamma Mia", "Six Flags" and "Buy My Tape", the latter which for no good reason had a perfume based on it. Another song, "New Bottega" would be released on February 2023.

Artistry

Critics have considered Banks as the "greatest rapper of our generation", but they've taken that statement back due to her controversies. If she were to be the most influential rapper of our generation, she would've not feuded with other celebrities and invented a new subgenre that combined electronic and rap music. However, Kanye West did that first. So, maybe it could've been a combination of indie pop and rap. Her most frequently used word in her songs is cunt, which was done in order to attract more British fans. She even refers to herself as the "cunt queen", but in reality she's actually known as the "queen cunt".

Personal life

Banks had performed under a Russian version of her name in an attempt to attract more Russian fans in 2019.

She also tried to actually kill herself in 2020, but it's through euthanasia.

As mentioned in the beginning of the article, she did a sex tape and sold it as an NFT. Except there's no video on it, it's just audio.

Health

In July 2016, Banks admitted to transitioning from black to white, just like what Michael Jackson did. She had also changed her eyes to blue. It was also revealed in 2020 that she has bipolar disorder.

Sexuality

Despite being openly homophobic and transphobic, Banks is bisexual, although she could actually be questioning her sexuality as she fully admitted that she's not comfortable with it. Due to her views on the LGBT community, she's actually a bully to it. In 2020, she said that gay men are obsessed with lubricant, ketamine and sex. She would then get suspended on Twitter yet again by saying that transgender women are trying too hard to become men.

Political views

While Banks is known for speaking out on African-American issues, she's also known to endorse Donald Trump in 2016. At first she supported, then retracted, and then when he won Banks called Trump her "hero". She also thinks that Vladimir Putin is the greatest person alive and that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is an attention whore because he hates black people.

Controversies

As always, Banks is in a controversy. This is done to raise her status as the "cunt queen". Most of her controversies are on Twitter, and even people think that they have known her for her controversies than her music.

She has gotten into fights in commercial flights which caused her to be banned in many airports and countries. Unsurprisingly, she accused some airlines of being racist to her, when,in reality, it was her behavior that got her banned.

In May 2016, she got into an altercation with Zayn Malik who at the time left One Direction to pursue his solo career. Later she used her rant against Skai Jackson. Both of Banks' victims were pretty chill in their responses, but they were also clever in it. As a result, her Twitter account got suspended and she was banned from performing in festivals. She also tries to evade her bans by making sockpuppet accounts without using the same email address. Every year, at least one of her sockpuppet accounts gets suspended.

In December 2016, she recorded herself cleaning her closet. It appeared to show blood, feathers and bodies of huffed chickens. 5 years later, she recorded herself digging up and huffing her dead cat. Banks revealed that she didn't actually eat her cat, she just huffed it like cocaine.

She also dislikes the countries of Ireland and Sweden and really wants ISIS to bomb them. That got her banned from both of these countries.

Every day in order to become more famous, she tries to be controversial.

Discography

• Rich With Poor Taste (2014)

See also

• Nicki Minaj
• Terrorism
• Poverty