Secondhand Setlists

That bitch since the pamper, Yung Rapunxel has appeared in almost every scenario and side of pop culture since exploding onto the scene. Attempts to cancel or silence Azealia Banks only made her stronger while forcing fans to reexamine the nature of celebrity itself.

When it comes to fame, Azealia Banks embodies it all – the talent, the stories, the ruthlessness, and, above all, the entertainment. No one is as fun to follow as her. If she ever writes a book, it will read as Shakespeare by way of William Makepeace Thackeray: eloquent wordplay that details messy but insightful drama. Importantly, like Thackeray, Banks is not all that interested in heroism, and that’s one of the reasons she’s so dominant in the narrative of the decade.

Though some publications recognize the impact of her music – namely “212” – on the 2010s, few have gone the length to examine the importance of her reign. This is a massive oversight, because not only does her music deserve more recognition but so does Azealia Banks herself as a cultural force. Regardless of whether it’s positive or negative, everyone has an opinion on her. Her presence in pop culture shaped more than music – it influenced how fans examine celebrity in the advent of social media and cancel culture, the latter of which was basically invented for (and failed to do away with) this unstoppable Gemini.

The Material

“NY rose me/ Most high chose me” sums up the Azealia Banks mythos. “Azealia Banks” –  a name as perfect as Trent Reznor or Theophilus London – already sets her apart from the rest of the pack, where someone named Vernon Winfield McBriare Smith IV goes by “Mac DeMarco.”

Living in the constant rush of NYC blessed Banks with a nimble and sharp Brooklyn accent which led her to XL Recordings followed by Polydor and Interscope (most high). These esteemed labels inexplicably failed to do anything with her, but their ineptitude never ebbed her creative flow. 1991, Fantasea, and Broke With Expensive Taste are solid compilations. Each contains a smorgasbord of genres from house to bachata to indie rock, all centered on her ability to spit and sing with equal aplomb. Her talents brought her to the attention of Lady Gaga, Rick Ross, and Rihanna, who still needs to answer about those peanuts.

By her late teens, Banks had written songs as brilliant as “The Chill$” and “Competition”, the latter of which she flipped into Fantasea’s even more impressive “Luxury” years later. The subject matter of her songs ranges from being strung out to falling in love with a half-man, half-Rottweiler. Just a few, Pulitzer-worthy lines from her include:

• “I be taking brothers, cousins, uncles like the war in Iraq / I eat his cabbage like a savage then I’m sending it back”
• “I’m just doing me but these bitches can’t breathe”
• “Murder she wrote she preferred it in cursive.”

The line “Hey hi hello yo wassup” has become a standard intro amongst my group of friends, as it surely has for many others. Banks’ musical influence goes far beyond hot catchphrases and certified bangers, however. She’s heard in the ominous roll of Yung Baby Tate’s “Hot Girl” and Princess Nokia’s “Versace Hottie”. Her early-2010s affinity for the ‘90s now seems psychic considering Kehlani and Vince Staples dropping entire projects based around the later decade’s R&B and dance trends, respectively. Tkay Maidza, who could turn the sound of a running vacuum into a dancefloor anthem, directly mentions Banks as someone she looked up to as an inspiration.

Like her music, Banks’ style preceded the onslaught of cowboy hats, mermaids, and butt-length weaves seen not only in hip-hop but in other areas as well. The biker chic seen in “Heavy Metal and Reflective” appears in more than one Rosalía vid, and Sextina Aquafina definitely trolls Banks’ Instagram for fits.

Furthermore, she is likely the reason most Americans are now more comfortable saying the word “cunt.”

The Personality

Other than “212”, a large portion of the public likely knows Banks as a tabloid firebrand. Nearly every single Banks story begins with addressing her potential and its subsequent squandering due to her controversial behavior. She keeps her personality, like her stage name, as real as she can, and whether you like it or not, her attitude has done as much – if not more – for her name than “212”.

Her antics and personality are simply as entertaining as her releases. Apologies to her targets, but “Brittle-boned methhead” and “Rihanna’s understudy” make me laugh harder than Train Wreck or any Netflix standup special could ever hope to. Just watch her commentary on the Democrat debates to get a taste of her hilarity.

Banks’ escapades, from her megaphone at Coachella to her commentary on Nicki vs Cardi, have become memes themselves, while her music soundtracks plenty of viral videos. For some people, Banks exists as a meme rather than a recording artist. There’s literally an internet challenge to see which beef falls on your birthday.

Me arriving at the #ImpeachTrump party🙈 pic.twitter.com/EmvwjFv49Y

— Skai (@skaijackson) September 24, 2019

This clout largely comes from Banks’ expertise at using the internet and social media. She inches fans along the way fake influencers tease books that never come, and she knows people check up on her. Some for music, some for goss, but she’s the one in control of the product, and she keeps demand high. As she famously tweeted from one of her bootleg Twitter accounts, anytime you type her name, even to drag it, you add to her SEO value.

Even those she’s insulted have spoken her praise. Solange Knowles, whose own sister Banks called stupid and “a poacher,” told Billboard she considers the rapper “phenomenal.” Despite Banks’ claim that she “doesn’t write her own raps,” Lil’ Kim recently posted on Instagram praising what she saw as an homage.  

Because of Banks’ beef, she effectively stalled out Iggy Azalea’s career, made Cardi B go private on Instagram, and sent the SEC to Elon Musk’s doorstep. In all honesty, the Banks, Musk, and Grimes saga of 2018 still blows any HBO or Bravo series out of the water in terms of impact and entertainment. Your fave would never, because they can’t!

When she really turns up the vitriol, she knows both haters and fans will post about it; whether it’s a ki or a reprieve, it doesn’t matter. Despite being banned from Twitter, she regularly trends on the platform, and if you Google News search her name right now, at least 10 articles from the past week or so come up. One (of the many) day(s) she returned to the site, she called Dr. Luke “my buddy.” I took the bait and tweeted my disappointment, playing right into her plan.

The Impact

Nick Simmons, son of Gene Simmons, wrote a Vice article entitled “My Dad, Gene Simmons, Is Full of Shit, and So Are You” about the importance of killing your heroes. Using her Insta stories, Banks effectively said the same of herself. To paraphrase, she’s acknowledged and even apologized for her past mistakes, but she also stresses people to understand her role in pop culture: she’s a celebrity, all of who fuck up, and no one should take everything she says totally seriously. Like Thackeray, she is unconcerned with heroes.

The textbook definition of “problematic” in the “woke” 2010s, Azealia Banks endures more scrutiny for her actions than basically anyone else who isn’t at Beyoncé or Rihanna status. As a Black, bisexual, woman rapper of a darker complexion, she endures more shit than most do. She suffers the consequences of cancel culture despite apologizing for and even attempting to rectify her actions, such as her recent denunciation of Dr. Luke and Jesse St John. Far, far more monstrous people see no consequences, or worse, appear to benefit from the backlash to their terrible behavior. Yet Banks’ actions receive the most criticism and also carry the most weight. She’s banned from Twitter, but Harvey Weinstein isn’t.

A recent article in the Gay Times exemplifies this. After seeing a lengthy and, for her, mild-mannered post about how her gay fans exhaust her, the publication reported Banks planned to entirely dismiss her gay fans in 2020. Not only was that grossly misinterpreted, it showed the ways in which the media capitalizes upon Banks for a quick, clickbait story. 

For the record, Azealia Banks is one of the few artists actually addressing how gay men, particularly fans, treat women, femmes, and transgender people. “When you’re a white gay man you just get like this special pass to just disrespect any fucking woman however the fuck you want to disrespect her, and then nobody’s gonna say anything about it to you because you’re white and then you’re gay.” This quote arose out of a feud started by Mitchell Sunderland, a white gay man who turned out to be a friend of Nazis, who’s now known as another one of the many Sunderlands in music that women warned you about.

When Banks or journalists attempt to bring up the bizarre and invasive ways gay men treat artists such as Charli XCX, they’re promptly shut down and told they’re overreacting. Never mind that many have expressed the lack of safety they now feel at XCX shows; one fan tweeted about how a group of men peed on her while onlookers either ignored or mocked her plight. Gay men can be just as bigoted or violent as anyone else – multiple stories in 2019 detail trans women being attacked and thrown out of bars in West Hollywood, a Mecca for gays but apparently not everyone else.

Stories like this get brushed over because, similar to Banks’ own rants, they are hard pills to swallow. Perhaps because the hardest truth to accept is that someone or something you find positive or fun, such as a pop star or a sassy gay friend, is not that special. Not even malevolent, but simply fallible and prone to the same mistakes everyone makes. The real trouble comes when you decide to overlook such mistakes and deify your faves despite the obvious red flags such as performing for human rights violators, as many of a fave has. 

Much of the 2010s are draped in this disappointment as beloved cultural figures turned out to be hypocrites, appropriators, and outright abusers. In a way, Azealia Banks, too, turned out to not be the infallible MC everyone expected to save music, but she abandoned that pedestal a long time ago. 

That’s not to say her actions should not be judged. She’s been racist and transphobic, and I personally do not agree with her anti-abortion views. However, she’s hardly guiltier than Dr. Luke, Chris Brown, or Harvey Weinstein, all of whom still boast way larger profiles than she’s ever been allotted. 

By embracing the villainous status bestowed upon her, Banks forces us to reckon with the exultant nature of celebrity culture. Once again ahead of the curve, she understands what fans and celebrities alike fail to comprehend – that stardom is not synonymous with benevolence, intelligence, or activism. She no longer gives a shit about what people think of her actions or beliefs because, in the end, she is not responsible for them. Don’t turn to her for politics: she’s not a politician, a journalist, or even a camp counselor. She’s a brilliant and sometimes reckless musician and soap maker whom the media sees as either a misuse of talent or a literal demon.