Azealia Banks.Photo: Campbell Addy
Azealia Banksis opening up about the pitfalls of fame.
“There was a point in time when people didn’t want to book me,” the controversial rapper, 31, toldDazedmagazine for the spring 2023 issue.
“I had n—–s stealing my royalties and all type of s—. Like, there was a point in time when I was so f—ing broke thatI was sleeping in a storage space. You know, famous and broke.”
The “212” singer, who told the outlet that she’s been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, added that she hadn’t felt much support overall from the music industry and acknowledged the occasions she has come under fire for using homophobic and transphobic language.
This included a 2015 incident when theBroke with Expensive Tasteartist compared the LGBTQ community to the KKK and said she wanted to “spray a gay man in the face with pepper spray,” shortly afterusing a homophobic slur against a flight attendant.
Banks apologized and said she would “never saying the word F—– ever again” in 2016. Despite this, she wassuspended from Twitter after a transphobic rantin 2020, beforerejoiningin April 2022.
“I can be a little messy,” Banks toldDazed. “Everybody makes a bad joke sometimes. Like, who cares? Quentin Tarantino gets paid $500m to make really bad jokes all the time, you know? Come on. Let me get my s— off.”
Azealia Banks.Campbell Addy
Harlem-born Banks also opened up about losing her dad to pancreatic cancer at the age of 2 and having to come to terms with her mother’s diagnosis of schizophrenia when she was 10.
“I would just be in my head, like, ‘Does my mother not want me anymore? Is she coming back? Is she alive?'” she added to the outlet.
“She would brag about how she did witchcraft and killed my father,” she continued. (Banks also saidshe practiced witchcraft herselfin 2016.)
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In the past, Banks has also found herself in arguments with actressSkai Jacksonand fellow singersLana Del ReyandCardi B, among others.
In June 2022, she also tossed her microphone andstormed off stageduring a performance at Wynwood Pride in Miami, after complaining about the promoters’ alleged unprofessionalism.
“For the last good, like, month and a half, I’ve just been being f—ed with. I’ve been being f—ed around with, you know? Set time’s been moved and like, ‘Oh, you’re headlining. No, you’re not headlining. Now you’re not this.’ I’m really not happy to be here,” she said with a laugh in videos shared on Twitter.
Banks toldDazedthat her behavior throughout her early career was a result of being told she was “a bad person” at an early age.
“I think a lot of that early indoctrination, especially during my fundamental years, followed me into the music industry – where you would see me lashing out at people and just, like, being bad,” she said.
The rapper continued, “Because that’s who I was told I was. When I came into fame and I had all these people showering me with love and admiration, [telling me] I was good and they liked the things I was creating, it was really uncomfortable for me. I didn’t know how to accept any of that. Nobody ever told me that I was pretty when I was little.”
Now, she has finally begun acknowledging herself in a more positive light — even if she’s lost none of her famously abrasive edge.
“People are always like, oh, it’s the Azealia Banks redemption arc,” she toldthe magazine. “But who the f— am I redeeming myself for? You should be trying to redeem yourselves for me.”
source: people.com
