Pop stars' row centres on racial identity and hip hop's history
As the Banks-Azalea feud resounds, Jeff Chang looks at slavery's rolein black identity and hip hop
Pop stars Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks share more than just similar names. Both are emerging young women in an industry that has, especially since the turn of the millennium, all but relegated women to video-girl roles. Both are artists whose hype exceeds their output. Both are also notoriously short-fused and a little overeager to go off on Twitter, particularly on each other.
Their beefing began in 2012, and was born of fine distinctions over identity - some speculating it had to do with professional jealousy in a highly competitive niche market, others wondering whether the small-town Australian Azalea had in fact taken Harlem-born Banks' name to burnish her cred.
For her part, Banks said she was really angry about Azalea's lyric in a song called D.R.U.G.S. in which she referred to herself as a "runaway slave master". Although Azalea apologised, the row continued.
By the end of December it had reached defcon-3, expanding into a Twitter feud that drew in Azalea's mentor T.I., Q-Tip, will.i.am, Lupe Fiasco, Solange Knowles, Action Bronson and Erykah Badu. All this has come at a moment when race relations have soared to the top of the list of American concerns.
It began earlier in December when Banks was asked in an interview on New York's Hot 97 with Ebro Darden, Peter Rosenberg and Laura Stylez about the origins of her beef with Iggy Azalea.
Banks became emotional during the exchange. "I feel just like in this country whenever it comes to our things - like black issues or black politics or black music or whatever - there's this undercurrent of kinda like a 'f*** you'," she said.