Azealia Banks is Wild N’ Out
If I was put on a quiz show with a hundred thousand dollars on the line and the only thing I had to do was name three Azealia Banks songs, I'd admit that I'm screwed. However, if I was asked ten people that she's had beef with, I'd walk away with the hundred thousand dollars so fast! This is a testament to her legacy; she's no longer an artist - she is social media troll. She causes drama and beef more than anything else. I receive notifications on my phone whenever anything remotely hip-hop happens in the world - I could tell you that I've received more notifications about her feuds than her singles. When she caused controversy on Nick Cannon Presents: Wild N' Out, that's where I drew the line. I grew up on that; Chance the Rapper said that the show is "institutional and foundational" for him and it's something that stands true for a lot of people. It's a staple of the Culture and now she wants to attack it? Before I go in depth on what happened, I wanted to relive a few of the feuds that she's had, which honestly skewered my opinion against her from the jump.
Bauer: He didn't put her verse in the song 'Harlem Shake' even though it was done before it went viral. Banks used homophobic slurs on twitter and added Diplo to the feud too.
Zayn Malik: Azealia Banks went on a twitter tirade filled with homophobic and racist slurs against Zayn because of two supposed reasons - the first being that he didn't want a verse from her and because he had 'stolen her ideas'? She then went after his fans and black women of Britain. Her twitter account was promptly suspended.
Skai Jackson: who was 14 at the time, did a tame tweet to defend Zayn Malik. The result would be saying she has to get her menses, grow some hips and that Disney doesn't like black girls.
Nicki Minaj: Nicki released a tweet addressed to nobody saying '#ManTheseB*****Delirious'. Azealia Banks then started a beef that lasted for more than four years.
Rihanna: Rihanna was tweeting about the muslim travel ban when Azealia Banks got onto Twitter to bash Riri, saying she wasn't a citizen and couldn't vote. It's thought that the tirade came from a song that Banks did with Rihanna that got cut from her album Anti (I think this is becoming a pattern - stop making bad verses).
Cardi B: 2017 saw her go at Cardi B, saying that she was "a poor man's Nicki Minaj", used a ghostwriter and call her an "illiterate untalented rat". Cardi stayed pretty relaxed in the feud.
To the situation that happened on Wild N' Out, I waited for the actual clips from MTV were released instead of going off of the bad videos from TMZ. In a game called "So Petty", the comedians have to say why they believe that their captain is so petty. DC Young Fly said that "Nick Cannon is so petty, he couldn't get Cardi B so he got Azealia Banks' ugly a**". Banks retorted by saying that what he said was anti-black and colorist due to the afro-latina rapper being a “light-skin” and Banks being dark-skinned. She continued by saying that this is the best that DC would ever do in his career and then cried off stage. After filming the show, she'd go on instagram and post on her story, claiming that she had been the victim of harassment in an extremely long and racist tirade. She'd finish it off asking if she'd be considered the bad guy if she made a joke about Nick Cannon's lupus.
This is where this story got me messed up. After all of the situations that she's caused on social media with various celebrities, she has the courage to do this? The world has seen entertainers such as James Gunn, Laura Lee and more get fired or blacklisted from everywhere for less than what she's done. She's demonstrated some homophobic, racist and colorist tendencies through an excessive amount of hate speech. But why is she still here while others are gone? I couldn't answer; we can't claim it's her music like Chris Brown or that she's shown change like Mel Gibson. I don't like spreading hate outside of the circle of hip-hop or to women in general, but I can't justify her stardom. If she became a reality show actress, then I could understand, but she's pushed it way too far. MTV showed the tapings as to what happened and cast members such as Timothy DeLaGhetto and Nick Cannon spoke out on what happened: she can't hide behind anything and claim that she's the victim when she tried to attack the show for doing what everyone knows it does. Everyone knows they go to clown anyone in the building and that DC call everyone is ugly. I hope she finds recovery and good health so that she can stop spreading hate.