Azealia Banks and her feuds have been played out online over and over, especially since the rise of Australian rapper Iggy Azalea. Now she's talking from a new platform. The "212" rapper poses naked for Playboy Magazine's latest issue and sits down for an interview to talk about sex, black culture, her thoughts on white America, her admiration for Jay Z, her criticism for Kendrick Lamar and Pharrell, and more. Here some things we learned.
On how her music changed since her departure from major labels:
"Even though I've always made really cool stuff, I did it with a little bit of a pop sensibility because I was signed to a major label. That's why you have songs like 'ATM Jam' and 'Chasing Time' that are more pop. But now I don't have a label to answer to. All the ideas I'm having are f**king cool and abstract and crazy and dope."
On her music being played on the radio:
"No. There are certain ways you have to behave if you want to get played on the radio. I want to date whoever I want to date. I want to smoke weed. I want to get drunk. I want to go on vacation, you know?"
On which artist she would like to emulate:
"Jay Z. That's the only person I have my eye set on. The race thing always comes up, but I want to get there being very black and proud and boisterous about it. You get what I mean? A lot of times when you're a black woman and you're proud, that's why people don't like you. In American society, the game is to be a nonthreatening black person. That's why you have Pharrell or Kendrick Lamar saying, 'How can we expect people to respect us if we don't respect ourselves?' He's playing that nonthreatening black man sh*t, and that gets all the white soccer moms going, 'We love him.' Even Kanye West plays a little bit of that game-'Please accept me, white world.' Jay Z hasn't played any of those games, and that's what I like."
On why race is always the issue:
"It's always about race. Lorde can run her mouth and talk shit about all these other bitches, but y'all aren't saying she's angry. If I have something to say, I get pushed into the corner."
On living in America and wanting to leave:
"I hate everything about this country. Like, I hate fat white Americans. All the people who are crunched into the middle of America, the real fat and meat of America, are these racist conservative white people who live on their farms. Those little teenage girls who work at Kmart and have a racist grandma -- that's really America."
On why she doesn't address her concerns in her music instead of online:
"No, not in the songs. I get annoyed with the fact that I'm even asked to explain myself. Why do I have to explain this to y'all? My little white fans will be like, 'Why do you want reparations for work you didn't do?' Well, you got handed down your grandfather's estate and you got to keep your grandmother's diamonds and pearls and shit. ... I get upset when people are like, 'Why don't you just make music?' What would happen if I couldn't sing? Then I'd just be another black b*tch to y'all. It's really f**king annoying. Black people need reparations for building this country, and we deserve way more f**king credit and respect.
On whether she is the same as she was as a child:
"Oh my God. We had journals in second grade. I went to PS 166, on 88th Street and Columbus Avenue, and we had a teacher I could not stand. The black kids got in trouble all the time. We were loud or whatever, but whenever she told a white kid to quiet down and they did, she'd be like, whatever. But if she told a black kid to quiet down and one of them sucked their teeth, she'd put them in the corner. I wrote in the journal one day, 'I cannot stand this white b*tch teacher. F**k this white b*tch.' She found my journal and called my mother, who was embarrassed, because my mother used to say stuff like that-'White people are of the devil. Stay away from them.' That teacher was scared of me after that."
Elsewhere she talks about her sex life, her relationship with her mother, religion, being attracted to older men, begging for beats early in her career, and more. Read it in full here.
