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Despite calling it quits on these Twitter e-streets and parting ways with her manager, Azealia Banks is still getting major looks. The Harlem bred rapper vocalist is on the cover of the summer music issue of PAPER Magazine.

In the cover story, the Interscope/Polydor artist tells the mag that the impetus behind the creation of her breakthrough single, “212,” was getting dropped from her first label.

“Nobody was listening to my music,” she recalls. “I had been dropped from [the English record label] XL. My manager dropped me. My boyfriend left me. I was starting to accept that my career was never gonna happen.” She shrugs her tiny shoulders. “So the song was just me, like, ‘F-ck y’all. Y’all not gonna help me? I’m gonna get it myself.'”

Banks currently has an EP out now titled 1991, which features “Liquorice,” and her debut, Broke with Expensive Taste, is due out sometime this fall. Check out Banks talking about why she chose to move to LA (instead of living in NYC or London), why the music industry is like a machine and the advice she’s been giving by Interscope CEO Jimmy Iovine right here.

Check out the cover pic (Lil’ Kim’s Hardcore meets Mickey Mouse?) and more photos of the 20 year-old in the gallery.

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Photos: PAPER Mag/Emily Shur

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