Azealia Banks has a way with words, be they in song or on social media. The feisty rapper/musician’s Playboy magazine interview has dropped and as you should have expected it features her unfiltered take on race, music, word choice, reparations and her admitting that being like Jay Z is her goal.
The “212” rapper copped to being a pain in the you know what.
On being unapologetic about her way with words: “Yeah, I am loud and boisterous. And I am black, and I am a pain in your ass. But I’m not really talking to you, and that’s what makes those people mad. You’re not invited to this conversation. This is not about you.
“When you rip a people from their land, from their customs, from their culture—there’s still a piece of me that knows I’m not supposed to be speaking English, I’m not supposed to be worshipping Jesus Christ. All this sh*t is unnatural to me. People will be like, ‘Oh, you’re ignorant because you don’t speak proper English.’ No. This is not mine. I don’t even want this sh*t, so I’m going to do whatever the f**k I want with this language. I’m going to call you a f*g or a cracker or a b*tch.”
Interestingly, Banks hopes to be successful without playing it safe, and she says Jay Z is the model for said goal.
On whose career she wants 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.”
Hova doesn’t tweet very much, though.
Check out the full story here and some photos of Banks’ Playboy spread on the following pages. Tell us what you think Banks and her rhetoric in the comments.
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Photos: Courtesy Playboy/Ellen von Unwerth
