I'm-A Ruin You, Cunt

"Um, I mean of course I know that when I say things I shake people up. I mean, maybe that's what people need… whenever I do something, I don't do it to like, provoke other people, I do it because that's like how I feel, that's what I mean…” explains Azealia Banks, the rapper that's launched thousands of tweets the world over.

The openly bisexual African-American musician is a cult-colossus in her own right. Despite a relatively limited discography thus far (an EP: 1991; a mixtape: Fantasea, and a handful of singles), style movers to the pedigree of Nicola Formichetti and Alexander Wang are drawn to Banks like moths to a halogen light bulb. Warp prodigy Hudson Mohawke collaborated with Banks on Fantasea, Ariel Pink has apparently shared studio time with her, Lana Del Rey featured her vocals on a remix of Blue Jeans. Her statements, songs, and Twitter lashings provide cud for cultural arbiters to churn for weeks, but Banks seems reluctant to consider herself as any kind of cultural influence or intellectual.

“I mean, I see that in retrospect. That's not like something that I'm doing on purpose” Banks insists. “People are just thinking, it's just like making people think, because it's like, ugh, even half the people who feel passionate about this, like, when I really just don't give a fuck. Because that's even more frustrating, I mean I do have fans that care… fans that do think differently, but you've just got to accept people for who they are, you know what I mean? Some people are Satanists, some people are Christians, some people are Jews, Buddhists, you know what I mean? Some people are still Nazis… there are some people who are still KKK members… you know what I mean? Come on people, please…”

The videos for 212 and Licorice demonstrate Banks is a rare original and a talented muscian, but any discussion of her fledgling musical career has to weather the typhoons of controversy she seemingly embraces. Her volcanic outbursts on Twitter occur with almost fortnightly frequency. Banks' most infamous and protracted engagement is against celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, but the index of artists slugged by the rapper online is arguably as impressive as (and occasionally overlaps with) the roster with whom she's collaborated with. She's savaged Lil' Kim, Angel Haze, Kreayshawn, Iggy Azalea, and – most recently – Baauer, the Brooklyn producer behind trap hit Harlem Shake.

The skirmish with Baauer began when Banks posted a track of her rapping over Baauer's ubiquitous Shake. After Banks' version was pulled from SoundCloud, Banks tweeted at Baauer, “why you coccblockin tho??? Lmaoooooo”, to which Baauer replied, “cause its not ur song lol.” Banks countered with “you're a pussy. You don't belong in hip-hop,” before lobbing faggot (technically, she spelt it “faggoot”) at Baauer. To complicate matters further, it appeared Diplo, who put out Baauer's track on his Mad Decent label, had ditched Banks' version of the track in favor of Juicy J.

Smelling blood in the water, Perez Hilton interjected: “Classy as always! How does it feel to be better known for all your trash-talking than your music, Azealia? #TeamBauuer”, prompting another “faggot” response from Banks, followed by the retort “What does my pussy taste like perez?”; “It tastes like misguided youth, wasted talent, bitterness, jealousy and poo,” went Perez's response, before the situation devolved into an argument about the salient features of Bank's genitals and a liberal application of the word faggot.

Banks' previous broadside against Perez with the word prompted admonishment from an archipelago of cultural commentators across the web, including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Second-guessing her brawl with Perez is next on the interview's agenda, Banks launches into breathless exposition.

“You jump in the middle of a catfight and got scratched up, that's what the fuck happens. You jump into the middle of an argument, and you got scratched up. Sitting on the fucking internet, trying to play a fucking estrogen war, trying to cat-scratch me – are you fucking serious?

“When we use the word nigger and when we use the word faggot, at some stage, here and there, we use them basically to just identify each other as people who have liked survived as social outliers, you know what I mean? But you Perez Hilton, you're just outside the outsiders… You have so much jealousy and disdain for people who have light, people who shine the light through the world,” Banks seethes.

“For some reason this word faggot is still so offensive, it's just strange to see why,” says Banks unrepentantly. “It's just strange to see why. There are all kinds of people who are against the N-word in hip hop music, there are all kinds of people who are against hip hop music in general because they see it as a negative influence on African American culture, you know what I mean? Why are all these other things like murder and sex and violence and... all these other things accepted, but as soon as I call one gay white man a faggot, his feelings are more important than the feelings of… I guess whatever, you know, freedom of speech, you know, and with freedom of speech comes the freedom to be offended, you know?”

“Look at the fucking world… Look at all the problems with humans. Fuck being a faggot, fuck being a nigger. Fuck being whatever… there are such bigger problems than, you know what I mean, stirring each other… and then you've got organizations like GLAAD, which are fucking complete bullshit…it's like a bunch of just, I don't know, fucking… someone's tax write-off, you know what I mean? People are so much more concerned with you know, going to gala events, than they are with actually helping out black kids... I mean let's look at it, it's gay and lesbian alliance against defamation, or whatever…. that's what it stands for, right? I mean would you agree that homosexuals, and the homosexual community, have bigger problems than the word faggot, you know what I mean?” she argues.

Unsurprisingly, Banks has developed her own strident argument against the armada of commentators who accuse her in varying degrees of: homophobia, career self-destruction, vulgarity, attention-seeking, and self-indulgence. “If you're trying to call me a homophobe, you're basically trying to imply that I'm insulting you for having sex with men. I have sex with men too – what the fuck? Like, that doesn't even make any sense. I have sex with men and women, do I have to take a picture of me licking a fucking pussy? What the fuck! It doesn't make any sense. It's so stupid. It's so stupid and it's so evil,” she hisses.

“And it's just like this stupid fucking media shit, you know what I mean? It's the media shit. And this is why I go about myself the way I go about myself, and I do whatever the fuck I want. If the media is going to build me up to tear me down, you motherfuckers are not going to tear me down. I'm going to do whatever I want. I'm going to remain myself, what am I pretending for? For whom? For whom? Who made up the rules? You know what I'm saying?” Banks says.

“And I'm not trying to be funny about it, but come on; I'm an African American girl. You know… I mean, fuck, there is so much history behind just being an African American woman. There is so much shit about where I come from that I don't even fucking know… I just make these fucking raps, and I'm just gonna wear these outfits, and fucking live my life.”

Azealia Banks will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 6 March - Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Thursday 7 March - Palace Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 9 March - Future Music Festival, Sydney NSW
Sunday 10 March - Future Music Festival, Melbourne VIC
Monday 11 March - Future Music Festival, Adelaide SA