Azealia Banks’ new EP Slaz-Z dropped March 24th, and in a review this week, Pitchfork heaped praise on the rapper’s latest offering, claiming her followup to 2014’s Broke With Expensive Taste “shimmers with her undeniable skill and personality.”
Pitchfork gave the EP a generous 7.5 out of 10, but even more generous (to her) is the fact that they neglect to mention her often confrontational social media presence and tempestuous nature — and ongoing antics that threaten to eclipse her admittedly meager output thus far. (Granted, it’s early in her career.)
While the review states she “continues to double down on her love of ’90s NY house,” it makes no mention of her troubled relationship with the gay community — a community, ironically, that was instrumental in popularizing the very same genre of music to which she’s now paying homage.
Nevertheless, it’s probably not quite as easy for anyone in the LGBTQ community to ignore the dispiriting abuse she’s heaped on us over the last several months. In fact, by continuing to stoke the fire, she makes it impossible to forget — let alone forgive.
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Just this week, it was reported that the “Ice Princess” rapper lashed out at a photographer, telling him to “suck a d**k, fa**ot!'”
And that’s hardly the first time Azealia Banks has proven herself to be homophobic. (She claims to be bisexual herself, oddly enough.) Earlier this summer, Banks claimed the LGBTQ community is the KKK, wrote on Twitter that she wants to pepper spray “a gay man in the face,” and was caught on camera calling a flight attendant “faggot.”
So the question is: What do we do now? Pretend Azealia Banks doesn’t exist? Boycott her work? Judge her music by quality alone? Watch the video to “Ice Princess” on repeat, shaking our fists and screaming at our MacBooks?
Sound off in the comments section below.
