It’s in style to hate on Iggy Izalea, so this post probably isn’t introducing anything that hasn’t already been said.
That said, listening to Azalea’s EVER ANNOYING contrived blaccent, twangy, word-curling rapping is truly grating. On top of her her calling card, she has tweeted out some racially-insensitive comments and if you know anything about me, that’s not something I take lightly.
Of course all these tweets came before her big single “Fancy” hit the radio waves. Her supremely-insensitive tweets covered almost all the bases; ” target=”_blank”>Mexicans. Asians. Indians. Native-Americans. The tweets that include Mexicans are so fucking bad it nearly makes my head explode.
Iggy Azalea is the worst kind of Twitter user: the ones that thinks their tweets are so insightful and funny, but really they’re just first-layer ignorant impulses that do nothing but perpetuates lazy stereotypes. It pains these Tweeters to think a little. They couldn’t be bothered to think, to advance their minds, much less the human race.
And the only reason African-Americans came out mostly unscathed? That’s because she respects them and trying to break into a business that’s dominated by African-Americans. At least she has some limits, I guess.
Her tweets give a little peek into Azalea’s mindset. It’s not just 140 characters that display her willful ignorance, but her lack of understanding that has many in the hip hop community taking her to task for appropriating black culture.
It’s not just the 24-year old Australian rapper appropriating Black culture, hip hop is everywhere, so we can’t just say that Iggy is guilty. In part, her problem is her insistence that there isn’t a problem. Her tone-deaf responses and straight up dismissals of the criticism. Her defending her ignorant tweets. She blames it on being white and a woman. I mean, Australia doesn’t even want her.
To me, it’s clear she has a complete lack of self-awareness of why she stands where she stands with the hip hop community. She just doesn’t get it. She thinks it’s a case of “haters gonna hate” because of her “success.”
As if success is solely selling pop records to teenagers and Grammy nominations. That dollars affirms that her flow is good. The money and thumbs up from the RIAA may matter to some people, but though those accolades are nice, it doesn’t always equate to being respected by the hip hop (or the indie or country music) community. Far from it.
A Grammy and Billboard gold record just means you’re popular in American popular culture, that you’re getting spins on radio stations, that the suburbs are blasting you across main street and pine, that you have enough cash to emulate the hip-hop lifestyle you see in the rap videos.
Money doesn’t mean you’re talented nor does it affirm your intelligence. You’re not any savvier in business than you were yesterday. And unfortunately for Iggy Azalea, it can’t buy you respect or integrity or class… but at least you can buy a Bentley and gold chains.
