December 1, 2014 |
The first time I saw Iggy Azalea, being late to everything as I always am, was in the video for her single Fancy. The single that, together with Ariana Grande’s Problem, means that she is the first woman, and only second artist after The Beatles, to have her first two Billboard hits sitting at numbers 1 and 2 of the Hot 100 simultaneously. Which, when you realise that she has only just released her debut album, is pretty impressive. Even The Beatles weren’t that good and they were good.
It’s Fancy that has morphed her from promising female rap star to overnight sensation. Yes, she may have got the world to sit up and take notice with Pu$$y, in which she invites her fans to taste her rainbow, taste her Skittles and then launches into a chorus of, “pussy, pussy, pussy”, but it’s Fancy that, as she sings in Pu$$y, has put her in the fast lane from LA to Tokyo. The song is a sassy anthem about being real and ignoring the haters; the video is an ode to Clueless, which in anyone else’s hands would be tantamount to sacrilege, but in hers somehow manages to combine a “quintessential 1990s moment with her hip-hop vibes”, said Paste magazine. She doesn’t mock, she pays homage and keeps her tongue firmly in cheek while doing so. And what were Cher and Dionne if not fancy? So why not, if you happen to be a fan, remake the film? “Fancy,” as Iggy says, “is such a West Coast-sounding song and beat that I felt like this would be the perfect opportunity for me to use this film. It’s a movie about valley girls, and that’s something very West Coast but not very rap. I thought it would be a cool tongue-in-cheek way to be very LA but unexpected. I didn’t want to do low-rider cars and bright, shiny bicycles or palm trees. I didn’t want to do something that was cliched, because that’s not me. I identify more with Cher in Clueless than I do that kind of stuff.”
In her video Murda Bizness she takes on Toddlers & Tiaras, sparking outrage again, this time for rapping about “murda” in front of toddlers, but as she puts it, “Watching it, I thought, here are these mums and toddlers just taking this so seriously. This is the fiercest of competitions I’ve seen in a while. They’re so flashy and they want crowns, rhinestones, diamonds and bright outfits. The flashiness and competitiveness reminds me of rap. A lot of people heard Murda Bizness and thought it was about killing people, trying to be tough and hardcore. If you actually listen to the lyrics, it’s kind of silly and playful. It’s about being in the club, being a bad bitch. You have your outfit and you’re like, ‘You bitches should’ve stayed at home because I’m killin’ it! You’re in the murda business!’ I don’t think people understood that. With the video, I wanted to have the juxtaposition and have people think, ‘Why would she put Toddlers & Tiaras in it? What’s the connection? What’s the song actually about?’”
To be honest, Azalea spends a lot of time sparking mild outrage. Her main crime, it would seem, is being a white girl from Australia who raps. “The Rolling Stones go to America, play ‘black’ blues music, and nobody has a fucking issue with it or thinks it’s weird. But here we are, 50 years later, in the 21st century, and people are like, ‘This is so weird that you’re white, from another country, and you like black music.’ Why is it not weird for Keith Richards or Mick Jagger, but it’s so weird and taboo for me? Do you think a kid liking my music is gonna make rap music some other thing, or that all of a sudden nobody’s gonna like Scarface? If you’re mad about it and you’re a black person, then start a rap career and give it a go, too. I’m not taking anyone’s spot, so make yourself a mix tape. Or maybe if you’re black, start singing like a country singer and be a white person. I don’t know. Why is it such a big deal? This is the entertainment industry. It’s not politics. You should be more concerned about the message, not the voices saying it.”
Azalea was born Amethyst Amelia Kelly in Mullumbimby, Australia, where, “there’s one of everything – one hairdresser, one supermarket, one florist, one bakery. You know everybody that’s owned the stores and they’ve owned them for generations. The population’s 3,000 but it seems smaller because most people live in the hills. They’ll come down to the supermarket to get food and that’s the only time you’re hanging around or seeing people.” The only thing to do for fun, if you didn’t play sport, was to get stoned. She had always been drawn to hip-hop culture, thinking that there was something in it, “that was the misfit of all the musical styles, where they didn’t really belong. They’re kind of like, ‘No, we’re a real culture. We’re not going anywhere, you can’t get rid of us.’ I really liked that there was a rebelliousness about it. I connected with that. Also, I liked the flashiness of it and the way everybody dressed – all the crazy chains and crazy style. Everything about it, I was interested in”.
So she decided at 14 to form a group that in her mind could have been like TLC, but it soon disbanded as the rest of the group weren’t taking it seriously enough – and Azalea takes everything very seriously. Which is why, at 16, she moved Miami to pursue her ambition of being a rapper and changed her name to Iggy Azalea, taken from the name of her first pet and the street she grew up on. She changed it because she likes her name too much to perform under it: “It’s one thing that no one can take from me, that is special, that my mum gave to me when I was born. I don’t want people to be able to take it away from me.”
She was drawn to America because, “I felt like an outsider in my own country. I was in love with hip-hop, and America is the birthplace of that, so I figured the closer I was to the music, the happier I’d be. I was right.” Once there she set about making her dream a reality. Recording and releasing her music online for free while she honed her sound and built her fan base, choosing to grow up in a public forum. First came her break through her debut mix tape, Ignorant Art, followed shortly by Glory, both of which she got flack for again. For releasing them for free, for releasing them on her terms, for having the audacity to name her EP Glory, when glory is quite obviously what she set out to achieve and has achieved. For experimenting with different sounds and styles while trying to find her own voice. And letting her fans go on that journey with her. She will tell you herself that, “People criticise you for trying new things. I think, ‘I’m new! I’m 22!’ I don’t know exactly what my sound is or what I want my album to sound like, so I’m not releasing it yet. While I’m experimenting, I’ll let you in on the journey and you can hear it for free.”
The thing about Azalea is she is ambitious – she does want glory and she’s not afraid of going for it at full speed, no matter what people will say. And so far it seems to be working entirely in her favour. “I want the biggest audience. But I also don’t want to have to compromise everything to achieve that or I’m not going to be having fun. Then there’s just no point, doing it would be a job for me. It’s trying to find that middle ground between running a business successfully and having people who are interested in buying tickets or liking a music video, while also having it be enjoyable and something that I can take pride in still. You don’t want to have no pride or belief in what you’re doing.”
Photographer: Magnus Unnar
Fashion editor: Sophia Neophitou
Hair: Sami Knight
Make-up: Priscilla Ono
Talent: Iggy Azalea
By Natalie Dembinska
