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A Complete History of the Azealia Banks vs. Iggy Azalea / T.I. Beef

April 24, 2012   |  

Azealia Banks and Iggy Azalea aren’t so different. They’re both female. They’re both in their early 20s. They’re both rappers. And, to state the obvious, their names are kind of similar, which makes writing an article about the two of them incredibly frustrating.

Why then, have these two new-school femme fatale rappers been igniting the internet with a beef that just doesn’t seem to die? And how does T.I. fit into the mix?

This beef dates way back to late February 2012 (which is approximately 10 years ago in internet years), and issues of race, lyrics, ego, authenticity, and even misogyny have pitted the Australian-born white rapper and her manager T.I. against Harlem native Azealia Banks in a heated back-and-forth, which lucky for us, is well documented on Twitter and Youtube.

Can’t we all just get along? Here’s a detailed breakdown of the beef between Iggy, T.I., and Azealia Banks, from it’s very inception up until the latest developments at the time of publishing.

2/28/2012 – XXL Magazine Freshman Class Announced, including Future, Kid Ink, Danny Brown, French Montana, Macklemore, Don Trip, Machine Gun Kelly, Hopsin, Iggy Azalea, and Roscoe Dash.

2/28/2012 – Azealia Banks takes to Twitter, calling into question the inclusion of Iggy Azalea on the Freshman list.

Azealia Banks is frustrated, based on questionable lyrics from Iggy Azalea’s song “D.R.U.G.S.,” a single that borrows a Childish Gambino beat made popular in Kendrick Lamar’s “Look Out For Detox”:

“When the relay starts, I’m a runaway slave master.”

2/28/2012 – Iggy Azalea responds via Twitter:

3/3/2012 – Iggy Azalea clarifies her lyric in an open letter to Miss Jia:

“In all fairness, it was a tacky and careless thing to say and if you are offended, I am sorry. Sometimes we get so caught up in our art and creating or trying to push boundaries, we don’t stop to think how others may be hurt by it. In this situation, I am guilty of doing that and I regret not thinking things through more.”

3/9/2012 – In an interview with DJ Drama, Iggy’s manager T.I. defends her on the Atlanta-based Hot 107.9 radio show, and had a few choice words for Azealia Banks:

2:10 – T.I. “Was [Azealia] not happy with [Iggy] being on there, or was she not happy with [Azealia] not being on there?”

3:05 – Iggy: “This my day and it’s my achievement. You have to work to have your own achievements, with all due respect. So, instead of worrying about who else is on there. You should just be happy I’m on there as a women, for women. And if you want to have an achievement, work, and earn your own achievements.”

3:27 – T.I. “And strategically if she really cares about a freshman cover maybe she could hope that, y’know, she’ll suck enough to get shelved, and then next year when the freshman cover comes back around, maybe she’ll still be a freshman.”

3/10/2012 & 3/11/2012 – Azealia Banks hears about what went down on DJ Drama’s radio show, and yet again, takes to Twitter to lash out:

And the dust settles. Things seemed to cool off for a while, with nether party speaking up about the feud.

Over a month later, in an interview with Tony Scuffield on Chicago morning show The Morning Riot on WGCI, T.I. foolishly reignited the beef with some even stronger words for Azealia Banks.

4/22/2012 – T.I. calls the feud “bitch shit” on the radio.

3:40 “I didn’t even see [her comments on Twitter]. I know they’re going through their thing, but the fact that she’s speaking upon me and mine, excuse my language, but that’s bitch shit. I’m a man. You ain’t got no business addressing me. Get a man to address me. You got a man, get him to address me, and he and I can speak on it.”

This sent Azealia Banks on another Twitter rant, this time against T.I. only, leaving Iggy Azalea out of the equation.

4/23/2012 – Azealia Banks lashes out against T.I. on Twitter, calling him a snitch, and a clown.

And there you have it. All the gory details.

T.I. would have done well to keep his misogynistic comments to himself, because it only fanned the flames on what seems to have stemmed from a minor misunderstanding. Race issues aside, modern hip-hop needs a stronger female presence, and this beef only trivializes the role women have now. There’s room for Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks, and the real villain in this scenario is T.I., and his comments about “bitch shit.” It’s vital that Iggy and Azealia work this out, if only to squash an all-too pervasive perception that male authority can’t be questioned in the hip-hop scene.

[Sources: Billboard, Rap-Up, Global Grind, Hip-Hop Wired]

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