Iggy Azalea Targeted By Hacking Collective Anonymous, In Response To Beef With Azealia Banks

Christina Lee | December 21, 2014 7:31 am
The 20 Best Pop Singles Of 2014: 20 Favorites
Idolator's editors select 20 great singles from the past 12 months.

Iggy Azalea‘s ongoing beef with Azealia Banks took a strange turn this weekend when hacking collective Anonymous took sides — and attempted to make a statement of it.

On December 19, the faceless collective announced that, if Azalea doesn’t apologize within 48 hours to Banks and #blacklivesmatter protesters, it will release photographic proof of a sex tape. Two days later, though, Anonymous called off the stunt, accusing MTV in particular for misreporting their actions.

Fuck it,” Anonymous said on Twitter. “We try to actually send a message to the masses about the importance of the individual consciousness … then @MTV flips it as a misogynist threat, something about us actually releasing a sex tape. This is not true. And since the actual message has been distorted by both rumors and faux entertainment conglomerates like @MTV on an alleged leak happening … we’ve taken the collective decision of scrapping the entire countdown. Expect us soon.”

Anonymous sided with Banks in light of her recent Hot 97 interview, where she talks about how Azalea is an example of a larger problem: white artists, being rewarded for creating black music.

“It’s like a cultural smudging,” Banks said, adding, “When they give these Grammys out, all it says to white kids is like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re great. You’re amazing. You can do whatever you put your mind to. And it says to black kids: ‘You don’t have shit. You don’t own shit, not even the shit that you created for yourself.’”

In response, Azalea accused Banks of being “petty and spiteful” with her “obsession.” Then Anonymous chimed in, describing the alleged sex tape (“It involves a man in a business suit, a Kardashian-like attempt at fame and a record label”) and urging Azalea to apologize — or else. See some of the collective’s original claims, to which neither Azalea nor Banks have responded, below.