Iggy Azalea Breaks Her Silence On The Fallout From Her Twitter Beef With Azealia Banks

Mike Wass | December 23, 2014 12:15 pm
Will.i.am Defends Iggy Azalea
Will.i.am Defends Iggy Azalea
Will.i.am joined Nelly and Lupe Fiasco by stepping forward to defend Iggy Azalea's place in hip-hop.

It’s been a rough couple of days for Iggy Azalea. Since Azealia Banks accused the Australian of cultural appropriation during an interview with Hot 97 on December 18, she has been ridiculed by blogs and social media — both for her heated response and for failing to address larger racial issues. The “Fancy” hitmaker went underground but T.I. stepped forward to defend her place in hip-hop, as did Nelly, Will.i.am and Lupe Fiasco.

Amethyst (her real name) logged back into Twitter last night (December 22) and addressed the ongoing controversy. “Thanks lupe and will iam what you guys said was really nice and i appreciate it,” she began. “Most people learn every and anything they can about the subjects they are passionate about, I’m no different. I find it patronizing to assume i have no knowledge of something I’m influenced by, but I’ve also grown up with strangers assuming that.”

Iggy appears to be referencing Q-Tip‘s 40-tweet attempt to explain the history of hip-hop in her mentions. As well-intentioned as the rap legend’s lecture was, she’s actually right about it being patronizing to simply assume that she has no knowledge of the larger political context of the genre of music she moved half-way across the world, as a broke teenager, to make. “I’m also not going to sit on twitter & play hip hop squares with strangers to somehow prove i deserve to be a fan of or influenced by hiphop.”

“I would have to be an idiot or incredibly bored to think that would change anyones already cemented opinion of me,” she continued. “How you feel about me blending musical genres together doesn’t bother me, no one is making you support or buy pop rap albums. It’s entirely up to you what you support and are interested in, thanks if you are interested in me and enjoy my music. i love to hear that!” The 24-year-old then signed off for 2014. “Merrrrrrrryyyyyyyy chrissstttttttmmaaassssssssss! see ya in the new year! peace and love!”

There is, however, a little twist. Iggy also took the time to reply to a couple of fan tweets and casually revealed that “Beg For It” won’t be getting a video or further promotion — effectively killing its chances of climbing much higher on the Billboard Hot 100. “Gotta move to trouble jingleball made it incredibly hard to do anything else this month. It seems like i missed the window.” She referring to the second single from Reclassified, “Trouble,” which is due early next year. See her tweets below.

Are you satisfied with Iggy’s explanation? Let us know in the comments below.

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