Azealia Banks Says New Album Is Half-Done & Ready For 2016 Release

Carl Williott | May 14, 2015 6:53 am

Just a few months after the surprise release of her debut album, Broke With Expensive Taste, Azealia Banks has confirmed the title of her follow-up LP. Speaking to NME in a new interview, the Harlem musician says her sophomore set is called Business & Pleasure, echoing her statement to Billboard when she explained the title was inspired by her penchant for sleeping with her security detail. Banks told NME she’s eyeing a 2016 release for the project, and that it’s half-finished at the moment.

Of course, it’s easy to disregard any talk of release dates when it comes to an Azealia Banks album, since the road to her debut was filled with numerous false starts and delays. Broke With Expensive Taste eventually dropped last November, three years after “212” burned up the internet, months after Banks was dropped by Interscope (after she had already been tossed aside by XL) and in the aftermath of an irrelevant Pharrell collab right in the middle of Peak Pharrell Relevancy.

But now that the 23-year-old has that first album under her belt, it seems she has figured out how to make the system work for her, and not the other way around. So perhaps we really will see a new Azealia album next year!

One thing we may not see, mercifully, is Banks beefing with every musician with a verified Twitter account. Because she’s a lady now.

“Am I hanging up my fighting gloves? Yeah. I’m a lady. I don’t wanna be dealing with that,” she told the British magazine. “Now, when you feel the adrenaline going, you stop yourself. I’m done with that. I’ve done it already. You’ve seen me curse people out. Let’s do something else now.”

In fact, she was even the one breaking up a fight at a recent show. Instead of feuding, she has taken up the dinner party life, often dining with Ariel Pink and Lana Del Rey.

“It’s cool because I’m really loud and like, aaagh! And she’s really reserved and dainty,” she said of LDR, hopefully while plotting a collaboration.