ms. azealia banks.

October 16, 2012

jakigriot:

thelittlekneesofbees:

cynique:

i’ll still listen to your music because i really love it. fantasea was a really good mixtape.

i’ll still defend you when it comes to your music (most of it) and you being a dark-skinned rapper who’s pro-black all the way in the industry (you know shadism/colorism, anti-black misogyny, all that gucci stuff).

however, i cannot fucks with you as a person. chile, you’re only 21. you have barely, barely started to come through to mainstream cracks. you’re starting beef with everyone left and right. you dissed lil’ kim earlier in the year. you said you wanted to rape a man the other day. i thought you were down with ball culture, but i see that you’re just appropriating it since you spit on their backs for your profit (transmisogyny in your lyrics). i also remember earlier in the year, you said something transphobic (i think you said tr**ny to that person but i’m not sure) on twitter.

look, i know you’re young but that’s really no excuse. now unless i see someone coming for you and starting shit, i reeealllyyy don’t want to see you beefing with anyone. if you really want to make it, you need to hush. it’s not cute. it makes you look immature. it’ll probably bite you in the butt later down the road when you want to work with other producers. also, lay it off with the problematic lyrics. :/ you have a ton of fans in the lgbtq community, and it hurts to see that you’re offending them left and right.

i really hope to see you grow and mature, but for now, i’ll just listen to your music. i can only do that much.

miss banks,

i too feel like i would be considered one of your stans but bb grrl you can’t be fucking with my sisters like that.

trans*women are shitted on just like us, pro-black girl means pro-black for EVERY GIRL.

I’m finna cry over you, bb. Why would you reel us in the Paris is Burning and 212 and then drop us on our asses with ‘Us’ and ‘Runnin’ and don’t even get me started on your reckless ass timeline on twitter.

I wasn’t prepared for that or nothing, jesus, and I need you to fix it.

We’re dying left and right and half of our representation don’t even give a fuck about us?

I was just listening to her album this morning and having these feelings. SPEAK ON IT, CHURCH!

yeah. so. I think I had a mini-rant when Fantasea first dropped about this, but these posts say it better and more passionately and with more force than whatever I said, so pay attention because these folks are speaking truth. much as I love a lot of Azealia’s output, and as much love as she occasionally sends to the ballroom scene on twitter or anywhere else, she doesn’t get a pass on the transmisogyny of the opening few lines of ‘Us’:

I’m on that Marilyn
She got that Adam’s apple and she asked about that fashion
And we passed her with that laughter
And passed her wacker friend

or the homophobia (biphobia? it’s unclear) later in the song or in ‘Runnin”. the OP referenced some transphobia in ‘Runnin” also, which I didn’t catch, but yeah. if these folks say it’s there, I trust them.

I’m not saying don’t listen to Azealia, and I’m not discounting her as part of the larger queer community, but queer folks can say and do homophobic and transphobic and misogynist stuff too. and when they do so on a big platform, they deserve to get called out for it.

i think it’s especially interesting that Banks draws so strongly on ball culture and music, style and culture created in large part by trans women while simultaneously tossing around transmisogynist slurs and lines in some of her songs because recently i’ve often observed similar behaviours among the (often white) gay male circles who have eagerly embraced her music. i’ll hear gay guys drop Paris is Burning references with one breath, and rap along with 212 while never thinking twice about using the t-word and making disparaging comments about trans women. (or, let’s be honest, all women, cis and trans, but especially about trans women)

there’s a lot to like about Ms. Banks, and I do, but this isn’t cool.

I tried to write about AZ and how sketched I felt about some of her stuff after Fantasea came out and like how if you do even a little bit of reading about Paris Is Burning you realize that it’s a really beautiful film, but that it also left the community that it was about feeling really exploited, but the piece mostly turned out being about me and how I felt weird and guilty being a straight white cis girl who digs a lot of queer culture myself (like, it is really important to me personally and aesthetically but I get the context and try not to feel like I own it), and I was like this is probably not a useful thing to post on the internet, but I’m really glad that it’s not just me.

This isn’t like an “I’m done with Azealia Banks” declaration or anything because I think she’s really good, and I like a lot of pop stars who don’t have unambiguously good politics in their work or personas, in fact I can’t think of any who are unambiguously good except maybe Beyonce but that’s because she transcends normal human concerns. It’s more just an acknowledgement.

10:13pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZSRIbyVRbLv1

(Notes: 193)