From Sarah Palin to TI and Tiny, Azealia Banks has a laundry list of people that she’s waged virtual wars upon. The 24-year-old Harlem native is becoming more known for her outrageous Twitter tirades than her actual music. If you were on Twitter last night, then I’m sure you didn’t miss Azealia’s latest victims: Zayn Malik of One Direction and Skai Jackson, a Disney Channel star. It all started when Banks felt as if Zayn had copied one of her videos and jacked her style. Zayn dropped a response that [supposedly] wasn’t about her. This set Banks into a frenzy of offensive tweets. Then, in comes Skai Jackson, the fourteen-year-old Disney star. She asimply tweets about how Azealia Banks needs to chill. A tweet that Banks wasn’t even mentioned in. That one tweet, my friends, sent Banks into overdrive. The two shared some heated words; Banks went as far to say that Jackson’s mother had “pimped her out” referring to Jackson’s childhood acting days.
As I was watching this unfold down my timeline, I couldn’t help but wonder if Azealia Banks is just miserable or simply misunderstood. Her Twitter rants and beef don’t come as a surprise to me; but arguing with a fourteen-year-old does. I remember being a freshman in college four years ago, listening to Azealia Banks for the first time. I loved how different her music sounded at the time. I loved her creativity and her style. So, I can only imagine how frustrating it may be to her. She’s the underdog, just waiting for a chance to finally be on top – and as a sign of that frustration, she’s just ripping people apart. Or maybe she’s fighting off internal struggles. She has been pretty open about her history of abuse with her mom in the past. It got so bad that at the age of fourteen Azealia had to move in with her older sister. Maybe somewhere deep inside, she’s still suffering, and her only way to cope with the trauma she faced is to lash out at others. Or maybe she really enjoys the attention she gets by going on offensive Twitter rants. I may be reaching, but it is a possibility. Either way, Azealia needs to spend time making music and trying to revive her music career, not focusing on trying to insult a fourteen-year-old girl.
I suffered from secondhand embarrassment just by reading the tweets. She’s already burned so many bridges in the industry; it may be hard for anyone to even work even with her. However, being the optimist, I hope she finds her way back to the music. But until then I guess having Broke with Expensive Taste
on repeat will have to do for now.
