Azealia Banks Goes Off On Aussie Music, Calls Tame Impala 'Cheesy' And Wolfmother 'Excellent '

8 May 2023 | 1:49 pm | Jessie Lynch
Originally Appeared In

"Australia doesn't really have many music acts that anyone truly cares about on a global scale because they're in a vacuum of off-brand British culture."

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Azealia Banks is back at it with her rants about her raging hate for Australia.

In yet another scathing takedown directed at the land Down Under, Banks claimed that Australia is in a "vacuum of off-brand British culture" while bizarrely slamming Tame Impala as "cheesy" and calling Wolfmother "an American rock tribute band".

In a chaotic and lengthy story posted to Instagram, the 212 rapper ranted, "The Australian entertainment/music industry isn't exactly heralded by the heads of government or anyone in the world as a coveted cultural export."

"I don't think they realise how unimportant they are as far as music culture goes because they're deluded with the idea that their whiteness makes Australia an A Market when it's truly a C-D market. Brazil is a MUCH more important market for music than Australia lmao." 

"This is mostly because Australia has an extreme death of internationally appetising talent outside of Kylie Minogue, INXS & AC/DC, (Tame Impala is just cheesy to me, and Wolfmother is excellent - but clearly an American rock tribute band)."

She continued, "Australia doesn't really have many music acts that anyone truly cares about on a global scale because they're in a vacuum of off-brand British culture."

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"Could be to do with it being geographically so out of the way and how aggressive, barbaric, oppressive and violent they have been in regards to the very existence of native black peoples that they've actually systematically stomped out their country's own ability to develop its own music/arts culture to instead look to England and the USA for ideas to regurgitate not realising that the reason the Australian music industry and Australian culture is so trash is BECAUSE of their country's historical post-colonial obsession with I guess, trying to prove to England and the Monarchy that they - a legion of convicts/mentally insane social rejects - were, in fact, a proper white/Anglo-Saxon society using the massacre/ subjugation of black/indigenous peoples (manifest destiny bullshit) and theft of their land as a marker of national strength."

"But they have actually created one of the most culturally stale white nations on the planet," she added.

"The fact that these Aussie music execs are COMPLETELY OVERLOOKING THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENTS PURPOSEFUL ETHNIC CLEANSING OF NATIVE PEOPLES AND THEIR INABILITY TO PRODUCE MUSIC ANYONE ANYWHERE CARES ABOUT IS F**KING COMEDY."


Yikes.

It's certainly not the first time Azealia has taken aim at Australia and its people. Back in December, she cancelled her Brisbane show and then proceeded to slam promoters Bizarro and Point Blank Group on her Instagram stories, claiming they failed to pay her for shows and describing them as "pubic lice".

"I’m so sorry you guys, actually I’m not sorry, but listen: last time I was in Brisbane and ya’ll threw shit on the stage and damn near almost fucking hit me in the face with a fucking bottle of soda or whatever that shit was," she said at the time.

"That was the most racist, most demoralising experience of my fucking life and right now I’m on a really good track."

She continued to say that she has, "enough emotional intelligence to erase room for error before it happens," and potentially not perform the show in Brisbane because the Australian media would "make it [her] fault."

She followed up those stories with one outlining the conditions that the show would need to be under in order to perform stating, "I will come to Brisbane, there's gonna be loads of security measures because y'all are not about to play in my fucking face. Not while I've worked so hard and finally gotten another major label break.

"Any and everything that can be considered a projective must be checked in at coat check. No keys, no coins, no hair brushes, no vape pens, no lighters. No drinks on the dancefloor. The minute something stupid happens I'm leaving."

She continued to comment on Australian promoters stating that they are, "the only ones in the world who craft slave-like contracts and try to hang revocation of work visas and non-payment over your head, even when you are in physical danger... completely souring the joy and bliss of performing.

"After this run, this will be my very last time touring Australia," she declared.

"This place makes me utterly miserable and I'm too black and beautiful to have a bunch of white people in my face playing with me over their WEAK ASS CURRENCY."

She then went on to trash the AUD and called this Australian tour her, "farewell tour".

Then, in March 2023, she lashed out at Australian house music producer Torren Foot, who remixed the beloved Azealia Banks track, New Bottega, via the Sydney label, Sweat It Out. 

In a post on Instagram, Foot said, “I produced this beat in my bedroom and licensed it to @sweatitoutmusic .. they reached out to Azealia Banks to write & perform a feature vocal, she worked her magic, and NEW BOTTEGA was born.”

However, according to Banks, that’s not how it happened. She responded via her Instagram stories, “This is a lie, I extracted a sample from a track called way2go which was a Cassie remix you made in your bedroom, I reproduced the beat, Paid out of pocket for the mix and master, wrote the song, conceptualized [sic] everything and you’re literally stealing.”

She continued, “I don’t recognize [sic] this cover art, and noticed that you’ve once again desperately tried to denature the beauty of my creation in a greedy attempt to not sign proper split sheets showing that 20-25% of the production was done by Azealia Banks & Chad Dexter, By ONCE AGAIN, adding shit to my song without approval.”

In a separate story, Banks wrote, “His label sent a letter ‘threatening’ to release it but babe… it sounds like shit, you could’ve saved your threats."

“These white boys get way too excited about me. They’re always blowing their loads entirely too soon. And that my friends, is how you ruin a hit record. By being a poser.”