I had the pleasure of being acquainted with some cool folks during my former days in H-Town. One was a very popular local photographer and DJ who went by the alias of Third World TV. Dude had a fantastic ear for sound and made more than his fair share of dope beats. In fact, before I made my trek back to Los Angeles several years back, he left me with a handful of instrumentals as a going away present. To this day, that’s one of the best mementos received from a friend. Plus, that shit still knocks. Hanging around him and attending a few of his shows, eventually became fans of Machinedrum and Lone. For those out of the loop, Machinedrum is a North Carolina native who has made some of the best experimental electronic music (not EDM) this past decade. Those willing to expand their musical pallet should check out the jaw-dropping Rooms and Vapor City (which featured a really cool marketing campaign). The same could be said for Lone’s albums ranging from Galaxy Garden and last year’s Reality Testing. I’m not going to lie, I was sort-of late to Azealia Banks’ “212” bandwagon. However, her music peaked my curiosity when I heard the Harlem rapper/singer do her thing on Machinedrum’s “SXLND” for “NeedSumLuv.” Journalists, peers and everyone in-between have felt the wrath of Banks at one point. Most importantly, the Twitter beefs and controversies made her an exciting shit starter. By the time she dropped her debut mixtape Fantasea and Interscope-backed EP 1991, interest turned into light anticipation.
Let’s be honest, Banks is a tough sell. Especially, in today’s urban market that has strict rules for what defines R&B and rap. Her particular brand of House/Electronica influenced music just doesn’t hold much clout in terms of musical palette. Most of 1991 was produced by Machinedrum and Lone outside of the Lazy Jay produced “212.” I’ve had the pleasure of seeing phenomenal sets from both producers and they’re pretty lit. Unfortunately, they’ve also come with the “few black men in the room” syndrome. This essentially makes her grievances against mainstream Hip Hop press and black media almost natural in terms of music taste. She’s an obscure artist whose mouthiness makes her likability difficult. Simply put, Banks is one walking contradiction. Watching talking heads, media, fans and everyone in-between react to her has been nothing short of fascinating from all angles. It’s flat out entertaining and mind-blowing in that reality television show surprise revelation kind-of way. The reason? Like many 20-somethings occupying the “next popular hashtag” social media realm today, her ideologies are widely all over the place.
Who doesn’t remember Perez Hilton and others within the LGBT community dubbing Banks homophobic despite being openly bi-sexual herself? Last year’s Hot 97 interview following the release of her often delayed and eventually independently released Broke With Expensive Taste opened up serious dialog about cultural appreciation in Hip Hop. Fast forward to last weekend, she’s blasting Hip Hop and black press for never showing her love, which, is debatable. Turning her back on that segment of the media, she essentially praised “white” publications before raising her flag as a proud black women days later. The flip between black feminist warrior and damaged victim is jarring and strangely enough, grounded in reality. These types of opposing attitudes aren’t new. There are people who find Kendrick Lamar’s black-on-black crime stance on “The Blacker The Berry” troubling regardless of how aggressively well meaning the Compton emcee sounded. A few years ago during the 2012 campaign for U.S. President, Lupe Fiasco and Roland Martin had a twitter spat over voting. These are the staunch racial views that are prevalent today and understandable if one looks beneath the surface. Blackness is just that damn hard to contextualize sometimes. Just to think, she openly opposed dating black men due to their “lack of appreciation” but, stood in support of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. It’s honestly no different than Donald Trump’s various disparaging comments regarding African Americans yet, actively going after their vote and some-what succeeding. The difference is that Banks comes from an honest and thoroughly asinine place while Trump sounds like an opportunists. In Bank’s case, she’s split between her inner Ben Carson and Angela Davis. When it comes to Hip Hop, inconsistency can be a human badge of honor.
That level of spectacle is relative to her musical output as well. Banks burned a lot of bridges before leaving Interscope. Losing powerhouse producers including Diplo, Pharrell and others should have put a cap on her musical output. Industry politics should have wiped her out completely. Regardless, Broke With Expensive Taste managed to become one of the most talked about albums of 2014 and still sets at a 77 percent Metacritic score without selling much. It was disappointing for Machinedrum and Lone to have a handful of beats hit the project though, hearing Banks tackle beats from Lil Internet and M. J. Cole came as a pleasant surprise. For someone dubbed a one hit wonder (another debatable claim considering “212” never charting well within the U.S.), Banks continues to have successful tour runs both domestically and internationally. Backed by well-known Los Angeles collective 1500 or Nothin, her recent performances could be some of the best this year. Ironically, a show some months back in Downtown LA’s Club Nokia featured an opening set by Zoe Kravitz fronted punk band Lola Wolf. Banks may never enjoy the potential of crossover success she had a few years ago but, that doesn’t mean she going to find herself irrelevant anytime soon. That is, unless she loses favor for making universally panned music.
