The Second Wave: Azealia Banks

There’s something about Azealia Banks’ energy that makes everyone in the room feel like a group of old friends rekindling a past relationship with a quick kiki.

It’s a warm January day in downtown Manhattan and after arriving nearly two hours late to our shoot, the 26-year-old Harlem-native removes her velvet-textured sunglasses and leather jacket before making herself comfortable. “Don’t you feel good when you show up to set and everyone working is black?” she asks with a smile. Her hair and eyebrows are an unexpected bright blue, which she jokes is the reason she hasn’t been as active on Instagram as usual.

Just blocks away from us is the Starbucks on Spring Street and Varick that Azealia first took shifts nearly 10 years ago, hoping that her $8 an hour wage would afford her the opportunity to purchase the baby blue Alexander Wang bag of her dreams. Ironically enough, when Azealia and I step out for her cigarette break, she’s almost immediately approached on the street by a Marc Jacobs employee who asks for a selfie and if she’d be interested in receiving a few gifted pairs of shoes.

With an unlit cigarette in her mouth, she tells me about living on Long Island with her four dogs and two cats, and how cooking for herself five times a week has become part of her spiritual routine. Even as an artist whose presence is known all around the world, it’s not surprising that Azealia spends most of her moments at home cooking for herself. But Azealia does everything herself. She coordinated this shoot, is writing her first feature-length film and just shortly after her arrival, she reveals that she’s landed a new recording deal with the same label that houses the likes of Brian McKnight and Snoop Dogg, Entertainment One.

But she’s always been independent. In high school, Azealia Banks was an indie girl who loved vintage clothing and would regularly scan the Village Voice to see who was performing in the city so she could download all their songs on Limewire. Though she began acting and writing lyrics around the time she started attending performing arts high school, it wasn’t until her later teens that she wrote her first bars after her boyfriend’s rapping caught her attention: “I’m not the Don Diva, I’m beyond you Don Skeezers. I get cake from quick juxes with long heaters,” she raps to me before throwing her head back in laughter. “I don’t even know what the fuck I was talking about! But my boyfriend used to rap about guns all the time so I was just like, ‘Fuck it, I got a gun too, nigga.’”

In 2008, Azealia created a MySpace page which she quickly filled with her own music hoping to gain the attention of rapper M.I.A or Diplo. “That’s all I wanted,” she says. “I wanted to be in their clique! I wanted to go where they were going.”

And though she’s no longer 17, Azealia Banks isn’t that far off from the talented girl armed with sharp punchlines and a hunger for being at the top. The difference is, this time she’s got millions of naysayers she’s desperate to prove wrong. When asked what she thinks is the biggest misconception about her, she inhales for a few seconds before replying, “That I’m a mean person. Maybe it’s the way my brain is wired or maybe it’s the way I talk, but I’m really direct,” she says softly. “I don’t want anybody to be confused, you know what I mean? I kind of just say it and I think a lot of people take that as me being a really mean person, but I’m not. I’m actually really chill, I think.”

Rap is no stranger to controversy, but in 2017 we saw a great deal of emerging male artists who found themselves on the receiving end of unsettling accusations of violence and sexual abuse from women around the web. And yet, while these same artists (read: Famous Dex or Xxxtentacion) topped the musical charts and received endless praise from their peers, the industry was not as forgiving when it came to Azealia Banks. After a period of sensationalized headlines and public Twitter altercations, the rapper found herself blacklisted by the same people who have continuously supported her problematic male peers, once again experiencing the industry’s misogynoir tendencies in the same space that has leeched off of black women for years.

But for Azealia, 2018 is about healing. “I would just like to be respected as a working woman,” she says of her hopes for the year. “I want to be respected for my ability to produce, direct, write scripts, creative direct, sing, act, dance. I want to be seen as the asset to the art world that I know I am.” She pauses, before adding, “I’d definitely like to get into writing and directing my own stuff because I think I’m funny! And if Louis C.K and [Daniel Tosh] can get on the TV every fucking night and say all kinds of crazy shit and not have their voices policed, I think that I deserve the same allowance.”

If the music industry hasn’t given it to her, her more than loyal fanbase, who call themselves the Kunts, surely have, giving Azealia reinforcement through her ups and downs. Even when no one else would work with the singer, the Kunts offered constant unwavering support, creating a virtual community that filled her downtime and helped her create a new sanctuary. “I wasn’t getting booked for a lot of gigs and I was like, ‘Fuck it, I have all these clothes I don’t wear, so let me start a Depop store,’” she says. This “cheapy cunt” online shop eventually went on to become a full-fledged Shopify store, filled with clothing and gifts dating back to her “212” days.

It was the attention that this small social media boutique garnered that prompted Azealia to venture into something bigger, if not a bit unexpected: CheapyXO, an online Twitter clinic and source for skin care products, all with recipes crafted by Azealia herself. “Me and the Kunts would just sit around and daydream about what it could become,” she says of CheapyXo’s beginnings. “A lot of the Kunts made the packaging design, they built the website, they built the forums, they do the merch design. That’s why I love my fans, because the Kunts had me up and running when nobody else was booking me.”

Back at the shoot, Azealia goes on to tell me about every single one of her products, without missing a beat. In fact, of all the topics we discussed over the course of two days, CheapyXO is the one that gets her most excited. What started as a DIY project to help her combat a bad batch of face and body acne, eventually turned into a small beauty empire that Banks hopes to revisit in the coming months, after temporarily closing down shop to outsource production. Now, she’s on a mission to release a line of organic and hypoallergenic soaps, each one named after a track from Broke With Expensive Taste. “The ‘Miss Amor’ bar has a light bubblegum scent,” she squeals. “‘Miss Camaraderie’ reminds me of something you would hear from one of those things you hang above a baby’s crib – a mobile – so I put a baby powder scent in it.”

Also in store for 2018 is the follow-up to her 2012 mixtape, Fantasea II: The Second Wave, her first full-length project since Broke With Expensive Taste dropped four years ago. Though she’s tight-lipped about who we can expect to appear on her forthcoming project, Azealia reveals she’s had a vault full of music that’s accumulated over the years, and this project is where everything we love about AB finally comes together. “I want this record to sit with people like a time and a place,” she says, scanning everyone in the room. “I want people to be around their closest friends [when they hear it].”

Along with the release of Fantasea II, Azealia is also taking on the role of screenwriter and director in her very own feature-length film, also called Miss Amor, which she’s hoping will serve as the debut that she’s always wanted. “Love Beats Rhymes wasn’t my first debut — that wasn’t what the little girl in me who wanted to be an actress wanted as her first moment,” she says of her part in last year’s RZA-directed film, alongside Common and Jill Scott. “There’s been a big thorn in my side, you know? Even the Broke With Expensive Taste-era not rolling out the way I wanted it to,” she explains. “I wanted “Miss Amor” to be the first single, but they made me go with “ATM Jam” because it had Pharrell on it. And Pharrell didn’t even fucking promote the shit! So yeah, there are a lot of parts of me that are still angsty and anxious about the music industry,” she continues. “Maybe that’s why I feel so hostile sometimes, because maybe there’s a part of my artistry — like, a frustration — in not being able to express myself.” That’s something the star hopes to change with Fantasea II and Miss Amour. “I’m hoping to come out with this project and start to feel artistically back on track,” she admits. “Because even though Slay-Z was great and Broke With Expensive Taste was great, it just wasn’t what the little girl dreaming in Harlem would have wanted. Miss Amor is giving that little girl her dream.”

Dress: Lanvin

Still on set, Azealia requests a playlist filled with contemporary jazz tracks as she prepares to pose in front of the camera. Watching her, it’s not hard to understand why, even after years of controversy and public ridicule, she’s just landed a million dollar record deal. Azealia Banks is misunderstood. Despite her flaws, she remains a problematic fave who’s never surrendered her sharp tongue, and lyrical skills that have still been unmatched by many of her peers. So, don’t be surprised when Azealia Banks finally comes for what’s hers.

“What makes me unique is my fearlessness,” she announces while seated between takes. “True fearlessness in the sense that I’m going to be exactly who I want to be and you’re going to know exactly who I am.” She thinks for a second before concluding, “I’m just me, like fuck it. What else can I be?”

Taken from Issue 01.

Photography: June Canedo

Styling: Jessica Willis

MUA: Yanni Peña

Hair: Jade Staton

Assistant: Amber Alston

Special Thanks to Albright Fashion Library