I thoroughly enjoyed developing my What’s Up in Hip-Hop presentation. As soon as my group realized we wanted to discuss lesser known females I knew I had to discuss Azealia Banks. I Have been a fan of Azealia Banks since around the time of early high school. I was dazzled by her viral single 212 and like many others fell in love with the rest of her discography. Additionally while learning more about her personal life due to my interest in her I discovered that she had a whole public persona revolving around fighting with other celebrities on social media. I though at times it was entertaining because it is a bit comical to see such powerful, rich, and famous people fighting on the internet, however most of the things she would say were in very poor taste. Like I mentioned in my presentation her talent and personality are often clouded by her almost troll like internet personality. In this interview I personally believe this is a glimpse into the “real” Azealia Banks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFDS-VEEl6w In this video she discusses the white washing of hip-hop as well as injustices she has faced as a woman in hip-hop. The way she carries herself in this video moved me because she seems very passionate about black issues and it reminded me of a quote I wrote down from the reading Pheminists of The New School: “Hip-hop is a vehicle which to gain insight into how young African American women offer resistant voices.” This quote reminds me of Banks because obviously she has some great opinions and things to say as a woman of color, however her online persona often overshadows those things. Azealia banks also claims to be a hug supporter of the LGBT community as well as a member herself being a bisexual woman. This is practically unheard of in hip-hop so it is a refreshing new take and I thought it was important to include in my discussion in class. Additionally banks has been called out on using homophobic slurs in the past, but in this article she details why she acts the way she does and attempts to excuse it: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6620061/azealia-banks-homophobic-twitter-gay-bisexual. Overall I really enjoyed offering insight on an artist that isn’t as well known in mainstream media and I’m glad I chose Azealia Banks, because although controversial she is extremely interesting.