Racialicious Crush Of The Week: Azealia Banks

By Andrea Plaid

Courtesy: The Guardian

(NSFW–Lyrics. Don’t say we didn’t warn ya!)

I crush out hard on Azealia Banks because her potty-mouth lyrics make me little-kid giggle. And her visual world isn’t an intentional stab at big-D diversity or that dreaded p-word (“post-racial”), but a place, I think, more people live in than the media–be it a fictive universe or the real world--would want us to believe or give us credit for.

I know her jam, “212,” is the It Track now. But it’s not the song that I like so much as the video: there’s something just so performance-school Black fun seeing Banks bouncing in front of the camera with her male pal (which is a rare moving image to see in rap videos), rapping hard in the ear of that Everything-Is-Illuminated-Elijah-Woods-looking white guy, and then licking her lips with a “yeah, I did” sureness (video after the jump):

Or in this 2-minute vid (“L8R”) of silly-naughtiness boasting set at an afternoon barbeque:

But like I said, I don’t love those cuts as much as I giggle and wiggle to Banks’ “Liquorice”:

Here are the lyrics (the explanations are from and Rap Genius, though I have some serious side-eye about “cunnilingus being a “submissive act.” Another post for another day…;-)):

Look, niggas really wanna beat they chests, for B-A-N-K-S
These niggas be gorillas for the pin-k flesh
These niggas be vanilla, the chips be legitimate
They just want the pumpernickel sis in the linens with em
So since you vanilla men spend, can my hot fudge bitches get with your vanilla friends?
Hey, I’m the liquorice bitch, you know I’m looking for these niggas if these niggas is rich
I make hits , motherfucker, do you jiggle ya dick when ya bitch pop singing on the liquorice hit, ya know?

[HOOK]
CAN I CATCH YOUR EYE, SIR?
CAN I BE WHAT YOU LIKE, YEAH
I COULD BE THE RIGHT GIRL
TELL ME IF YOU LIKE YOUR LADY IN MY-MY COLOR
CAN I BE YOUR TYPE? YEAH. (2X)

I COULD SET YOU RIGHT, WHOA
HOW ARE YOU TONIGHT, SIR?
I’M LIVING MY LIFE, OOOH
HOPE YA FEEL ALRIGHT, YEAH

[Verse 2]
Hey, I’m the Liquorice bitch, you know I’m looking for these niggas if these niggas is rich
Ya got creme for ya colors and a blue eye too
“Hi, I wanna get the number to ya 212 line, maybe we could slumber, we could woo woo woo!“
Why I don’t do yay, but if you want to, fine
Your fantasy could get that pitch black
Cause it’s gon’ erupt when ya slip in betwixt that black snatch
Ya like blizzack-ker cat, ema-nem-manating where ya mizzat-mustache at?
Huh, I bet ya been extra gassed, bet ya really wanna touch up on themolasses ass
Bet ya really wanna tongue up on her kizzat today
Cause her kizzat sh-shaved, you wanna cuddle with ya bitch after, eh?
But I gotta dip I gotta get at the cake
Lotta scrilla to make, and the dick don’t fuck up any scrillac for Banks
No issues picking money over ha-ha, ya beige in her
She just wanna see the best in Greece with some gentlemen and check these beats in the sun
He just wanna see the wet-wet weave when I’m swimmin’ in the West Indies
Then I sit up and catch these breeze, sip a little bit of Rum & Ting, nigga

(vocal interlude)

[Verse 3]
These bitches know that I be on that black girl shit
That black girl pin-up with that black girl dip
Put that black girl spin up on ya whack girl tip
Ain’t official till it been up in that black girl kit
Pick out ya mans and attack real quick, I’ma hit him with that venom and that rap girl hip
I slip out the denims, know that black girl fit, get that Remy in a did and hit that black girl switch
Bitches better tan for the summer, and for the haters, quit that chit chat, and get ya paper
Quote the cinnamon, the cherry-melange bitch verbatim when I speak aboutya face in the clam with the flavors
Ya get that? And stimulate her
Take a lick up on my genital, then sit to savor
Do ya man’s and his liquorice interest a favor

Sexual braggadicio? Check? And hold on…did she just check Diplo and his I’m-not-an-cultural-appropriator-because-I-date-the-women-of-color-I-take-credit-for ass (and any other white person who thinks they get a Racism Pass because they sex it up with folks outside their race)? Totes check.

Banks herself says though she understands why the media are comparing her to Nicki Minaj–or bestowing her some weird “hipster” cred, like she’s “not like those ‘other’ rap artists”–she says Destiny’s Child, Aaliyah, Remy Ma, Lil Kim, Eve, M.I.A., Santigold–along with Interpol, Futureheads, and Bloc Party–influence her style more than Minaj.

Like I said, Banks–and quite a few of us–live in a far more diverse place than the media–be it a fictive universe or the real world–would want us to believe or give us credit for. And I love her for keeping that real.