I wanted Iggy Azalea to win. I really did.
The first song I heard from her was "Work" (and it's still my jam!) and I was instantly hooked. Not only was the song catchy, but Iggy had an interesting look and style. It's no secret that there is a shortage of white artists in hip-hop, especially women, so it was pretty cool to see a big-bootie white girl rapping her heart out. When she came out with "Fancy," I became an even bigger fan (as did the rest of the world.) People who had never heard of Iggy Azalea were now vibing to her music and cheering her on. She was unlike any other woman rapper out.
Then everything went downhill.
Iggy's first mistake was being a racist, homophobic asshole. Honestly, I don't understand why people don't delete their Twitter accounts and make new, professional accounts once they become well-known (or just don't post derogatory and disrespectful things in the first place, but I guess we can't all be decent human beings), but for some reason celebrities keep getting their old, offensive tweets thrown back in their face. Iggy was no exception to that.
https://twitter.com/IGGYAZALEA
https://twitter.com/IGGYAZALEA
Just when I wanted to forgive her, I got pissed off all over again reading those. People love to throw out the excuse that people "make mistakes" and that everyone deserves a second chance, but racism, ignorance, and homophobia are not the equivalent of forgetting your friend's birthday or borrowing your roommate's soap without asking. They affect a large group of people physically, mentally, and emotionally and come from deep-rooted prejudices and biases.
Most people can't just wake up one day and decide to never be racist again. It's a process that takes time and is only achieved through a personal and deliberate want to change, not because they were called out and their career and money are at stake. She even referred to herself as a "runaway slave master" in her song "D.R.U.G.S," so she has been saying and doing problematic things for a while.
Of course, people also tried to excuse her comments and say they weren't "that bad," but the people who were saying that were socially-disconnected white girls who think that anything that doesn't affect them is okay to turn a blind eye to, but as soon as they're called "Becky" want to cry and scream racism (yes, Iggy Azalea also did that, too).
Coupled with her nasty comments and faux ghetto girl persona, people were quick to cancel Iggy. No one likes a poser or anyone with a shitty attitude, and that's exactly what she was. Just as quickly as she rose to fame, she plummeted straight to the D-list. Now, Ms. Azalea is trying to make a comeback, with lots of booty shaking to accompany it. When she first stepped onto the scene, her large assets were striking and exotic, but now that everyone in the industry has a big butt, no one really cares about how large your ass is or how well you can shake it. Honestly, people expect that nowadays.
Iggy doesn't seem to understand that, though.
I can't even count how many times she has posted a video of herself twerking or a close-up picture of her butt.
I firmly believe that every woman has the right to show off her body and express herself the way she wants, but when that's all a woman does, it reeks of desperation. I don't care who will call me anti-feminist or sexist for that. It's just the truth. Iggy has devoted more time to showing off her body than she has to her career, which is actually kind of sad. The only song that has gained traction since her 2012 fall from grace is "Kream" and even then, the majority of the music video is her and a bunch of other women twerking.
Sex sells, so if that's what she needs to do to get views, then more power to her. But this same dog and pony show is getting old... very old.
People were never impressed with Iggy's lyricism and her new persona is just making her look more cheap and desperate. What happened to the "Fancy" days, or the "Black Widow" days, when she wasn't afraid to be sexy, but she didn't need to rely on her body so much (she didn't twerk once in the "Fancy" music video. She performed actual choreography). I firmly believe that she needs to show the masses that she is an artist, not a stripper. Her newest song doesn't sound unique and her bars are not skillful in the slightest. The only thing that even makes the video watchable is the twerking. (At least when Miley Cyrus went psycho culture-vulture, she had good music to go alongside her twerking.)
At the end of the day, I can't condemn Iggy Azalea for doing what almost every other female artist is doing. It seems that no musician can make a song or music video without referencing sex, twerking, or strippers, and quite frankly, it's disappointing. Maybe I'm more mad with the industry than I am Iggy. I just wish woman artists made us pay more attention to what they're saying, rather than the way their body looks and how it's moving.
