Fresh off the release of “Anna Wintour,” Azealia Banks made her first visit to “The Breakfast Club” on Friday. Over the course of an hour, the Harlem rapper broke down her disdain for Cardi B and her appreciation for President Donald Trump’s “bullshit.”
Azealia started off by saying that her mom listens to Cardi B and other artists. “She actually listens to all the new hip-hop stuff,” Banks said. “She’s listening to Cardi B, J. Cole, and Young Thug. I love some of it. I think a lot of it is kind of like, once you hear one of the songs, you’ve kind of heard them all.”
After saying that she listens to Janelle Monáe, Donald Glover, and Dave East, Banks went on to explain why she once called Bardi an “illiterate untalented rat.” “This is gonna sound really deep and like a lot of ideas all at once. This is a verbal stream of consciousness,” she said. “When I look at black women’s culture, you think about the power the media has, the media had the power to get rid of me and they have the power to make anyone the forefront. ‘This is what we’re trying to grab black women’s consciousness with right now.’
“I think that it’s very concerning to me, that this conversation surrounding black women’s culture changes,” she added. “Maybe two years ago, the conversation surrounding black women’s culture was reaching an all-time high. We were discussing our power amongst ourselves. Beyoncé came out with LEMONADE and there was a really intelligent conversation going on nationally. And then, everything just kind of changed and then it was like, Cardi B.”
She went on to say that Bardi represents “a caricature.” “I’m just talking about this caricature of a black woman that black women themselves would never be able to get away with,” she said. “If my spelling and grammar was that bad, I’d be canceled. If Nicki Minaj spelled like that, you’d just be ragging on her all day. I don’t understand how we go from Beyoncé, LEMONADE, and Solange, Black Lives Matter, and all of these conversations to this. I know we’re not monolithic, but come on…I just don’t understand the extreme lack of couth. I’ve never seen that at the forefront of female rap. I’ve never seen that. I didn’t know that the bar would be lowered so much. It was kind of like a culture shock. The bar went from Beyoncé/LEMONADE [to that].”
In an attempt to change the subject, Banks talked about Cardi’s pregnancy. “I think Cardi B would love ‘Anna Wintour.’ I think it would make her feel really good,” she said. “Maybe she should put the headphones on her belly and let the baby hear ‘Anna Wintour.'”
Elsewhere during the interview, Banks explained her past support for Donald Trump, while saying she “loves the bullshit.” Later, she called RZA a “fucking idiot.” Read additional quotes from the interview below.
On Trump: “Listen, I wanted a tax break. Everybody keeps trying to pin this love for Trump on me but that wasn’t the point…I feel like the system is the same on both sides…The American dream rests on a systematically pressed underclass, black people, Latino people, people in jail, people in China building shit for us for cheap. That’s just the name of the game. Either way you go, somebody is getting fucked. Wouldn’t you want to get a couple extra $30,000 back on your tax return? You’re getting fucked either way.”
On Trump (Continued): “You’re just cheapening the presidency now. Now, you’re just being sloppy. I’m also an American. I grew up watching ‘South Park.’ I love the bullshit. I live for the fucking bullshit. Calling Kim Jong Un fat and short, the videos of his toupee blowing in the wind, I love the bullshit. I think he’s the adult human Eric Cartman.”
On Perceptions: “People say I’m dope all the time. Music industry people say I’m dope all the time. Kanye West called me the future of music. Nas [said] ‘She’s got the full package.’ Solange bigs me up all the time. People like, love, and respect Azealia Banks. I don’t know why you keep trying to tell people that they don’t.”
On RZA: “I don’t give a fuck about RZA. RZA can call me when he’s got some money for me… It was embarrassing, all of the things that happened around the movie. It was really fucking humiliating. It made absolutely no sense to me. What director is gonna throw the star of his movie under the bus. You fucking idiot. It was really stupid.”
On RZA & Russell Crowe: “I really don’t give a fuck about these two fucking clowns. My biggest thing is, you guys fucked my moment up. That was my movie and you fucked it up, RZA.”
On RZA’s Drug Use: “I show up to the studio, and you’re fucking coked out. RZA’s a dummy. He’s really a dummy. Don’t believe any of that fucking gong-banging, nunchuck-throwing shit he be talking about. That ni**a is a fucking clown. The ni**a read one self-help book and…he thinks he’s some fucking sensei. Fuck him. After the thing happened, he put that whole letter on Facebook and he was like, ‘Azealia Banks and her psychiatric health.’ RZA was giving me money to go to the psychiatrist and he put that out there as if that was something to use against me.”