Azealia Banks Takes Aim at Pharrell & Kendrick Lamar in Playboy Q&A

Azealia Banks
Courtesy Playboy/Ellen von Unwerth

Azealia Banks on the cover of the April 2015 issue of Playboy.

When Azealia Banks posed for Playboy's April cover, she didn't leave much to the imagination in the photos or the accompany interview.

Touching on religion, sex, and why she hates a lot of America, Banks represents herself in the same outspoken way she does on Twitter, and she certainly isn't apologizing for rubbing some people the wrong way. (For what it's worth, she doesn't mention regular feud partner Iggy Azalea at all.)

When asked if people's negative response to her on social media is inherently racist, Banks replied, "It's always about race. Lorde can run her mouth and talk shit about all these other b---hes, but y'all aren't saying she's angry. If I have something to say, I get pushed into the corner....y'all motherf--kers still owe me reparations! [laughs] That's why it's still about race. Really, the generational effects of Jim Crow and poverty linger on. As long as I have my money, I'm getting the f--k out of here and I'm gonna leave y'all to your own devices."

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As a follow-up to that, interviewer Rob Tannenbaum asked Banks if she wanted to leave the U.S. "Yes! I hate everything about this country. Like, I hate fat white Americans. All the people who are crunched into the middle of America, the real fat and meat of America, are these racist conservative white people who live on their farms. Those little teenage girls who work at Kmart and have a racist grandma -- that's really America."

In terms of Americans she admires, Banks showed some love to Jay Z as someone whose career she would love to emulate. "That's the only person I have my eye set on," she told the magazine. "The race thing always comes up, but I want to get there being very black and proud and boisterous about it. You get what I mean? A lot of times when you're a black woman and you're proud, that's why people don't like you. In American society, the game is to be a nonthreatening black person. That's why you have Pharrell or Kendrick Lamar saying, "How can we expect people to respect us if we don't respect ourselves?" He's playing that nonthreatening black man shit, and that gets all the white soccer moms going, "We love him." Even Kanye West plays a little bit of that game -- "Please accept me, white world." Jay Z hasn't played any of those games, and that's what I like."

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For much, much more fans can read the full Q&A on Playboy's website


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