Throwing Down the Gauntlet, Iggyazalea , Is Back with a Trope
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
renown / fame Iggy Throwing down the gauntlet, IGGY AZALEA, is back with a trope-altering second album that’s all about her. THERESA HAROLD and JANICE JANN report from the frontlines of Glamazalea Photography / Dennis Leupold Creative direction and styling / Paris Libby On cover photo Dress _ Lever Couture Eyewear _ Sama Eyewear Dress _ Céline Bikini _ Beach Bunny Swimwear Top _ DSquared2 Shoes _ Grey Mer Bikini bottom _ Moeva Ring _ Neil Lane Shoes _ Manolo Blahnik 156_#legend_May 2016 May 2016_#legend_157 renown / fame “FIRST THINGS FIRST, I’m the realest,” raps Iggy Azalea on her debut album, The New Classic. “Fancy” featuring Charli XCX is an electro-hop ode to the finer things in life. By “champagne spillin’, you should taste that”, I-G-G-Y launched herself at the global consciousness. “Fancy” was the soundtrack of 2014, played on radio stations, at summer camps, pool parties and infinite road trips. It also became Azalea’s most successful single to date, earning her the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The same week, her collaboration with Ariana Grande, “Problem”, sat pretty at No. 2. Up to that point, only one other act had reached one and two simultaneously with their debut Hot 100 entries: The Beatles. If sharing such a feat with The Beatles wasn’t time. Then again, if every successful rap artist enough, Azalea became the first female rapper needed a hard-knock narrative, Kanye West with roots outside the United States – she’s would not be one of the best-selling artists of Australian – to dominate the Billboard Top all time and Drake’s “started from the bottom” R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The New would not have been an affluent Toronto Classic pervaded the US, Europe and back neighbourhood. No, Azalea’s journey from home. More accolades followed: second Mullumbimby to Miami was not the industry’s female rapper to reach No. 1 (Lauryn Hill was rags-to-riches trope. It was a move all her own. first); seven consecutive weeks at the top (a Amethyst Amelia Kelly was born in Sydney record at the time), and one of 13 female artists and raised in Mullumbimby, a small rural town to hit the top spot with their debut single in Australia with a population of 3,000. Her (Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” stage name comes from her childhood dog was the 14th). Then award nominations and Iggy and Azalea is the street she grew up on. statuettes streamed like her spilled bubbles: Her family still lives there. But Azalea craved a the Grammys, MTV Video Music, People’s separate reality. She longed to live in America, Choice, and the MOBOs. Her upward having fallen for the country and it’s all- trajectory seemed easy, almost effortless, as pervading American Dream during an earlier if she had been blessed with a triumvirate of road trip with her grandparents. However, beauty, talent and luck. Unlike the icons of her growing up an outsider did have one perk: “It Top _ DSquared2 chosen genre, hers was not a story of hustling definitely prepared me because I’m sure as Bikini bottom _ Moeva Shoes _ Manolo Blahnik on the streets, growing up in a ghetto or serving hell still an outsider now. But I like being an 158_#legend_May 2016 May 2016_#legend_159 renown / fame began building a network of contacts. She met future collaborators and went to work putting out mixtapes and videos online. She credits her breakthrough to the power of YouTube and the Internet’s ability to help fashion a fan base. Although tracks such as “Work” and “Pu$$y” earned millions of views on YouTube and even unexpected fans like Jessica Alba who endorsed “Pu$$y” on her Facebook (“I didn’t think someone so graceful would appreciate something so crass but that’s cool,” says Azalea of the connection), she remained “I would never aspire to being a boring person, unsigned. But sheer weight of numbers swayed the industry and Azalea struck a record deal nor regret being a ridiculous one” with Island Def Jam. A modelling contract IGGY AZALEA and tour with Beyoncé followed, before the long-postponed release of The New Classic in April 2014. Hot on those heels came a fashion collaboration followed with footwear brand Steve Madden, the charting hits and, of course, outsider, an underdog. It surprises people and all the Twitter and tattle that comes with I always like to surprise people,” says Azalea. being both famous and a woman. The Internet The trip and her teenage love of Busta is the sharpest of all double-edged swords. Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Field Mob and 2Pac Matters came to a head early last year, when sparked something. After saving money Azalea decided to take a break from social through a series of menial jobs, Azalea, then media. Management took over the running of 16, told her mother she was taking a two-week her accounts, letting Azalea, in her own words holiday to the US with a friend. Instead she “take a step back”. Today, to the delight of her flew solo to Miami, intent on escaping the self- fans – with whom she interacts on a near daily styled “Biggest Little Town in Australia”. At basis – she is back. But with boundaries. “I feel the time, she knew only one person in America. like I would have no problem with technology Azalea knew the move was brazen but if I could use it without having everything I say couldn’t imagine how else she was going to on it turned into an article for somebody to make it. “I always had big aspirations and it write and in turn for somebody else to read. I seemed illogical to me to take logical steps think if I was just a normal person using social to achieve something that was so extreme media, I would have Snapchat, but I feel like I as what I wanted to do. So it wasn’t scary for need to have a disconnect to be sane.” me. I’d be more scared to sit in an office my So far, so good. Gone are the arguments entire life. Living a life where you almost know with pizza delivery chains and fellow rappers. what to expect every day scares the shit out In their place are pictures of beloved horses, of me. Even if I weren’t a musician, I don’t humorous stories about her two bulldogs think I would fit into any traditional work and the inevitable plugs for upcoming songs. environment.” Among all that is a young woman discovering Top _ Liana Chaplain From Miami to Houston to Atlanta, Azalea the power of her platform. She has taken a 160_#legend_May 2016 May 2016_#legend_161 renown / fame Dress _ Lever Couture Shoes _ Giuseppe Zanotti Eyewear _ Tyche & Iset 162_#legend_May 2016 May 2016_#legend_163 renown / fame stance for gay rights by using Twitter to shine a spotlight on the Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade last month, where she was the guest of honour with Elvis Duran. In interviews, Azalea has expressed her willingness “to do what’s right” by refusing to perform in countries such as Russia until they end persecution of the LGBT community. Still, Azalea does not consider herself a role model. She says, “As a role model, I don’t think I’m a great one. But I would let my child listen to my music and I think I’m a cool person. I think I have a good “ I don’t sit in the studios wondering what somebody’s message. I do consider what I do now knowing mom would say about my lyrics” there are younger people watching and there IGGY AZALEA are things I wouldn’t do on stage anymore that I used to do. But I don’t sit in the studios wondering what somebody’s mom would say about my lyrics.” It’s extremely nuanced and thoughtful answers like this that belie Azalea’s relative says. “One thing I liked was that they would youth. She turns 26 next month, in tandem incorporate made-up words like “zig-a-zig-ah” with the release of her second studio album and leave the meaning open to the listeners. I Digital Distortion. considered that when writing lyrics, caring not So what can we expect from this latest as much what the words mean most of the time offering? “WithThe New Classic, I was but leaving the words open to interpretation.” definitely trying to break into the mainstream Another influence Azalea often cites is and the album included what I thought Missy Elliott, but despite all the love the young would be successful and what people would rapper has for Elliott, the two have never met. gravitate to. With Digital Distortion, rather than “She’s tweeted me a couple of times which is following the trend, I was trying to create my pretty cool,” Azalea says, “That’s something – own trend. The intention is, ‘hey we live in this better than nothing!” What would Azalea say digital era, it’s really easy for people to distort to Elliott if they came face to face? “I would your character and let the record show, this is say, ‘hello?’” Azalea exclaims with a laugh, “I’m my character that can’t really be twisted’, and kind of shy with people I like. I don’t know if I I’m trying to sonically give you the vibe of what would have the courage to make a big speech I would want to represent myself as.” about how much I was influenced by her.