Azealia Banks' debut album just got delayed—here's why that's a good thing

by Tyler Munro

August 20, 2012

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Should we just start assuming that when a hip-hop album gets its release date announced that it’s going to be early by at least a few weeks? The obvious examples are more extreme within the genre—Detox & The Greatest Story Never Told—but as of late it looks like MCs are always on their heels announcing one setback after another, and the long-awaited proper debut of Azealia Banks is just the latest example. Originally expected out this fall, the recent AUX Magazine cover star took to Twitter over the weekend to announce that Broke With Expensive Taste will instead be out in early February of next year.

Here’s the thing, though: she’s doing just fine even without a “legitimate” studio album to her name. On the same timeline that announced the delay is a series of tweets about her trip to Japan, where she performed at Summer Sonic 2012. And that, among other reasons, is why we should start writing release dates in pencil. The traditional album delay is dead: artists are regularly sitting on albums, tweaking them, while their own hype builds behind the scenes. These aren’t pressing problems—they’re marketing decisions. They’re releasing albums when they’re ready, not when the album is.

Banks was signed to a major label on the strength of her mixtapes and quick cuts, and with Fantasea and 1991 she’s kept the hype train chugging. More on that, she added in another tweet that she’s got a lot of “REALLY excitin ish happening,” and that the delays will start to make sense soon. We think it’s a smart move, and here’s why: it’s already worked for a bunch of her contemporaries. Let’s call this the Frank Ocean connection.

Frank Ocean was originally supposed to retool his Nostalgia, Ultra for a big label release, an idea that was first delayed, then nixed in favour of releasing Channel Orange instead. The reaction that followed speaks for itself.
Kanye West and Jay-Z had originally planned Watch the Throne as a five-song EP. Then it expanded into a full length, and the duo released their first single together in January 2011 with “H.A.M.” The problem is the song wasn’t very good, which led to some retooling. They brought in some new collaborators and producers, and at the insistance of Béyonce, a then-underground only singer named Frank. “H.A.M.” didn’t make the album’s full-release.
The first collaborative album from Kanye West’s G.O.O.D Music was supposed to be in our hands earlier this month. Then it got pushed back to an early September release. Then it got pushed back again. But it seems to be for good reason: with singles dropping to mass-attention, they’re pushing the album back to make it bigger and (presumably) better. Mos Def Yasiin Bay is expected to join in on the fun with the extra time, and Hit-Boy’s apparently going to get a bit more hands on with the extra two weeks. Look for Cruel Summer on September 18th. Maybe.

Tags: Music, News, Azealia Banks, Frank Ocean, G.O.O.D. Music, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Watch The Throne

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