Music

Did Azealia Banks miss her window?

by Tyler Munro

via Instagram

Yesterday, rapper Azealia Banks Instagrammed the track list for her perpetually delayed debut Broke with Expensive Taste. I would have told you about this earlier, but I wasn’t sure it mattered. Honestly, I think she’s missed her window.

A lot was made of Banks’ quick rise after she signed to Universal following the success of “212,” but that wasn’t her first shot at the big leagues. Years earlier she signed a development deal with XL Recordings as Miss Bank$ but eventually scrapped that when she clashed with producer Richard Russell, who reportedly wasn’t sold on “212.” His mistake, sure, and maybe he was as much of a pain to work with as Banks is claiming. But there’s a pattern here.

Like last summer, when she fired her manager and ranted on tumblr about the public’s perception of her.

“From now on I’m a vocalist, and will not be associating myself with the ‘rap game’ or whatever the fuck that means,” she wrote. This was almost 6 months after she’d announced Broke With Expensive Taste. This was exactly fourteen months ago.

Since then, the album’s been delayed a handful of times. Originally expected out in September 2012, it was pushed back to February once the fall. Then it was pushed back to March. In July, she said it was finally finished and tweeted excitedly that we’d finally hear it in the fall.

Now we’re hearing it’s going to be out in January 2014, 16 months later than originally intended.

In that time, she’s confused with homophobic slurs, beefed with bloggers and pissed off Diplo, who had a hand in her early successes. On Wikipedia, her list of feuds is ever-growing: Lady Gaga, T.I., Iggy Azalea, Kreayshawn, A$AP Rocky and so on and so forth. She’s got into it with her idol Lil Kim, burned bridges with at least two of her past managers and ranted against the Stone Roses.

Azealia Banks keeps getting chances because of her undeniable talent, but the sideshow gets old when there’s nothing supporting it. What she needs is to twist the old adage; shut up and put up. If her window hasn’t closed, the gap’s certainly narrowing.