These days, the women who cover Playboy are also the subject of an article within the magazine. The latest Playboy cover star is rapper Azealia Banks. We've already seen a few photos from the shoot, and now we get the text to the interview Playboy recently conducted with the Harlem rapper.
Azealia Banks is not one to censor herself, on social media or otherwise, and her chat with Playboy is no different. She begins with her hatred toward the United States: "I hate everything about this country. Like, I hate white fat 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."
She also thinks the general curriculum in America is damaging to black students: "All you know as a black kid is we came over here on a boat, we didn’t have anything, and we still don’t have anything. But what was happening in Africa? What culture were we pulled away from? That information is vital to the survival of a young black soul." As you can see, Banks has never been one to shy away from the topic of race: "Black people need reparations for building this country, and we deserve way more fucking credit and respect."
She goes on to say that Jay Z is the only person in music she cares to emulate: "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?”... 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."
She follows by acknowledging the controversy inherent in her statements, though she says the media's quickness to scrutinize her is also due to race: "Lorde can run her mouth and talk shit about all these other bitches, but y’all aren’t saying she’s angry. If I have something to say, I get pushed into the corner."
What do you think about Azealia's comments? Catch Azealia covering the print edition of Playboy, which hits newsstands tomorrow (March 20).