Last month Azealia Banks made an official return with her latest single “Anna Wintour” after a period drenched in drama and Internet quarrels. Riding the growing wave that accompanied the track, Banks has been in a rebuilding phase that sees the controversial rapper making an effort to shift the focus back on the music that made her a viable name in the industry to begin with. In that same regard, she’s making the press rounds and notably began with her debut on "The Breakfast Club."
Among the topics on the chopping block were her new single, her opinions on Kanye West, Janelle Monae, Hillary Clinton, and her ongoing spat with former mentor RZA.
Toward the beginning on the interview, Banks addressed her newfound comeback, detailing her experiences having to adjust to being blacklisted and being allowed to return courtesy of the “powers that be.”
“The powers that be have given me some leeway,” she explained. “I’m back a little bit. They let me stick my head through the window, they didn’t let in the door yet […] Of course I had to change. I don’t know what I’ve had to change. But, I feel like I’ve changed. I feel different. I don’t feel as tense as I did when I first came out. Just tense, angsty. I’ve been trying to grow and change for a very long time and I just haven’t been given the room to do that.”
Soon after DJ Envy asked Banks to clarify her comments on Cardi B, in which she called the “Be Careful” rapper an “illiterate, untalented rat” in a recent rant. Allowed the room to offer some context, Banks provided some more background into the bone she’s picked with Cardi, citing a disappointment in representation of black women rather than any beef with Cardi herself.
“When I look at black women’s culture as a whole thing and you think about the media and the power that the media has. The media had the power to get rid of me and the media has the power to make anyone the forefront,” she offered. “Two years ago, the conversation surrounding black women’s culture was really reaching an all-time high and we were really like discussing our power amongst ourselves, Beyoncé came out with Lemonade. There was just this really, intelligent conversation going on nationally and then everything just kind of changed and then it was like Cardi B […] I’m just talking about this caricature of a black woman that black women themselves would never be able to get away with.”
While Charlemagne went on to note the expansion of the talk stating that in addition to Cardi B the conversation now includes the likes of Issa Rae, Tiffany Haddish, and Ava DuVernay, Banks specifically pointed to other details like Cardi B’s spelling, stating that if she or Nicki Minaj’s own spelling was as bad, they wouldn’t be able to get away with it. It’s a pretty interesting point of view that takes life at the 21:33-minute marker. Catch the full interview down below.