Azealia Banks - Coachella - 4/21/12

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Meranda Carter
See also: Our Complete Coachella Coverage

Safe bet that thousands of people shouting, "I guess that cunt getting eaten" in unison has never happened at Coachella before. Yet that's exactly what was heard yesterday during Azealia Banks' set. It was midday, and most of us weren't even drunk yet.

Last September, the Harlem rapper broke out with the video to her song "212." And it was with good reason: in cutoff jean shorts, a Mickey Mouse sweater and braided pigtails, the 20-year-old is the picture of innocence -- until she caps her first verse with the above chant. In the following months, she's pushed boundaries and, predictably, found a fan in Kanye West.

azealiabanks2.jpg
Meranda Carter
She casually mentioned she's bisexual before talking about her longtime boyfriend. She insinuated Iggy Azalea is racist and in the next breath labeled herself "pro-black girl." She called out Nicki Minaj for capitalizing on her looks although she herself did a photo shoot with Terry Richardson.

We didn't know what to expect from her set yesterday, but considering her training at LaGuardia Performing Arts High School, we had high hopes. She strode onstage in an outfit from the year she was born, 1991: shiny pleather shortalls with one strap undone a la Kriss Kross, a neon orange mesh top revealing electrical tape pasties and black combat boots. Maybe it was the outfit, her butt-brushing crimped red wig, or just her crotch-grabbing, but she had us thinking about Lil' Kim.

Of course, like most '90s babies-turned-rappers, Banks incorporates more than just hip-hop into her persona. She didn't have a hype man, but she did have two dancers vogueing -- an inspired touch, considering the dance originated in Harlem's house music community, and her sound owes much to the genre.


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Empire Polo Club

81-800 Ave. 51, Indio, CA

Category: General

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no_encore_for_you

Rebecca . . . What's with your Coachella reviews?  All of them are basically your personal judgments of people; they way they dance, dress, interview, things they say, etc . . . not even excluding the musicians themselves. 

"boring head swaying to Radiohead"?  So what songs did you catch at their set? HOW WAS THEIR SET?  Are we watching musicians posing as rock stars or rock stars posing as musicians?

Did you actually compile the dancing gif collection yourself?  you actually spent time recording people dancing (probably didnt tell em you were gonna dog em publicly did you?), and wrote an entire piece on how uncool it is?

Im calling you out. You went to Coachella, got fucked up (as you should) and mailed in some blog type shit. You either have a fantastic job and dont give a shit about music or you really love writing about music but you're just kinda not good about it. 

More Lester Bangs.  Less Khloe Kardashian.

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