Ahh, dear Azealia. Our sweet, foul-mouthed, butter-wouldn’t-melt-but-it-sizzles-and-spits trouble-addicted princess. Love her or hate her (and it’s a fine line, sure), the popular music landscape would be a poorer place without her. Like Kanye, like Pete Doherty, like… Miley?, she is in her own thunderously unique way a punk rock rock’n’roll star specially designed for the 21st century. Non-conformist; precisely zero flying fucks apparently given; a maelstrom of fascinating chaos and disorder encased in a deceptively talented human.
Ah, yes, the talent. Make no mistake, Banks is a formidable MC indeed – and it’s easy to overlook in the wake of her seemingly unstoppable disruption, but the girl got chops.
To the script, then. First off, ‘Crown’ is no ‘212’. It won’t destroy dancefloors across the land, it won’t act as a marker point in time, it won’t be anyone’s favourite Azealia Banks track. In that sense, it’s somewhat wanting as of course that early single set the bar so, so high. But as a showcase of Banks’ rapping skills it’s formidable.
Entering stage left over a bubbly beat that sounds as liquid and fluid as the spit it heralds, harsh staccato stabs announce a rapid-fire, relentless flow. “When I’m repping this crown / I be stepping in style I be breaking it down / doing feminine things / pink lemonade chain and my belly ring bling”, she raps vociferously on the track’s hook, calming down ever-so-slightly for a soulful middle-eight: “and baby no-one’ll ever ever love you like I do“.
Hang on a second… is that a chink in Banks’ armour? Did we just hear… softness? Perhaps she just needs a hug to stop her slagging off her peers and sacrificing all those chickens…
