Azealia Banks has always been a MESS… cancelling shows last minute, walking out on interviews, vulgar lyrics and her very infamous Twitter wars. Recently, however, she has started to tone down her wild ways and present herself as a business woman and a self confessed “millennial”. The rapper has sat down for an interview with the UK’s E4 News to talk about whiteness in hip-hop and to show her support for the brutal murders of black men in the United States.

I’ve long been a fan of Banks, from her 212 days to Yung Rapunxel, and having watched many radio chats and television interviews, I’m now seeing a total new side to her. Having also studied white rappers in my elective subject Music in Popular Culture, I have taken a large interest in this field. She talks about the fact that it’s “annoying’ and “discouraging” to see the appropriation of black culture; she mentions the fact that Iggy Azalea has made “big behind’s a thing” and Kylie Jenner making “big lips trendy” – whereas black women have been walking around with these assets since the beginning of time.

Her style of speaking and the facts and stories she shares not only represents black women, it also represents her generation. Being born in 1991 makes Banks a part of Generation Y, a group of people who were raised on technology and freedom. The fundamental line from the interview, to me, is: “I just feel like for centuries and centuries and centuries black people have been painted to be these animals and just be these crazy people when we are really not.” She talk about hip-hop being something that black people had created for themselves, and with Macklemore winning the GRAMMY for Best Hip-Hop Album in 2014 it just shows that “even something that you created for yourself, you aren’t even worthy of being recognised for.”

As you can tell, I’m very excited to be able to hopefully explore this topic some more in later topics as the idea of race, while it is such a controversial topic, is something that I am so heavily interested in.