Azealia Banks is easily one of the most provocative artists in the Internet era, drawing controversy for her rap beefs, her political views, and much more. She often changes her mind on some of these matters, though. For example, Banks claimed back in 2018 that she would never return to perform in Israel after an allegedly racist experience, and even caught flack for some online remarks toying with antisemitic conspiracy theories about the entertainment industry.
But in the wake of the heightened tensions between Israel and Palestine over the devastating past two years, she is firmly on the former's side now. As reported by AllHipHop, the Harlem artist performed in Tel Aviv on Thursday night (October 9) at the Ganei Yehoshua amphitheater. Not only did this shock some fans given the aforementioned history, but it also comes as many other artists and media entities are boycotting the region due to the Israeli state's military and political acts against innocent Palestinian people.
Azealia Banks has posted about this a lot on social media, building hype for another Tel Aviv show later this month and clapping back at many of her critics. We will see what more she has to share about this show and her thoughts on this complex situation.
Azealia Banks Tel Aviv
Elsewhere, Azealia Banks is chiming in on other narratives. For example, she recently fanned the flames of Doja Cat fans when she suggested that the Vie artist is a Nicki Minaj copycat. "Ok I love the girls and love Nicki but we can’t just be riding Nicki’s d**k like this,” Azealia tweeted. “Like a teeeny bit of inspiration/borrowing is okay and respectful … but the full on Nicki cosplays have to stop because it’s almost like mocking her… Which is rude."
Meanwhile, other political views also caught heat, but she is happy to clap back at all the backlash to them. Azealia Banks has always been very outspoken, and we wonder what else she might share about this Tel Aviv performance.
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In any case, this controversy shows how divisive and tense pop culture is right now. Hopefully things start to heal up.
