At the beginning of this year, rapper Iggy Azalea was pegged among a handful of Aussie artists set to crack America, and now the Aussie-bred, LA-based musician has – in a big way.
Back in May, Azalea occupied the top two positions on the Billboard charts for two weeks, with her Charli XCX-featuring hit ‘Fancy’ at #1 and her team-up with Ariana Grande ‘Problem’ at #2, which saw her becoming the first artist to equal a chart record set by The Beatles 50 years ago.
Azalea, who celebrated her 24th birthday this Saturday 7th June, has also surpassed Mariah Carey’s record – the singer holding the top two spots in September 2005 – with her two-week occupancy. Meanwhile, Azalea’s first full-legnth album, The New Classic, debuted at #3 in the US, hitting the Top 5 in the UK, and sitting at #2 here at home in Australia; proving that not even “spineless” music critics or borderline misogynistic radio hosts can stem what is Australia’s biggest rap export.
But all that fame and success and brought with it a fair number of detractors, some of which have questioned whether Azalea can really rap at all or if she’s just another manufactured star; and this latest video to surface online will only add fuel to their fire.
Recorded back in June from the front row at the B96 Summerbash, the footage shows Jennifer Lopez performing ‘Actin’ Like That’ with Iggy Azalea live for the first time at Toyota Park in Chicago.
Azalea is seen dancing while Lopez sings, but when it comes time for Azalea to start rapping she misses her queue. Unfortunately, her prerecorded rap that she was meant to lip sync to continues to play, and although Azalea tries to catch back up she eventually throws in the towel and dances around uncomfortably with her back to the audience while Lopez gives her a confused look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LHBHQY2XcA
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Of course, Azalea isn’t alone in using a rerecorded track during a live performance, the repeated use of lip syncing by pop musicians is well documented. This is however one of the first times a rap performance has been shown to be totally prerecorded.
The cringeworthy video reminds us of the equally painful appearance by Ashlee Simpson on Saturday Night Live.
During the now-notorious incident, Ashlee’s drummer hit the wrong but and cued up the wrong vocal track. Live on television, Simpson stood their with her microphone at her side and her mouth closed as a recording played her vocals from “Pieces of Me”, before dancing a weird jig and walking off stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RrLAgi_mBY
