Iggy Azalea’s decision to wear a Cradle Of Filth shirt has seen the media freaking out over its controversial content.
If you’ve ever found yourself listening to English extreme metal band Cradle Of Filth, you’d be aware that they aren’t exactly the sort of band that appeals to everyone. As you’d probably expect, the band’s somewhat confronting nature extends to their apparel as well.
In fact, back in 2016, we took a deep dive into the band’s most famous piece of merch, which has since been called one of the most controversial shirts of all time.
There’s every chance you’ve seen the shirt at a local metal gig, with the front featuring an image of a masturbating nun alongside the words “Vestal masturbation”, while the back reads “Jesus is a cunt” in large lettering. Let’s just say, it’s not the sort of shirt you want your nan to find in the wash.
Now, Iggy Azalea has scored some time in the spotlight thanks to her ownership of the infamous shirt.
Taking to Instagram on New Year’s Eve, the Aussie artist shared an image of herself wearing the shirt, though it was carefully cropped to only show off the top portion of the shirt.
Nevertheless, an eagle-eyed fan managed to recognise the shirt, with the Daily Mail writing an article about Iggy Azalea’s shocking fashion choice. “Iggy Azalea wears a SHOCKING blasphemous T-shirt featuring a topless nun performing a sex act,” their headline began, “and you’ll never guess what it says on the back.”
The singer since responded to the controversy with a series of since-deleted Tweets, joking that she was “too controversial for the metal community”, and noting that her “only regret is not posting it on Christmas”.
Image: Behold, the most controversial T-shirt in music history
In the wake of the controversy, Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth spoke to Metal Hammer about Iggy Azalea’s choice of clothing, delivering a typically humorous riposte to the whole ordeal.
“’I wasn’t at all surprised to see my mate Iggy in one of our shirts,” Filth began, “As not only has she extremely good taste when it comes to Black Metal, but the Antipodean rapper and I have been preparing a ‘phat as’ co-operation for some time now, we with me performing under my alternative monicker [sic] ‘Filthy F**kin’ Fresh’.”
On a more serious note though, this wasn’t the first controversy Iggy Azalea has been subjected to in recent times, with the ‘Fancy’ singer being criticised for her decision to keep performing after her backup dancer suffered a seizure.
Occurring during her show in Brazil on December 27th, footage shows Azalea continuing to perform while the remaining dancers attend to the fallen performer. While Azalea did indeed ask for a medic, she later defended her decision to continue in a series of Instagram posts.
“I thought she had just fallen/twisted her ankle,” she explained. “And it may sound harsh but; you keep singing until music stops & ask for a medic which is what I did. We are all really shaken up by what happened & just thankful she is okay.”
https://twitter.com/Azalean_Source/status/1078426947821154304
In a later message, Iggy Azalea responded to the sheer amount of fans heaping criticism on her, admitting the negativity had begun to take its toll.
“Sometimes I really feel exhausted by the world,” Azalea wrote. “It feels like ANY thing I do becomes an opportunity for people to tell me why I’m shit, why my music sucks, my clothes are ugly, why I don’t matter or why I’m a horrible person.”
“Everyone is just trying to make it through their day,” she continued. “Could we be a little kinder to each other? Seeing how much people enjoy being awful to one another is depressing.”
Check out Cradle Of Filth’s ‘Her Ghost In The Fog’:
