Last month, Sydney-via-LA producer Anna Lunoe decried the inappropriate attitudes towards female musicians after being the subject of a borderline sexist interview, calling for an end to the objectification of women in music.
Clearly, these two American radio hosts didn’t get the memo…
Aussie-bred, American-based rapper Iggy Azalea appeared on New York hip hop radio station Hot 97 this week to promote the release of her full-length debut album The New Classic, as Pedestrian.TV reports. But the conversation swiftly turned to focus on the random sexual assault that the 23-year-old MC experiences at her gigs, the “puffiness of her butt”, and her ‘bedroom behaviour’.
To be fair, Azalea sets the cringe wheels in motion; when asked about why she has had to stop crowdsurfing at her concerts, she abruptly responds “I’m only doing like 2000-seaters, but I still have to have barriers even if it’s like 200 people because people try to finger me.”
As well as bulking out security to stop the random acts of anonymous rape, Azeala further explains she gets “lurk tweets for like a week before my show, like ‘I’m about to go to the Iggy Azalea show and I’m going to finger her,” and I’ll see it and be like, ‘please don’t! That’s a violation.” “Why would I want a stranger to ever finger me? Buying my album for $12 doesn’t mean you get to finger me when I come to your city.”
She continues to say that the illicit nature of her lyrics and music doesn’t advocate sexual assault. “They think I’m real slutty, like ‘Oh, she got a song called ‘Pu$$y,’ I know what she wants,” she says.
“She wants these two fingers. Why would I want a stranger to ever finger me? Buying my album for $12 doesn’t mean you get to finger me when I come to your city.”
Though her tone could be considered somewhat playful, the two male radio hosts – Ebro and Peter Rosenberg – begin to press the Aussie-born musician further about the issue, under the guise that they don’t advocate such behaviour (yet want to hear more).
Azalea responds by saying that it’s more commonly females than males that target her, “Girls will try to do it more than guys ’cause girls think it’s cool, like, ‘We both got vaginas, it’s fine.’ Doesn’t make it okay,” she says.
Other less-than-charming commentary from the male pair include mentioning how Iggy lets Nick Young – her NBA basketballer boyfriend “intrude” her, while asking “how swaggy is his P?” Yes, really. And Iggy’s temporarily muted response is exactly what you’d expect.
Things get worse, however. See if you can squirm your way through all 11 minutes of the Hot 97 interview below as you ponder ‘Is Hot 97’s Ebro the New York equivalent of Kyle Sandilands?‘
In related news actually about Iggy Azalea’s music, the rapper’s debut album The New Classic was released overseas earlier this week and is already climbing to the heights of international charts. The record is currently sitting at #1 on the iTunes charts in the US and Canada as it climbs into the Top 50 of the US Billoard Albums Chart. Over in the UK, it’s currently #3 on iTunes and #2 in the midweek chart.
In her native Australia, The New Classic doesn’t drop until ANZAC Day (tomorrow, Friday 25th April) but already her single ‘Fancy’, starring English singer Charli XCX, has achieved Gold sales status Down Under. Largely thanks to its early release in Australia off the back off the Clueless-inspired video starring Iggy Azalea and her collaborator.
