New Zealand sensation Lorde and Aussie-bred rapper Iggy Azalea have slammed “spineless” music media for what they see as the two-faced way they profile and promote music.

In a post on her own tumblr page, Lorde has rushed to the defence of Azalea and the release of the LA-via-Sydney hip hop artist’s debut album The New Classic. Interestingly, Lorde takes issue not with the cringeworthy inappropriate interview Iggy Azalea had with a NYC radio station, but instead coverage by Complex magazine.

The ‘Royals’ hit-maker references Complex’s cover story on Iggy Azalea to help shift their magazine yet takes issue that in the same issue there is a scathing review of the rapper’s album, with the heading ‘Why Iggy Azalea’s The New Classic Isn’t Really.’ 

“[It] bugs me how publications like Complex will profile interesting artists in order to sell copies/get clicks and then shit on their records,” writes Lorde in her post. It happens to me all the time- Pitchfork and that ilk being like ‘can we interview you?’ after totally taking the piss out of me in a review,” she continues.

“Have a stance on an artist and stick to it. Don’t act like you respect them then throw them under the bus.” “…That ilk being like ‘can we interview you?’ after totally taking the piss out of me in a review.”

As well the tumblr post getting the attention of Canadian DIY pop futurist Grimes, who re-posted Lorde’s comments with a “hahaha yes – I agree with this,” it also reached Iggy Azalea who applauded Lorde’s support on Twitter with a few attacks on the music media of her own.

“The whole things actually pretty funny,” continued Azalea. “The media will beg for free tickets to your show just so they can write about how much they hate it etc etc, I wish you could all see it… They also love to have upbeat bubbly mid 20s women do the daily blog posts about you… But keep a stash of pseudo intellectual middle aged men in sandals at hand ready to review everyone’s albums.”

She concluded by declaring that “those guys (media) don’t shape culture, you guys (fans) do… Remember that and I promise I will too.”

For their part, Complex magazine picked up on the criticisms and hit back with their own piece entitled ‘Why Lorde, Iggy Azalea, & Grimes Are Wrong About Criticism and Journalism’, in which they write it would be “bizarre for any media organization that claims to have any journalistic integrity” to operate to Lorde’s wishes of ‘choosing a stance and sticking to it.’

“It would do away with journalistic integrity all together. Lorde – as well as Iggy – seem to confuse press as ‘respect’ and criticism as being thrown ‘under the bus’,” Complex Associate Editor Insanul writes. Concluding, “we’re not going to treat artists like they’re above reproach just because we profiled them. Why? Well, because that would just be plain spineless.”

It’s the latest in a series of artists that have gone on the attack over poor critical reception lately. Including The Cure’s Robert Smith writing a fiery ALL CAPS takedown of a writer bored by their epic three-hour charity benefit concerts; Mobb Deep attacking a Pitchfork scribe after they gave the rap duo a perfect (and very rare) 10/10 score; plus The Jezabels singer Haley Mary slamming music reviewers to “fucking get a real job” for their negativity.

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