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Besides Nicki Minaj, the most talked about female in hip-hop is the Australian-born Iggy Azalea. The bodacious blonde’s ‘Fancy’ with Charli XCX is the default song of the summer, so obviously, Ms. Aze is getting a lot of attention. But now that her name is on everyone’s lips and we know her background and all, it’s only fair to wonder how long until she drops a track sounding like her actual self.
The irony in the first line of her household name-making track is lost on few. First things first: can one truly claim to be the “realest” with a flow that’s a borrowed Southern affectation? Of course not. It’s simply inauthentic. And though a bit of authenticity is always a casualty of an inked record deal (nobody is mad though), this cannot go on. If Iggy Azalea wants to continue to make music, she’s got to lose this southern twang she’s working with.
Who knows why she even bothers with it in the first place? She was born and raised in a New South Wales town of about 3,000 people that sounds like bumble-you-know-what (Mullumbimby). She flew to Miami at the age of 16 for the love of hip-hop. She says she’s been rapping since her days in rural Australia so…why the southern drawl? Hip hop is a global phenomena–people rap in all kinds of accents and languages. So, again–why does Amethyst Kelly (yes, that’s her REAL name) sound like a chick from the dirty dirty when she’s really from down under? There’s just no need for it. Plus, her raps would likely sound a hell of a lot doper if she just rapped in her own accent.
Even Questlove agrees. As he told Time magazine, “Part of me hopes she grows out of that and says it with her regular dialect—I think that would be cooler.” I mean…if Questlove says it, you pretty much have no choice but to change your ways.
Azalea has defended her accent time and time again, telling Complex last year, that she’s never rapped with an Australian accent. “It feels weird to me. It’s the inflection at the end of a sentence when I take a breath. Obviously there are people who rap in all kinds of accents. But for me, rapping is like singing: The breath patterns aren’t the same as when I’m talking, so it’s easier to change into whatever I want. I couldn’t talk in an American accent—I could, but it would sound very fake—but I can rap in one with no problem. Of course I’ve asked myself, “Does that make me fake?” I don’t think the voice makes me fake; it makes me an artist.” Mhm.
We wish Iggy the best of luck and all, but the fact of the matter is, if you’re going to come into the hip-hop game, you need to have an element of realness, and that’s not what she’s projecting. I mean, just look what happened to poor Ja Rule. Hip-hop is about telling stories, and we’re interested to hear the story of a country bumpkin from Australia–it’s simply one that hasn’t been told in the history of the genre. Iggy’s poised to tell it, but we don’t think anyone will be interested to hear until she starts keeping it real.
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[Photo Credit: Splash News]
