Azealia Banks doesn’t want to blow it any more. She suddenly cropped up in 2011 with single 212, bringing a refrain on cunnilingus into pop consciousness that apparently not even Samantha Cameron could resist. Banks’s cheeky combination of sexual awareness and a ready-for-kids’-TV grin hinted at huge potential – it didn’t hurt that she could undoubtedly rap, wrapping her tongue around rolling verses over 212’s explosive electronic beat. But in the years since, Banks has battled managers, labels and just about every celebrity on Twitter whose actions she’s deemed worthy of an online diss. Her fans have grown frustrated.
When she skips out on stage in Brixton, trademark smile stretched wide across her face, there are no signs of that tumultuous backstory. Confetti fires from above the stage into the roaring crowd as Count Contessa blares out, and Azealia spits each verse with self-assured confidence. Dressed all in black and weave a-flowing, thanks to five wind machines pointed at the centre of the stage, Banks looks elegant and stylish. That maturity extends into her performance – though she’s visibly having fun, voguing with her two dancers and beaming at the crowd, she’s concentrating on hitting her notes when she sings and ferociously rattling through her lyrics when she raps.
“London, I love you so much – thank you to my fans for sticking with me through all the ups and downs,” she says, stopping to briefly catch her breath between Atlantis and Chips. Her set is relentlessly high-energy, bounding from singles Heavy Metal and Reflective and 1991 to her Fantasea mixtape’s Fierce, with its sample from Jack & Jill’s Fierce Talk II and links to ball culture in 90s New York’s gay and transgender community. When confetti blows for a second time, during 212, Banks has the room on her side. If things go her way, the fans will follow when her long-awaited debut album, Broke with Expensive Taste, finally drops.
• This article was amended on 22 September 2014. The original article stated: Her set is relentlessly high-energy, bounding from singles Heavy Metal and Reflective and 1991 to her Fantasea mixtape’s Fierce, with its sample from 1990 documentary on New York’s gay and trans gender community, Paris Is Burning. When confetti blows for a second time, during 212’s encore, Banks has the room on her side.
