Azelia Banks Interview & Photo Shoot With GQ [Video/Pics]

In what seems like just a couple of months Azealia Banks has gone from a name many hip hop fans didn't recognize to one that people can't stop mentioning. A public beef with Iggy Azalea, a hit song with "212" and a tendency to say whatever is on her mind will do that for a person if they can pull it off. By all accounts, Azealia can hold her own.


GQ caught up with Azealia for an interview and photo shoot. Check that out below.


Azealia Banks broke through with the indelible black-andwhite video for her goofily raunchy song "212," in which she spits merciless rhymes out of the juiciest lips since Angelina Jolie's. The clip, shot cheaply and on the fly, went viral (4 million hits and counting), earning her a record deal with Interscope, a top-ten spot on Pitchfork's best songs of 2011, and a laundry list of boldfaced fans, including Kanye West, Gwyneth Paltrow, Karl Lagerfeld (who hired her for a party at his home), and Lady Gaga's style guru, Nicola Formichetti, who will direct Banks's next video.


The Harlem-born 20-year-old seems almost aggressively unastonished by the attention. "I definitely have more money and sh*t," she admits, "but that's all virtual stuff. I've been making music for a while. And I could read about myself on the Internet for a while." And meeting the likes of Kanye? "It's cool, but they're just people. The skies don't part and glow orange." As Banks begins recording her first album, is she listening to anyone for inspiration? "Everyone," she says, but mostly "Azealia Banks."