I think I finally get the appeal of Iggy Azalea

I think I finally get the appeal of Iggy Azalea

By: Brian Cotnoir

I don't think we'll ever see your name in that category

So Iggy Azalea has become quite popular with fans of Rap/Hip Hop, and all I can ask is; “Why?”.  From the first time I ever heard her sing, I didn’t think she was anything special, and did not get what was so appealing about her...but then again I’m a guy who believes that Rap/Hip Hop died in 1997 with Notorious B.I.G. (May he Rest in Peace). I still don’t get what her appeal is?  Yes, she is an attractive young woman, but physical beauty doesn’t compensate for lack of musical skill or ability.  She’s an Australian born Rapper who moved to the U.S. when she was 16 and lived throughout the Deep South, and when she raps she sounds like she’s trying to mimic how a black southern woman would rap.  That’s a poser in my mind (and the minds of others) and I am surprised that she even made it far (let alone has had two #1 hits as a rap artist, which in a d@mn impressive feat even today).  I’ve frustrated myself so much trying to figure out how the hell Iggy Azalea not only has a rap career, but has also found success with that career.  Then it hit me:  she’s not meant to be taken seriously because she’s a not a real rap/hip hop artist...she’s a parody rapper! :D           

I'm so Gangsta!

I can’t believe it took me this long to realize, I feel so stupid for not realizing it sooner.  I mean, it just makes so much sense to me.  I mean, since the earliest days of Rap/Hip Hop we have had white rap artists try to mimic black rap artists by trying to sound like them or singing about a similar subject matter, but even when a white rap artist finds success by mimicking black rap artist they are often later ridiculed.  Look at the Rap Artist known as Snow:  He was a white Canadian who rapped like a Jamaican and had a top hit with the song “Informer” in the early 1990’s.  Twenty Years Later we have Iggy Azalea who has the found similar success with her song “Fancy”.  Iggy’s just this generation’s equivalent of Snow, and I can guarantee that ten-twenty years from now we’ll probably see “Fancy” on a list of “The Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever”.      

#SoSerious lol

I came to this revelation while being forced to hear her song “Fancy” for the (what seemed like the) thousandth time. The beat to the song is almost identical to the beat from Tyga’s “Rack City”; nothing unique or original about it whatsoever. Then I actually paid attention to the song’s lyrics and I began to realize there was more depth to the song.  The opening line to the song is “First thing’s first/I’m the realest”: she is clearly making a jab at every rap artist whoever claimed that they were “Real” and “street cred”.  Even the chorus sung by Charli XCX is making fun of most rap songs: “I’m so Fancy/you already know/I’m in the fast lane/from L.A. to Tokyo/I’m so Fancy/Can’t you taste this gold?/Remember my name/’bout to Blow”.  It’s referencing every rap song where a rap artist is bragging about all the fancy things they own and how much gold they have.  Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX even make fun of how the irony in the rap songs when they sing about doing all these “Fancy Things” that are not the least bit fancy (I.E. “Trash the Hotel/let’s get drunk on the mini bar”).  Oh and another sign that this song is a parody: Charli XCX is British...that’s about the most Un-Gangsta thing you can be as a rap/hip-hop artist.  British people aren’t Gangsta, they never have been and they never will be, and remember that Iggy Azalea is Australian, and the first Australian immigrants were the British...so she has very little Gangsta credibility as well.                           

Even the music video for “Fancy” is a parody.  They’re parodying the 1990’s cult classic “Clueless”, which is one of the whitest movies ever made, so the fact that they chose that movie as the inspiration for their music video just vouches my belief that this a parody track from a parody artist.  Now, I’m sure many of you don’t believe me when I say that Iggy Azalea is a Parody Artist, I ask you to consider this:  take Iggy Azalea’s recorded track and replace her in the music video with a female comedian like Tina Fey, Lisa Lampanelli, Melissa McCarthy, or even one of the Wayans Brothers in the costumes from the movie “White Chicks”...wouldn’t you laugh your a$$ off if you saw that?  I don’t think I need to say any more to prove to you that Iggy Azalea is a Parody Rapper, who is not meant to be taken seriously.  She is just on the stage to perform, entertain, and make us laugh just like Vanilla Ice.