Gun click* What!? What!?… EY! EY! EY!… and 808 kick drums ensue. If you’re not familiar with these sounds by now, you will. Whether or not it’s a fad, ever since the Harlem Shake trap has arrived into the mainstream public consciousness and it’s opened doors for lesser artists everywhere to take the catchy, twerk-inducing beats and grab their slice of fame. And it only takes one look at popular female rapper Iggy Azalea’s most popular videos on YouTube to make clear her piece in all of this.
Looks like trap isn’t the only thing she’s picked up from the Harlem Shake
Better known by her stage name seemingly put together by a porn star name generator, Iggy being the name of her childhood dog, Azalea being the street that she lived on, Amethyst Kelly (which, come to think of it, sounds even more like a porn star’s name) has come a long way. While her first studio album, The New Classic, was only recently released on April 21st, it has already sold 375,000 copies and is the highest-charting female rap album since Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.
Originally from Australia, Azalea picked up rapping at the age of 14 while cleaning hotel rooms to save up money to take a holiday out to the states. What her parents didn’t know was that her little vacation would become permanent as she opted to never come home. So with no money, no family, she was 16 in the middle of Miami.
It wouldn’t be too long after that Azalea would release her first music video on her YouTube channel, aptly named PU$$Y.
I’m a bit speechless
A whilrwind two years would follow after the release of her first mixtape Ignorant Art including starting work on The New Classic with T.I.,opening for Rita Ora on her Radioactive Tour, and having Diplo produce her second mixtape TrapGold which introduced a heavy EDM influence in her music. Still, while Azalea demonstrates decent enough flow as a rapper, albeit doing it in with a South American accent that in no way represents how she actually talks, overall her work seems to be, much like mainstream trap, mostly flair and little substance. So while she’s enjoying extreme success in the public limelight due to her tendencies to say and do things like twerk on stage as well as her high profile personal life, dating the LA Lakers Nick Young, Iggy Azalea will likely run the course of the Harlem Shake, fading away as an at first fun, but now annoying part of our “anything goes” youth culture.