A few weeks ago we told you that Azealia Banks would be covering Playboy Magazine’s April issue and a few days ago we shared the coveted cover. Well, now Playboy has shared the full interview, along with additional pictures from the spread, which sees Azealia Banks diving into various topics ranging from sex, religion, race, and countless others. The New York rapper even mentions that she would like to emulate the career of Jay Z. Check out some excepts from the interview, below.
This has been an issue ever since hip-hop spread outside New York City. It’s a black art form that’s subject to being critiqued by people who don’t understand it.
When you rip a people from their land, from their customs, from their culture—there’s still a piece of me that knows I’m not supposed to be speaking English, I’m not supposed to be worshipping Jesus Christ. All this shit is unnatural to me. People will be like, “Oh, you’re ignorant because you don’t speak proper English.” No. This is not mine. I don’t even want this shit, so I’m going to do whatever the fuck I want with this language. I’m going to call you a fag or a cracker or a bitch.Are your creative impulses closely related to your destructive impulses?
Yes. In my adulthood I’m having to destroy all these things society really wants you to think. The history textbooks in the U.S. are the worst if you’re not white. “The white man gave you the vote. He Christianized you and taught you how to speak English. If it weren’t for him, you’d still be living in a hut.” I could write a book about why black people shouldn’t be Christians. Young black kids should have their own special curriculum that doesn’t start from the boat ride over from Africa. All you know as a black kid is we came over here on a boat, we didn’t have anything, and we still don’t have anything. But what was happening in Africa? What culture were we pulled away from? That information is vital to the survival of a young black soul.Is there someone whose career you’d like to emulate?
Jay Z. That’s the only person I have my eye set on. The race thing always comes up, but I want to get there being very black and proud and boisterous about it. You get what I mean? A lot of times when you’re a black woman and you’re proud, that’s why people don’t like you. In American society, the game is to be a nonthreatening black person. That’s why you have Pharrell or Kendrick Lamar saying, “How can we expect people to respect us if we don’t respect ourselves?” He’s playing that nonthreatening black man shit, and that gets all the white soccer moms going, “We love him.” Even Kanye West plays a little bit of that game—“Please accept me, white world.” Jay Z hasn’t played any of those games, and that’s what I like.
What’s a Playboy interview like without an accompanying spread? You can check out additional photos of Azealia Banks’s Playboy spread, here. The nude photos will be available in the magazine, which hits stands on Friday. if that wasn’t enough, check out the behind-the-scenes video of the photo-shoot, below.
