The beefing between the two hip-hop artists, Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks, indicates a misapprehension existing on hip-hop’s history. According to Chang (2021), the beefing between the two artists can be related to professional jealousy. The article depicts no events of terrorism since its main focus is on the appropriation and exploitation problem in the genre culture of hip-hop music. Hip-hop began in the 1970s in the west of Bronx, New York City, and has since then grown widely in its popularity. A 2018 report indicates that the hip-hop genre has a 21.7% share of music album consumption in the United States (Saunders 2016). Due to the competitive nature of the market, artists try to survive by beefing with their competitive counterparts and outdoing them from the market, as in the case of Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks. The beefing between Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks rotates within black culture and being undercurrent, portraying a clear picture of racism. Therefore, the article does not display any events of terrorism but addresses racism and hip-hop’s appropriation problem.
The act of being humiliated by a fellow artist can lead to terroristic actions. In an interview at New York Hot 97 by Peter Rosenberg, Azealia Banks became emotional and immediately broke into tears when trying to explain how black issues are entirely termed undercurrent (Chang, 2021). However, according to Saunders (2016), 49% of the white population agree that hip hop represents America’s modern music. Considering the article, it is wrong to say that the racism beef between Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks, which have escalated to Twitter, can lead to terrorism acts because they argue on such issue as genre appropriation. Iggy Azalea accuses Azealia Banks of focusing on racism to gain fame instead of using Hip hop skills to be appealing to the general public. However, Saunders (2016) claims that Iggy Azalea may not dominate the hip hop landscape after mimicking the black artists. Therefore, it is unlikely that the two hip hop artists’ cultural misunderstanding can lead to terrorist events.
While the article focuses mainly on racism, the complexity of motives and targets to define terrorism in the considered context is challenging. From the interview on New York’s Hot 97, Azealia Banks recalls how the American Capitalism regime treated black people. Introducing the white appropriation rap indicates the efforts laid to snatch away the only sense of belonging the blacks are left with as they try to erase the black dominance in the genre of hip hop music. Saunders (2016) claims that 69% of the total black population agree that hip hop music represents America’s modern music. A keen review of the interview reveals the difficulties of understanding and defining terrorism (Hoffman, 2017). However, it is evident that the beefing between Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks constitutes no act of violence intending to create terror. Therefore, the article provides a deep understanding of racism in the music industry, resulting from a cultural and historical misunderstanding of hip hop. It does not focus on any event of terror than and discusses the escalated beefing, which has further indicated how music can be misunderstood.
In conclusion, the beefing between Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks represens the issue of the misapprehension of information. The beef started as normal professional jealousy among American hip hop rappers but escalated to racial discrimination. The personal emotions which Azealia Banks demobstrates in the interview indicate a different understanding of information. The artist understands hip hop as a black thing, while Iggy Azalea claims that Azealia Banks uses racism to gain popularity. However, the article has indicated no form of terrorism but clearly shows how misinterpreted information can lead to unnecessary arguments that may cause racial discrimination.
References
Chang, J. (2021). Azealia Banks, Iggy Azalea, and hip-hop’s appropriation problem. The Guardian. Web.
Hoffman, B. (2017). Inside terrorism (3d ed.). Columbia University Press.
Saunders, T. (2016). Towards a transnational hip-hop feminist liberatory praxis: a view from the Americas. Social Identities, 22(2), 178-194. Web.