Her publicist, whose handshake shares the strength of a bodyguard's, constantly pricks his ears with Iggy's every utterance. Her hair stylist-a man also called Iggy, a glimmer of light-ish relief-fixes plaited weaves to her head. Her friend sits to the side, as does her dresser. Iggy talks while staring in the mirror of a grooming station. “Because I'm a white woman from Australia.” (Nothing we talk about is especially funny.) The laugh ends abruptly when I ask: Really, why? “Um.” She lowers her head, she softens her voice and with a look of unequivocal shame she responds.
A-ha-ha-aha.” These “a-ha-ha-aha”s are over-the-top nervy laughs that pepper the entire hour. I don't think they wanted me to be successful to begin with. People would like to pretend I never existed. “Remember that? Acknowledge it ever? Didn't then? Don't now? Does that surprise me?!” She spits out “surprise” like a piece of rotting fruit. You wonder if it's maybe a surprise that people don't. Way back when, Iggy Azalea was selling more hip-hop records than Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West and Jay Z. They were accessible hip-hop records featuring mimicable Southern-aping rhymes and trap-lite production dumb popular in the way that Kygo or Marshmello or G-Eazy are currently.) She was the protege of TI.
(Let’s note though, that’s not because they were good hip-hop records. Her debut album The New Classic (released on Def Jam) was nominated for four Grammys and enjoyed a hat-trick of hits: “Fancy” (featuring Charli XCX), “Black Widow” (with Rita Ora) and “Work.” She duetted with Ariana Grande on the pop star’s hit “Problem” and became the first act since the Beatles to hold both the Number 1 and 2 positions for debut entries on the Billboard 100. In 2014, she was the most successful female rapper to emerge since Nicki Minaj. She drags her feet along the floor in Balenciaga sliders. Not Bambi eyes sad, either: sad like the eyes of someone who is fed up. She climbs out of the car and walks straight through the studio. She pulls into the lot in her black Rolls Royce. Running behind schedule, the Australian rapper drove straight past the photoshoot off Sunset Boulevard and now has to re-route. Ketukan drum yang berderap berseling dengan bass yang berat yang terdengar monoton justru menjadi kekuatan utamanya dalam memberangus pendengaran untuk terjerat dalam belitan jaring sang laba-laba hitam.Iggy Azalea is lost. Menariknya, sebagaimana Dark Horse milik Perry, Black Widow juga memakai Trap yang tengah populer sebagai balura utama lagunya. Kolaborasinya dengan Ora juga cukup kompak. Tidak perlu berbicara panjang lebar tentang bagaimana kualitas rapping dari Azalea.
Rap ala Azalea tetap terdengar “fancy” seperti biasanya.
Namun, karena satu dan lain hal batal dan kemudian diserahkan kepada Azalea yang menulis ulang dan menjadikannya sebagai lagu Hip-hop, meski tentunya tidak melepaskan semangat Pop-nya dengan begitu saja.īertema feminisme, Black Widow terdengar gelap, meski tetap terdengar catchy. Tidak mengherankan sebenarnya karena Perry merupakan salah satu penulis lagu dari Black Widow, bersama Sarah Hudson, Benny Blanco, dan duo Stargate yang juga bertugas sebagai produser.Īwalnya lagu ini memang diniatkan untuk terdapat dalam album Perry, Prism. Selintas memang agak mengingatkan akan gaya bernyanyi ala Katy Perry. Power dan intensitas ditiupkan dengan prima oleh Ora. Vokal Ora melaksanakan tugasnya dengan cukup baik. Ora bertugas untuk menyanyikan hook pada chorusnya. Lagi-lagi ia menarik penyanyi Inggris untuk menemaninya dan kali ini giliran penyanyi yang tengah menanjak namanya, Rita Ora, untuk menemaninya. Setelah kesuksesan raksasa Fancy, ia kini siap menyusul dengan single terbarunya yang bertajuk Black Widow. Iggy Azalea semakin menujukkan taringnya.