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Iggy Azalea: ‘I’m not going to suddenly start rapping about political matters’

Mar 2, 2016 celebrityabout

This is the second five-page, intensive, wordy magazine interview I’ve read in the past 24 hours. Tina Fey was worth it – Iggy Azalea is not. Iggy covers the new issue of Elle Canada and she looks like a sad Barbie doll in the editorial. While she freely admits that she’s had work done – and sure, I’m happy that she admits it – I still don’t understand why she’s messed with her face to this extent. She was pretty before all of this. Anyway, Iggy is about to release her new album, Digital Distortion. And she’s trying to rebrand herself in ways beyond her new face. In this Elle interview, she even comes close to sounding regretful. You can read the full piece here. She’s back on social media after a self-imposed hiatus: “I’m back. But this time I’ve given myself some rules so I don’t get too sucked in again. For me, what happened, not just on social media but with everything in my career, was like a whirlwind. I started to feel like I was losing control over my own life… I even think back to the Papa John’s incident and ask myself ‘Why did that piss you off so much?’ I see now that it spiralled into something so quickly because I felt like I didn’t have any power over my own life. At that point, I needed to take some time, step away and just get that control back.” Her fraught relationship with the hip-hop community: “So many people think that I don’t care about rap music and the community, but I absolutely care about it, to the core of my being. That’s why the Q-Tip incident annoyed me so much: Why do you think I need a history lesson? Because surely if I did know anything about hip hop, I wouldn’t mix pop and rap together? Or I wouldn’t rap in an American accent if I truly understood? I just have a different perspective about rap music. I love learning about hip hop, I love reading about it and I actually love having debates with other people about it.” Whether there are valid criticisms aimed at her: “Do you not like me because I rap with an American accent and I’m not American? Well, that’s valid on some level because that’s your opinion and I can’t change that. But I’m not trying to sound black—I just grew up in a country where on TV and in music and film, everyone was American or any Australian person in them put on an American accent. So I never saw it as strange at all. And I think it’s hard for Americans to understand this because, when you look at the entertainment industry, American culture is the dominating culture across the globe. A lot of people say ‘Imagine if someone rapped with a fake Australian accent.’ Well, okay, but you don’t turn on the TV and hear American people with fake Australian accents, so I don’t think it’s a fair comparison. I grew up watching Nicole Kidman speaking with an American accent in every movie. Even Keith Urban sings with an American country accent. And that’s just what you have to do to make it in this industry and be accepted. It’s what I heard and it’s what I saw, so how can you not understand that that would be influential for me?” The racial part of the conversation: “It’s black culture and black music, so it becomes a racial conversation—versus Keith Urban, who is making country music, which is considered white. It becomes a very muddy area. And it became especially difficult in 2015. The United States has such a fraught history with race, and I don’t think I realized how prevalent racism still is and how hurt people still are until I moved here and saw it for myself. As I was growing up in Australia, it was easy to think ‘Well, that was then and obviously it’s not like that now.’ It’s not something you can understand when you’re on the other side of the world. But many people think I still live in that bubble and that I don’t understand that the United States is set up in a way that doesn’t benefit minorities. I’ve lived here for 10 years now, and I don’t want it to be that way either. I’m marrying a black man, and my children will be half black—of course I care about these things. And I understand if you’re not comfortable that I rap with an American accent, and you are totally entitled to your own opinions, but you don’t have to listen to my music. I’m still going to keep making music.” Her future goals in music: “I think it’s important for music to reflect what is going on socially and for there to be those kinds of voices within the industry. But I want to be that person you can listen to for four minutes and not think about that stuff at all, and it’s important to have that too…. I’m not going to suddenly start rapping about political matters; it’s just not what I do. There are other great people who do that, like Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole. I’m not here to offer that commentary, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. I don’t think everyone has to be everything—like, does Katy Perry have to start making songs about politics? I think it’s good to still be able to have a little fun.” Her plastic surgery: “I think, in 2016, people should be more accepting of the fact that both famous and non-famous women are having cosmetic procedures. That’s just the reality. And I think more people need to admit that sh-t so it doesn’t have to be so taboo—because we’re all doing it anyway. I wanted to change my nose because I didn’t grow up with a bump on it—that happened when I got smashed in the face with a soccer ball when I was 16. Now I feel like my nose looks the way it’s supposed to look. But for how long do we have to acknowledge that I got a nose job? For the rest of my life?… There’s nothing black and white about beauty or plastic surgery. There are no guarantees that it will fix how you feel about yourself. All of those women [who criticize someone for having surgery]—if they had $10 million in their account tomorrow, I’d dare them not to change one thing about themselves or at least think about it. Yes, there are some women who wouldn’t change a thing, but, for the majority of us, we’d be thinking about that one thing. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I just hope that in 25 years the conversation will shift to where if a woman wants to change her body, all we say is ‘Good for her!’ instead of shaming her for making decisions about her own body.” [From Elle Canada] G—damn it, I found myself agreeing with her at several points in this interview. Do I still think she’s a culturally appropriating douchebag? Sure. But I also see her point – to a certain extent – about how American culture dominates across the world, and how that affected how she raps. Does that explain everything? No, of course not. I also think she should be forgiven for everything involving Azealia Banks, because those moments were not actually about Black Lives Matter or any serious conversation, it was about how Iggy and Azealia absolutely despise each other. Photos courtesy of Elle Canada.

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The Oscars are ‘almost at a point of crisis,’ Oscar voters claim they’re not racists

Jan 22, 2016 celebrityabout

Here are some photos of Michael B. Jordan at the Louis Vuitton Menswear show in Paris yesterday. Look at this young man’s smile. He’s lovely, isn’t he? He’s always thoughtful and professional and hard-working. And despite the fact that he’s shown over the course of four years that he’s just as much of a star as Ryan Gosling or Bradley Cooper, Michael has never been nominated for an Oscar. I still feel strongly about this: Michael gave a heartbreaking, star-making performance in Fruitvale Station, and it still upsets me that the Academy didn’t recognize it. When he reteamed with Ryan Coogler for Creed, once again people raved about his performance, how good he is, how talented and multifaceted as an actor. And once again, MBJ was ignored. This is part of the reason why #OscarsSoWhite is a thing. This is just one example of how the Academy has been ignoring great work from racially diverse artists. We’re now one week removed from the Oscar nominations announcement, and one of the most interesting things is that the #OscarsSoWhite discussion just keeps getting bigger and bigger. While I personally don’t think that a boycott will do much, I’m glad the boycott conversation is happening because it’s the vehicle by which we’re having this larger conversation about race, representation, diversity and equality in Hollywood. The Hollywood Reporter is using the boycott conversation for the same reason, and in this week’s issue, they’ve got several pieces about #OscarsSoWhite. Here’s a short column by Dawn Hudson, the CEO of the Academy: There’s not one part of the industry that doesn’t need to be addressed, and it’s been this way for 25 years. The needle has hardly moved. It’s cultural, it’s institutional, it’s our society at large, it’s our education system — all of it — before you get to an industry that’s supposed to reflect this beautiful world. And the industry has been building up over a very long time, starting with white men running the studios who hire other people who look like them. It just hasn’t changed that much, and it won’t until there’s a concerted effort on every single front: talent, the executives in the studios, the people we mentor. If you have a person of color directing a film, there’ll be more people of color on the crew and in the movie. You have to overindex now on every hiring opportunity you have. You have to look at women and people of color every time there’s an opening and really not stop until you’ve worked to find qualified candidates. That’s for directing, crewing up, filling a marketing position, finding interns, hiring your next assistant. If you did that, it would go a long way. At the Academy, the people we’ve hired in the past four years have been between 45 and 50 percent people of color. Our staff also has worked very closely with the executive committees in all the Academy branches to identify talented artists of color to make sure they’re being considered for membership. That has resulted in every class in the last four years being more diverse than the previous classes. We are stepping up our efforts in every area. You’ve already seen a change in membership and new members. You’ve seen a change in our staff. But I was devastated that the acting nominations were all white. There are a lot of artists of color who have put out really good work in more films than in other years. This feels like an inflection point, almost at a point of crisis. Everyone is talking about this. It’s not going to be overnight — just the pace can go faster. As [Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel] said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” [From THR] “Almost at a point of crisis”? Good. I say the conversations should keep happening. Let the pressure keep building and building until the Academy really does feel like there’s a genuine crisis. Because THR also published another story which included interviews with voting Academy members, including actress Penelope Ann Miller. Here’s what she said: “I voted for a number of black performers, and I was sorry they weren’t nominated. But to imply that this is because all of us are racists is extremely offensive. I don’t want to be lumped into a category of being a racist because I’m certainly not and because I support and benefit from the talent of black people in this business. It was just an incredibly competitive year. I loved Beasts of No Nation, and I loved Idris Elba in it — I just think not enough people saw it, and that’s sometimes what happens. Straight Outta Compton was a great film; I think it just lost some Academy members who are older. There were a lot of omissions of white people that I think were just as disappointing — I’m sure [Spotlight’s] Michael Keaton is bummed, you know? There were an incredible number of films in 2015 that were primarily about white people. Talk to the studios about changing that, not the Academy. There’s only so much we can do. I think when you make race the issue, it can divide people even further, and that’s what I worry about.” [From THR] She’s basically saying that sure, she voted for some black people so that means she’s not racist, but of course it’s no big deal that no actors of color were nominated because their performances just weren’t up it. And maybe Michael Keaton is bummed a little bit, but he was still nominated last year, an honor that was not bestowed on David Oyelowo for his extraordinary performance in Selma. And Keaton gave a great performance this year in a film that’s nominated for Best Picture, because of course it is – all of the Best Picture nominees this year are about white people. #KeatonIsBummed is the new #OscarsSoWhite. Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.