Azealia Banks Dropped As Headliner Of UK Festival After Twitter Rant.
UK radio station Rinse FM announced that it has dropped Azealia Banks as the headliner of its Born & Bred Festival in light of the Twitter rant that she went on Tuesday night. The rant featured a number of racist, homophobic, and generally offensive tweets. In their official announcement, the station clarified that “Rinse/Born & Bred Festival is a celebration of rave culture and has been created for EVERYONE. We celebrate inclusivity and equality.”
ANNOUNCEMENT: @RinseFM I @bornandbredLDN pic.twitter.com/AB3wnTaSru
— Born & Bred (@bornandbredLDN) May 11, 2016
Banks made a series of offensive comments on Twitter late Tuesday with many of them directed at singer ZAYN. She accused him of copying her in his new video for “LIKE I WOULD” and referred to ZAYN as “faggot,” “sand nigga,” “dirty refugee,” and “punjabi” in her tweets.
What probably resonated most with the festival, however, was her aggressive attack on the UK music scene. In a Periscope, she called grime a “disgrace to rap culture in general” and said that “y’all niggas in the UK cannot fucking rap.” This prompted a series of angry responses from UK artists including Lily Allen, MNEK, and more.
https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/730299689120206848
https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/730204243269963780
https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/730300209880764417
Why do the Police shut down @Giggs or @nines1ace raves but @AZEALIABANKS is cool to just come here threatening to bring arms ?don't get it
— Lily Allen (@lilyallen) May 11, 2016
If she is playing Born And Bred festival, I'm boycotting it. @rinsefm
— Logan Sama (@djlogansama) May 11, 2016
@AZEALIABANKS Please dont talk about Grime or UK rappers you are very average and i will spin you back into your mothers womb.
— NOLAY (@OfficialNolay) May 11, 2016
https://twitter.com/MNEK/status/730301161492844544
It’s hard to imagine this having any other outcome, considering Banks basically dissed all of the artists she would be performing with at the festival. Although she finally got back to releasing music recently by dropping her SLAY Z mixtape in March, she has continued to dominate headlines due to her seemingly endless series of Twitter beefs. After hearing about the festival dropping her, Banks tweeted out a casual response.
https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/730366779952930816
https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/730366930033512448
https://twitter.com/AZEALIABANKS/status/730366960274378752
Banks has not issued any further statement regarding the comments she made on Twitter at this time.
