Azealia Banks

Azealia Banks is a genre-bending dynamo with elite technical lyricism. Born in Harlem in 1991, she pursued acting in her teenage years before pivoting into music under her original moniker Miss Bank$. She eventually changed her rap name to Azealia Banks and developed her craft while uploading demo songs to YouTube. In late 2011 she released “212,” the lead single from her debut EP, 1991. The track exemplifies what makes Banks great as she displays a compelling mesh of confidence and charisma while exploring myriad vocal cadences over a drum break from DJ Jef Martens’ “Float My Boat.” The song marked her as an unbound presence in the music landscape who has mastered an exciting fusion of hip-hop and house for more than a decade on tracks such as “Luxury,” 2018 single “Anna Wintour,” and “The Big Big Beat” from her 2017 Slay-Z mixtape, which also displays her skills as a singer.