God Iggy Azalea has had a really shit 2014 - Snoop Dogg had a go, Eminem had a go, Azealia Banks has been having a go pretty much consistently - and now she's been given an ultimatum to apologise to Azealia and, seemingly, black people the world over, for not tweeting about the tragic death of Eric Garner, otherwise screen shots of a sex tape featuring her will be released.
It's all been happening pretty fast, so let's just chart this snowball chronologically. Basically, Azealia Banks has always been a bit pissed off with Iggy Azalea this month for making hip-hop and rap while not being a) black and b) from America. Since the killing of unarmed black man Eric Garner in NYC - that has since escalated with violent protests and justifiable outrage the world over - Azealia chose to point out that Iggy didn't tweet about it:
Let's just, for a minute, note that calling someone Igloo Australia because they have the audacity to rap and be white and be from Australia isn't exactly amazing in itself. Also, if Iggy had said something, we're almost 100 per cent sure she would have got a lot of shit for it - her poor PR is presumably breathing into a brown bag somewhere. She did, however, take the time to respond:
Again, both rappers aiming for below the belt rather than dealing with the actual issues at hand. Azealia then accused Iggy of reverse racism, which is (in her own Twitter words):
'the next layer of racism where whites try to chatise black people or any cultural group for speaking out against racism. And THEN tried to redirect your thinking, by telling you what you SHOULD be thinking… Or how you should behave. THEN they try to put U in a position where u hav 2 defend or 'explain' urself. & if you can't do so effectively… They try to dismiss how you feel.'
And now, over the weekend, shit seriously went down. Anonymous hackers took over and announced that Iggy has 48 hours to apologise before screenshots of her sex tape are revealed - which is all kinds of fucked up. Attack a woman for having sex because she didn't tweet about a tragedy and is making music that sounds like she's from a specific cultural background.
The now-deleted account @TheAnonMessage tweeted: '@IGGYAZALEA you have exactly 48 hours from now to release a statement apologizing to @AzealiaBanks and the protesters in NYC...' 'if you do not do so, the memory of you will burn from the public faster than the moment you surfaced. We're not kidding.'
Now a feud is one thing - we reckon there's a place in all our hearts (and playlists) for Iggy AND Azealia - but threatening her with her own alleged sex tape is pretty goddamn low. Considering the account has currently been suspended, and they got sidetracked by attacking MTV, Iggy seems to be off the hook in terms of the sex tape scare - but it's only a matter of time before the threat springs up elsewhere. What does Iggy Azalea having sex have to do with her spat with Azealia? Nothing. Plus, it fails the most fundamental sexism test: would this happen to a guy? No. No it wouldn't.
Meanwhile, Azealia Banks had this to say:
Or she just really likes the music. Is there a specific 'whiter' genre Iggy should have gone for - like, crooning? Is nobody allowed to cross racial boundaries of different types of music, to experiment and make it in an industry they love just because they're the wrong colour? She's got a killer rap voice, and so has Azealia, so can we focus on the actual issues at hand - the fact that there's some real shit happening across the world - and stop attacking one woman for emphasising her American twang when she raps, then sex-shaming her?
**You might also be interested in... **
The Iggy Azalea, Azealia Banks Twitter Spat Is About So Much More
Protests Across America As Police Officer Won't Be Charged For Killing Unarmed Michael Brown
Why The #IfTheyGunnedMeDown Hashtag Proves Racism After Someone Dies
Follow Stevie on Twitter: @5tevieM
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.