Iggy Azalea

Iggy Azalea
Iggy Azalea is an Australian rapper, songwriter, and model. Born in Sydney and raised in Mullumbimby, Azalea moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a career in hip hop music, residing in the southern part of the country. She earned public recognition after releasing YouTube music videos for her songs "Pu$$y" and "Two Times". She signed a record contract with T.I.'s imprint Grand Hustle Records in 2012, after gaining attention from her debut mixtape Ignorant...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionRapper
Date of Birth7 June 1990
CitySydney, Australia
CountryAustralia
I think most music provides the same messages - whether it be 'I'm unhappy' or 'I love a girl.' I just liked the package of rap music.
'Iggy' was my dog - he was named after Iggy Pop - and 'Azalea' is the street where I grew up; together, they have the right amount of syllables to make the perfect name.
I didn't have cable television growing up; there were only six channels you could watch then. The only really good channel was channel 10, and they would play 'The Nanny Called Fran' every night for years. I've seen every episode 100 times. I would get my Grandma to make me leopard skin dresses on her sewing machine.
I do absolutely nothing, actually, believe it or not. People will probably hate me for saying that, but I guess I'm one of those lucky horrible people who, no matter what I eat, I don't gain a pound. My whole family is just like that. They're all skinny and tall, and I guess, so am I.
I think you can say anybody uses anything as a gimmick. Is Adele's not having gimmicks her gimmick? It's hard to say, isn't it? Really, I think that everybody has something that people like or that's great about them.
It's different, it's weird to say, 'She's a white rapper or she can't do this because she's this color - this color does this thing. These are the boxes we have, this is what it is, don't try to change it.' And it's crazy to me because I'm just not from that world, so I can't really rock with it all the way.
I think stupid people are surprised that I'm Australian. It's a small-minded; we live in a global community, but I suppose some people still are small-minded.
I always felt really alone because no one wanted to talk about the things that I enjoyed, and that was really rap music and hip-hop as a culture. You know, having the shoes, using the words, buying the magazines, seeing the videos. And I had nobody to share it with, so I feel like I lived a lot online.
I'm a pretty chill and easygoing person; most people in Australia are, as well. I don't think I ever really saw a lot of fights growing up. I think it's hard to get people in Australia angry and want to fight, minus one or two people in the media... but we won't say any names.
I was a kid watching music videos, which were so cool and made me want to learn how to dance. I wish I could've gone to dance classes and learn, like, hip-hop dancing.
They say I'm insane because I need to have so much creative control. They say I'm unmanageable, but I'm not. I just know what I like. I'm obsessed with it. If you can't control it, that's like having somebody else paint your pictures. How could you do that? I never could.
T.I.'s my mentor; he's a really close friend of mine. I call him my brother like we talk on the phone all the time. He's helped me with my career.
I always thought that there was something in hip-hop culture that was the misfit of all the musical styles, where they didn't really belong. They're kind of like, 'No, we're a real culture! We're not going anywhere, you can't get rid of us!' I really liked that there was a rebelliousness about it. I connected with that.
People criticize you for trying new things. I think, 'I'm new! I'm 22!' I don't know exactly what my sound is or what I want my album to sound like, so I'm not releasing it yet. While I'm experimenting, I'll let you in on the journey, and you can hear it for free.