Questioning The Repeated And Undeserved Media Attention Of Glorified Donald Trump Supporter, Azealia Banks

Like many across this divided nation on the day after one of the most dichotomous Election Days in recent history, I, too am emotionally broken, exhausted, and confused about what transpired less than 24 hours ago.

Somehow and someway, two of the most seemingly inept men to ever worm their way to the front of the class, former The Apprentice host Donald J. Trump and current LGBTQ adversary Mike Pence, are now in position to follow Barack Obama and Joe Biden, respectively, as leaders of the free world and soon-to-be monstrous manipulators of the White House. All through this day and well beyond it, voices have spoken out about the horror and pain they feel in regard to the political pairing who were literally lauded and endorsed by another fearful leader, David Duke, formerly and forever of the Ku Klux Klan, as noted by CNN, NPR and pretty much anyone with eyes and ears that have bore witness to the Trump/Pence takeover.

But believe it or not, the following words are not a reiteration of the mass of words that no one seemed to pay attention to well before, during, or after the 279 electoral votes that Trump garnered to become the 45th President of the United States, and the fourth-ever #NotMyPresident; a hell-no-of-a-hashtag via Twitter, in my lifetime (both Bushes and Reagan precede him). Alas, this is about someone who, like Trump, has continued to annoy, destroy and make us say “oh, boy” — forgive the corniness there, but I was on a roll! — as if they were a facial rash that we discovered right before a big date.

This, ladies, gentlemen, and non-binaries, has to do with the one-and-only, hip-hop whoosit Azealia Banks; she of minor pop culture relevance with hits like “212,” and an alleged carrier of dried-up spit from the mouth of Oscar winner Russell Crowe, so said she in an attention-grabbing and heavily accented interview with Access Hollywood, and to TMZ.

Banks, just like those unwanted skin inconveniences, has popped up once again in the mainstream news cycle after popping her head out of the land of irrelevance and ignorance to not just celebrate Trump’s upcoming ownership of these states united, but to bash both supporters and the focal point of his now-former opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

As men, women, and children of the “others” in this world openly wept for the hope of peace that dissipated along with Hillary’s dreams of being the first Madame President, Banks took to her Instagram and Facebook profiles — two of the few social media venues that she is still allowed to spew vitriol through, despite Twitter having enough of her hateful ways back in April, according to Spin — to literally ha-ha-ha her way into another round of trending topics.

Here are some of Banks’ latest comments, which were picked up by Mic.

“First off, I would like to apologize to Donald Trump for all the stupid jokes I made. (I was kidding),” she expressed, linking back to comments she made on Facebook a month previous, where she referred to him as “toupey-toupee” (yes, seriously).

“I would like to apologize for all the other times I was dumb enough to let the liberal media sway my opinion of you.”

“I’m f***ing proud as f*** of you,” she continued.

“One for being a Gemini, two for being from NYC, three for winning the presidency, and four for beating the media. The last part is your biggest victory in my eyes, and I must say that I am truly inspired by this and feel deep amounts of vindication. Thanks for letting me know that I’m not crazy (even though I fronted a few times), [that] Liberals run Hollywood, and [that] it’s been a cold world out here for me as a Trump supporter!”

Spoken like a true crazy person who doesn’t believe they’re crazy, yet is completely and absolutely crazy. But wait, Azealia wasn’t done just yet.

There was also, of course, her feelings on Clinton herself, whom the Broke With Expensive Taste lyricist once said, as relayed by the Inquisitr, treated the African-American community as “children or pets.”

“Hillary tried to treat black folk like that racist white teacher who worked at the hood public school,” Banks remarked in a follow-up Facebook posting.

“[Clinton was like] that teacher who was always sending the black kids to the office. Good for her for losing.”

When it came to the big-name talents who publicly backed Clinton, including pop divas Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, legend-in-the-making Beyonce, and hip-hop pioneer Jay Z, Banks said that their “shucking and jiving” for Hillary made her laugh out loud.

“B**ches were not in formation that night,” Azealia arrogantly quipped.

“Hillary even tried to say she had hot sauce in her bag! She pulled out the most typical s**t and still lost. Damn slime.”

Of course, a simple Google search would have shown Banks that Clinton wasn’t just trying to relate to black voters through a popular song lyric from a black artist — she has long admitted her love for the spicy condiment, including back in 2012 with Conde Nast Traveler, four years before “Formation” dropped — but this is Banks we’re talking about here, so ignorance is usually the name of the game when it comes to her.

Incidentally, that actually leads right into my main problem with Azealia, and it’s one that the handful of fans who have stayed in her corner are quite aware of, even if they try to blare out the truth with music that no one outside of that fandom really cares about.

So many publications, like Mic, continue to refer to Azealia as remixed versions of, “one of hip-hop’s most promising free-thinkers,” but let’s be real here: is she really deserving of that kind of exalted praise? Should someone who, as of late, only gets media attention due to her continued askew aggression and not her so-called chosen profession worthy of a blurb or two on sites alongside folks like Beyonce and Jay Z, or dare I say it, even our president-elect, Donald Trump?

Say what you will about the man who grabs women by the word that Ana Navarro’s mother threatened to disown her over (as whimsically shared by the Republican commentator on The View this past Tuesday) and as aforementioned, there is quite a lot that has been already said, but even before his troublesome journey to “make America great again,” Donald Trump was kind of a somebody — a somebody who squandered through $800 million and raised his voice, but not his intellect, to become the next free leader of the world, of course, but he was still a real somebody.

Host of The Apprentice; both basic and celebrity-themed, ownership of Trump Casinos. Trump Tower, Trump Steaks, and Trump University; that forever ruined childhood memory of his cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, and that equally-ruined one-off appearance on Sex and The City — all of those things were, despite anyone’s opinion of him, actual entertainment news-worthy subjects, and they were rightfully reported on as such.

Donald Trump was a full-time celebrity before he publicly shared his desire to become a full-on tyrant, so it makes sense that he would be on the tail end of heightened attention in the media, but what about Azealia Banks?

Other than one major release under her belt; the Broke With Expensive Taste LP, which peaked at No. 30 during the week of November 22, 2014 on the Billboard 200, before dropping 75 spots the very next week; and the fun, but forgettable “212” which, believe it or not, didn’t even chart stateside, why does anyone still care about what she has to say about any given matter, no matter the peak of relevancy?

At most, Banks is nothing more nowadays than a glorified Trump supporter, and even Clinton backers weren’t given this much exposure to have their say magnified on a global scale because ultimately, that’s not how this works — that’s not how any of this works. Even if someone wanted to argue that Banks was on course to become “America’s Next Top Troll,” which therefore makes her somehow newsworthy, look no further than to Milo Yiannopoulos, a similar figure who, like Azealia, was forced off Twitter for his never-ending, racially-motivated diatribes.

Since that public privilege was permanently cancelled, the most anyone hears from him is when they willingly seek him out, such as through Breitbart News, the politically conservative website that welcomes troglodytes like Yiannopoulos and those who think like him. Other than that, most of us go about our days just fine without having so much a first, much less a second, thought about the guy.

Whether we like it or not, and most of us very much do not, we’re going to be seeing and hearing a lot more from Donald Trump over these next four years, thanks to the four years that millions of so-called Americans just willingly placed into his hands, and that makes perfect sense. With that being said, however, the same level of attention should not be given to someone like Azealia Banks. Not only is she well past her expiration date when it comes to today’s music world, but just like the washout of the 212 area code by 347, she’s more or less completely irrelevant by this point.

Let her go in peace, media. As Billboard has already shown us, we won’t be missing much.

[Featured Image by John Sciulli/Stringer/Getty Images & Mark Wilson/Getty Images]