Iggy Azalea has been the biggest summer sensation in perhaps ever, but some think the popularity bubble may be bursting for the Australian rapper.
Little known just a few months ago, Iggy burst onto the music scene with the infectious “Fancy,” which dominated the airwaves for weeks, spending almost the entire summer at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
But though she’s gotten attention for her sharp emcee skills and unusual delivery — the white, Australian Iggy Azalea sounds like she’s black and from somewhere in the Deep South — some believe Iggy doesn’t have staying power.
Count Huffington Post correspondent Karen J. Francis among the critics. She called out Iggy for a seeming lack of authenticity, saying she has clever lyrics that are ultimately empty.
Francis wrote:
“Fancy” attempts to emulate certain elements of American hip-hop. In addition to Iggy’s performance accent, there are the common hip-hop motifs of getting paper and being the baddest chick. It sounds so familiar and so cliché. I would love to hear Iggy speak from her own unique perspective, instead of formulaically adopting someone else’s.
And as her song still dominates the charts and online sales, Iggy Azalea seems to be pulled into tabloid-fueled feuds . In an acceptance speech at the BET Awards, rapper Nicki Minaj appeared to deliver a shot to Iggy.
Nicki later told Fader Magazine that her point was misinterpreted, and never intended to be about Iggy Azalea:
“My point of saying what I said was that women need to have a perspective. If we’re out here saying that we’re so confident, and we’re so this and so that, but we don’t even trust ourselves to write down our own thoughts and spit it on a beat? It just doesn’t add up.”
And until she comes up with a follow-up that reaches the level of “Fancy,” Iggy Azalea seems doomed to be labeled by many as a one-hit wonder. As early as June — when the song had not even peaked yet on the charts — the site Smosh published a list of “8 Reasons Iggy Azalea Is Like Vanilla Ice.”
It seems Iggy Azalea could use a follow-up hit right about now.
