Having the wife of the Prime Minister enthuse about your first single might be enough to push an artist from the fringes into the mainstream, but if Azealia Banks’ current tour is anything to go by she’s not ready for that just yet. The hype around her is unfathomable and it’s a testament to how much devotion she inspires that this is my third and only successful attempt to see her.
Her support act Zebra Katz and Njena Red Foxx burst onto the stage all in black, and deliver a darkly sexual performance. Both are talented rappers but it is a shame that Njena Red Foxx was reduced to being a backing dancer for Zebra Katz throughout most of the set. When she was centre stage, she dominated completely. ‘Ima Read’ was met with a rapturous response from the audience.
Banks’ own DJ Cosmo played a short set that neatly segued from pop classics to heavy pulsing techno and built the atmosphere into a frenzy before Azealia came on.
She didn’t disappoint. Hair newly dyed bright green and wearing a flashing LED, Swarovski-embellished crop top, she burst onto the stage and immediately began her set. Although she pandered to the crowd with old favourites like ‘Liquorice’ (teasing the crowd as she introduced it as the ‘Azealia anthem’) and ‘L8r’ with a twinkling smile that belying the sweary lyrics that comes from it. However, the main body of her act was new material from her Fantasea album, which despite keeping the trademark dry staccato delivery, is an entirely different beast.
The sheer variety of genres that Azealia alluded to in her short set was breathtaking. Where ‘Jumanji’ is a thrilling calypso with an irrepressible hook, ‘Esta Noche’ is smoothly seductive toe-dip into classic R&B, until the sirens drop and everyone goes wild to the pumping beat. She plays ‘212’ inevitably at the end, and as one the crowd roars the refrain that made the song a legend, a perfect end to a perfect set.