Just when you thought Azealia Banks might take a break from her seemingly never-ending string of beefs, the dramalicious emcee recently went from battling fellow rap newcomer Angel Haze to famous celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. But Banks may have bitten off more beef than she can chew as she’s drawn a firestorm of criticism for hurling a gay slur at Hilton.
The beef between Hilton and Banks began after Hilton weighed in on the Banks-Haze Twitter feud and he sided with Haze in the matter.
“You got something against girls with small breasts???” Hilton tweeted to directly to Banks, whom angrily replied, “Get the f–k outta here d–kbreath. U were just riding my c–t yesterday….. Kick rox.”
After some more scathing exchanges (most of which have since been deleted), things went horribly left for Banks when the feud culminated in Banks calling Hilton a “messy f—-t.”
“lol what a messy f—-t you are,” Banks tweeted, to which Hilton replied, “Sweetie, you’re not ignorant. You know you shouldn’t call me the F word. That AND wishing I die? You hoping I get AIDS next?”
“It’s not about me. It’s bigger than me. Like, if I called you an ignorant ‘N’ word, that would be so offensive to many,” Hilton added.
However, Banks pointed out the Hilton previously got in trouble for using the F-word as well when he was punched in the face by wil.i.am’s manager after he called the Black Eyed Peas star a “f—-t.”
And though Banks later cited her bisexuality as her reason for feeling ambivalent about using the word, she later explained her word choice to her upset fans and then apologized for offended them.
“My most sincere apologies to anyone who was indirectly offended by my foul language. Not sorry for Perez tho. Lol,” tweeted Banks.
And despite rumors that Banks beef with Hilton resulted in her being dropped from her label, Interscope, a rep for the label told Complex, “No, she’s still with us.”
Clearly, this was one of Banks’ messiest beefs (courtesy of some blatant instigating from Hilton), but it also places a valuable lens on issues surrounding intra- and intercommunity epithets and how slurs like the N-word and the F-word can be offensive and hurtful even when used among people of their own supposed communities.
The bottom line is, though, that homophobia and racism are still very real and clearly the F-word, like the N-word, has painful connotations that can’t be stripped away from it just because its user meant no offense, and when you’re a public figure, that word is definitely off limits.
Check out screen shots from the rest of Banks and Hilton’s heated beef below. –nicholas robinson
