Album review: Iggy Azalea, In My Defense

Rapper Iggy Azalea is back. Photo / Getty Images

With five years in between albums that were fraught with headlines about diversity and cultural appropriation, you might have thought Iggy Azalea would learn from her past mistakes and turn over a new leaf.

She didn't.

The controversial Aussie rapper has returned with the same faux Southern drawl and vernacular that has earned her accusations of cultural appropriation - or as she puts it on Clap Back "tryna act black" - and songs that, similarly, have nothing new to offer.

The album opens with Thanks I Get, a cry for recognition that includes the line: "I'm the one that kept it real from the jump", which is quite the claim on an album utterly devoid of any authenticity.

It's not even just about the appropriation; she also speaks about being poor while also stunting about her wealth with all the self-awareness of a teaspoon.

Then there's the triple hit of shock-value sex-talk at the end of the album on Freak of the Week, Just Wanna, and Pussy Pop, which are just expletive-filled and sexually explicit tracks full of heavy mouth-breathing.

What's more, half these songs feature a good 30 seconds of Iggy just repeating the title over and over, and none of them particularly stand out.

The real kicker is that Iggy Azalea is actually a good rapper - or at least she could be if she actually had something real to say and said it in her own voice.

She has some solid bars and an often disarming flow, but it feels like she's too busy trying to emulate the City Girls and Cardi Bs of the world to have bothered to figure out who Iggy Azalea is.

Ed Sheeran's recent Collaborations Project did a better job of putting haters in their place than this, and when a guitar-playing pop crooner is hitting harder than you are, you might want to reconsider your place in the rap game.

Iggy Azalea, In My Defense

Artist: Iggy Azalea
Album: In My Defense
Label: Bad Dream Records/Empire
Verdict: The new New Classic with the same old problems