Azealia Banks slams Australia’s music and entertainment industry calling it ‘trash’

An american rapper has slammed the the entire Australian music industry - except for Kylie Minogue, INXS and AC/DC. Photo / Getty Images

Azealia Banks has taken a swipe at Australia’s music and entertainment industry, calling it “trash”, while also labelling Australian artists as “untalented/uncultured and unneeded”.

The American rapper took to Instagram on Monday where she shared several posts ranting about Australia’s music industry writing, ”Realise musical talent is just not in the gene pool,” she added, ”Absolutely no one on earth takes (the Australian music industry) seriously.”

Lamenting at the slew of Australian performers, Banks’ passionate posts made exceptions for Kylie Minogue, INXS and AC/DC, but called Tame Impala “cheesy” and Wolfmother “an American rock tribute band”.

Banks is no stranger to publicly voicing her grievances with the country and its music scene with the most recent controversy seemingly arising over allegations an Australian record label “corruptly stole” her intellectual property.

The rapper took to Instagram shortly after reading a piece in the Guardian written by Ben Eltham, who spoke to the hurdles faced by local artists in reaching new audiences in the age of social media.

Azealia Banks performs during the Noise Pop Music & Arts festival at The Warfield. Photo / Getty Images

Banks said Australian Dance Music record label Sweat It Out incorrectly labelled the genre of her music, implying she was in a vulnerable position when signing the record deal as she was “very f***ing sick” at the time.

Citing “jealousy, racism and desperation” as the driving force behind Sweat It Out’s “piss poor remix” of her new song, New Bottega, Ms Banks widened her criticism to capture the entire Australian music industry.

”(It) is a hip hop record. It is not a dance record,” she said. ”Clearly there is a cultural dissonance here. Hip-hop is the most profitable genre of music in the world right now. EDM (electronic dance music) is f***ing dead.”

Banks went on to say that Australia’s entertainment industry failed to “realise how unimportant they are as far as music culture goes”.

”Australia’s media/music/entertainment industry isn’t exactly heralded by the heads of government or anyone in the world as a coveted cultural export,” she said. ”Australians don’t even want to hear Australian music lol.”

Banks went on to cite Australia’s enduring colonial apparatus and its systemic dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the driving force behind its music and culture being “so trash”.

”Y’all stomped all the blackness out of Australia – which is why your music exports suck,” she said.”(It’s) one of the most culturally stale white nations on the planet.”

Her posts come nearly six months after Banks cancelled an Australian show in 2022 and vowed never to return to the nation’s shores.

Lashing out at event promoters over allegations that they failed to pay her, Banks then took aim at Australian currency, calling it “third-world”. The performer also cited a “racist” incident that occurred during her Sydney show in which a bottle of soft drink was thrown at her on stage, subsequently promising she would not return to the land down under.