Iggy Azalea is a hip hop outlier who rose through the ranks of urban music before breaking into the pop mainstream. She is a feisty blonde white Australian rapper with an odd Southern drawl who has become one of the most successful rappers in recent years.
In 2014, she became the only artist to hold Nos. 1 and 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 list at the same time, following in the footsteps of the Beatles. Her debut album, The New Classic, debuted at No. 3 that year, earning her four Grammy nods. Before releasing the EP Survive the Summer in 2018, Azalea made news for reasons other than music, including as her high-profile relationships, Instagram twerking clips, and her admissions of cosmetic surgery.
Hip Hop Fan With Australian Beginnings
Amethyst Amelia Kelly was born on June 7, 1990, in Sydney, Australia. Brendan, her father, was an artist and children’s book author, and Tanya, her mother, was a cleaner. She grew up in the town of Mullumbimby, New South Wales (population 3,000). Azalea visited Los Angeles and Las Vegas with her grandparents on a road trip in 2001, and the thought of a life outside of the Australian outback began to appeal to the little girl.
Her favorite artists included Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, and especially Tupac, whose posthumous 1999 hit with Outlawz, “Baby Don’t Cry,” “made me fall in love with rap music,” she told Vogue in 2015. Azalea felt lonely because she was halfway around the world from where her favorite music was being made, so she turned to the internet to connect with the hip hop community.
Along the way, the budding rapper formed an online friendship with another adolescent, Derek, who was originally from the Bahamas and whom she came to consider her only buddy. She’d send Derek raps she’d composed and ask what he thought, hoping to get feedback from someone much closer to the action. Azalea was soon arranging another trip to the United States.
Iggy Moves to America, Learns Southern Rap Style
Azalea, who had dropped out of school, traveled to the United States for two weeks just before her 16th birthday to meet Derek in person for the first time. He was living in Miami at the time, and he met her at the airport on July 4th. It wasn’t long before she called her parents to tell them she wouldn’t be returning to Australia, that merely being in the birthplace of hip hop made her feel at home.
Azalea relocated from Miami to Houston before settling in Atlanta and assimilating into her cultural surroundings, drawl and all. In 2011, shortly after relocating to Los Angeles, she released the mixtape Ignorant Art, with its raw and abrasive sound blended with trap music, a descendent of Southern rap.
The following year, she was the first female non-American rapper to feature on the cover of XXL magazine’s 2012 Freshmen Class issue. The cover caused a Twitter feud between rapper and near-namesake Azealia Banks, who posted, “How can you endorse a white woman who calls herself a runaway slave master?” This was an allusion to Iggy’s contentious lyrics in “DRUGS,” which the Australian rapper later apologized for as a “tacky and careless thing to say.” “You should just be happy I’m on [the XXL cover] as a woman, for women,” Azalea said Banks. And if you want to have an accomplishment, labor and earn your own.”
That same year, Azalea also signed with Wilhelmina Models International, and was subsequently named the “new face of Levi’s jeans.”
‘The New Classic’
Azalea was able to enlist Diplo to produce her second mixtape, TrapGold, which was released in October 2012. The next year, she signed with Island Def Jam in the United States and Mercury in the United Kingdom. Her debut album, The New Classic, was released in April of 2014. It produced five major singles — “Work,” “Bounce,” “Change Your Life,” “Fancy,” and “Black Widow” — and debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
A month later, Azalea created music history by topping both the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at No. 1 and No. 2. Her track “Fancy” (with British artist Charli XCX) took the top spot, followed by Ariana Grande’s “Problem,” which featured Azalea as a guest. No act had done so since the Beatles in 1964.Azalea received four Grammy nominations for The New Classic, including best new artist, best rap album, single of the year, and best pop duo/group performance (for “Fancy”). Azalea collaborated with Britney Spears on their 2015 track “Pretty Girls.”
Love Life, Plastic Surgery and ‘Survive the Summer’
In 2011, Azalea began dating rapper A$AP Rocky, who named his mixtape Live. Love. A$AP – she has it tattooed on her fingertips. She had the tattoo erased after her divorce from Rocky in 2012. She revealed to Vogue in March 2015 that she’d had her breasts expanded, stating that she had initially avoided speaking about it because she didn’t want other girls to feel horrible about their bodies, before deciding that she “wasn’t into secret-keeping.” She informed Seventeen a few months later that she’d undergone a nose job. “Plastic surgery is an emotional journey,” she admitted. “It’s critical to remember that you can’t change everything.” It is impossible to be perfect.”
She announced her engagement to Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Nick Young in June 2015, however the relationship terminated a year later due to his claimed infidelity. Her second album, Digital Distortion, was scheduled to be released in 2016 — its first song, “Team,” was released in March of that year — but it was postponed to give Azalea “time to get my life in order” following her breakup with Young. She also served as a judge on the eighth season of X Factor Australia in 2016.
Azalea stated in March 2016 that she had founded Azalea Street Productions, which had acquired the rights to a number of books and Australian television shows. In July, she struck a contract with NBC Universal to create content with an emphasis on social justice and inspiring young women.
Azalea released a new song, “Savior,” in February 2018 after announcing that her album would be delayed yet again owing to her departure from the Def Jam label. That summer, the Australian MC released her long-awaited studio project, now named Survive the Summer, as an EP, with the lead hit “Kream.” As part of her return to the spotlight, she revealed she was dating pro football star DeAndre Hopkins, only to break up with him shortly afterwards.
‘In My Defense’ and Nu.de Photo Leak
Azalea returned to the charts in March 2019 with the release of “Sally Walker,” the first song from her studio album In My Defense. “Started,” the album’s second single, was released in early May.
Azalea was again in the spotlight a few weeks later after topless photographs of her from a 2016 GQ photoshoot surfaced online. The rapper said in a lengthy post on Twitter and Instagram, which vanished after she deleted her social media accounts, that she agreed to pose for the images with the understanding that only those with her covering up would appear in print. “I feel blindsided, embarrassed, violated, angry, sad, and a million other things,” she continued, threatening to charge those responsible.
Son
On June 10, 2020, Azalea announced the secret birth of her son, Onyx.”I have a son,” she revealed on Instagram. “I kept waiting for the right moment to say something, but it seems like the more time passes, the more I realize I’ll always be anxious to share that giant’s news with the rest of the world.” I want to keep his life private, but I also want it apparent that he is not a secret to me, and I adore him beyond words.” The artist did not reveal her son’s father or name.