Tempermental Miss-Elayneous on Azealia Banks 'faggot' controversy

Following a Twitter spat earlier this week, Harlem rapper Azealia Banks has been criticised for calling Brooklyn producer Baauer a 'faggot'.

But what's in a name? Banks then retorted, 'Here we go again. Everyone pretending to be so shocked and moved by the word faggot... Everyone's always acting like it's fucking 1905 in this bitch. Faggot means coward, liar, backstabber....... Energy stealer, blood sucker."

She added, “This situation is a perfect example of how difficult it is to be a female who raps. As if I would be a fucking homophobe..."

Dublin rapper Tempermental Miss-Elayneous speaks to Hot Press about the power and connotations of language in our forthcoming issue;

She tells us, "I tend not to curse in general myself, and if I do, there's an artistic motivation behind it - to draw attention to the words, to challenge people on their common use, and challenge the status quo."

She continues, "Words have weight though. There's a phrase, 'Words mean nothing, action is everything'. But words motivate action. They can provoke a lot and evoke a lot in people emotionally. There's connotation everywhere, and then there's blatant meaning - and I think 'faggot' is one of those ones clear ones.

"It's like 'bitch'. 'Bitch' hurts my ears. I'm not adjusted to the word. I've boycotted rappers because of that. 'Bitch' is simultaneously derogatory towards both genders – it belittles women and puts men in ranks... It hurts everybody.

"Azealia is young though and possibly means it in an innocent way. I've heard young people use the word and I don't think they realise the weight that it has. At the end of the day though, there's an abundance of lyrics out there for you to portray your message and avoid cursing and upsetting people."

Read the full feature, where we also speak to Lethal Dialect and GCN editor Brian Finnegan about the controversy, in next week's issue of Hot Press, out on Thursday, February 28.