Hitting the road in the UK for the first time in over 5 years, Azealia Banks brings her “Back to the Union Jack” Tour to Leeds having started with 2 nights at Brixton Academy.
The Harlem rapper is potentially better know for courting controversy than for her musical output, having released a series of singles and EPs in recent years, with the last album – Slay-Z – coming out in 2017. In between, she’s had some well publicised spats with the likes of Zayn Malik (for which she subsequently apologised) and more recently weighing in on Charlie XCX’s collaboration history. Add to that an endorsement of Donald Trump for president, and you’d have to conclude that, as she finds the Orange One “f***ing funny”, she’s just a fan of the drama.
The fans though are prepared to put these political affiliations aside. It’s one of the most diverse crowds I’ve seen in a while. Not in terms of age – if there’s anyone over 30 in the room, they’d have been feeling very old – but an open and non-judgemental crowd spanned the spectrum of race, sexuality and gender.
Banks builds the tension in, and tests the patience of the crowd by hitting the stage some 45 mins later than billed. It seems to be a pattern across the tour, and even among those at the barrier, who’d already been on their feet for several hours, there were some fractious faces. Finally, as the lights dropped, all was quickly forgotten as Banks took to the stage to a sea of mobile phone cameras. Much of the show was like this – the majority watching their idol through a 5.5 inch screen, rather than in 3 dimensions on the stage.
To be fair to them, the stage was pretty bare, with only Banks, a DJ and some crude graphics on the screen at the rear of the stage, so as a visual spectacle, the stage could have used some dressing. However, the lyrics and Banks’ unique flow are what people are here for and from the off, they are yelling lyrics back towards the stage, something which Banks clearly enjoyed.
Between songs, there’s no real interaction with the crowd. Banks retreats to the DJ desk, drinks, then launches into a cappella breaks before heading into the next song. Those songs are primarily the crowd favourites, Fuck Him All Night, 2018s self-confidence anthem Anna Wintour and more recent single New Bottega and they go down an absolute storm. Each greeted more enthusiastically than the last, the temperature rising. Big Big Beat turns it up again, bassline throbbing until we reach 212, her breakout 2014 single.
The dancefloor roars, and it’s a writhing, sweaty mess of bodies that give every lyric back to Banks. It’s not everyday you hear an audience screaming “Ima ruin you c*nt!” at the top of their voices, but at the end, as Banks leaves the sparse stage behind her, that’s the sound that is ringing in 1000 happy pairs of ears.
