Five things we learned from Azealia Banks’ Playboy interview

Late last year Azealia Banks surprise-released her debut album, “Broke With Expensive Taste.” While long-delayed, having been held up for two years by her label, the record was a reminder of why we fell in love with the brash Harlem spitfire and landed her on a number of year-end lists (including ours) for its infectious, genre-bursting rhythms and twisty, often outlandish bars.

Yet the music community has spent most of the time in the wake of “Broke’s” release discussing everything except her music.

Between Twitter beefs and controversial interviews, the no-holds-barred Banks has become one of the most polarizing rappers since Kanye West -- which is no easy feat.

And now, her new interview in Playboy has stirred the pot yet again, and not for what she did with a jug of milk.

The bare-all April spread -- which places Banks among the ranks of Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, Pamela Anderson and that one girl from Danity Kane -- was announced last month and arrived Monday morning, along with an accompanying interview that, naturally, has stirred up a ton of buzz. In it, she riffs on race, religion, sex, disruption and more. It’s engaging, but there’s a lot in there that has garnered her some “oh no she didn’t” reactions.

Here are the five most interesting things we learned from the interview:

She couldn’t care less about radio. “There are certain ways you have to behave if you want to get played on the radio,” she said. “I want to date whoever I want to date. I want to smoke weed. I want to get drunk. I want to go on vacation, you know?”

She’s not the biggest fan of America -- and her logic is both strange and a little offensive. “I hate everything about this country. Like, I hate fat white Americans. All the people who are crunched into the middle of America, the real fat and meat of America, are these racist conservative white people who live on their farms. Those little teenage girls who work at Kmart and have a racist grandma -- that’s really America.”

She believes most of her Twitter attacks are related to her race. “Lorde can run her mouth and talk … about all these other bitches, but y’all aren’t saying she’s angry. If I have something to say, I get pushed into the corner.”

Reparations came up twice, and in one instance, she delivered this gem: “My little white fans will be like, ‘Why do you want reparations for work you didn’t do?’ Well, you got handed down your grandfather’s estate and you got to keep your grandmother’s diamonds and pearls and...,” she said.

Although she’s posing nude, don’t assume she’s getting busy. “I should be getting … all the time. ... I’m too afraid of getting herpes or some ... I like to feel them out, and then I start talking about my black female problems, and we get into a conversation about race, and then we disagree and don’t have another date. Whatever. I’ll just hang out with my mother.”

Check out the full interview (Warning: It includes risque images and profanity) on Playboy’s website.

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