Harlem’s Azealia Banks Talks Kanye, Gwyneth, Karl, Gaga And Pharrell With GQ (video)

Azealia Banks broke through with the indelible black-and white video for her goofily raunchy song “212,” in which she spits merciless rhymes. The clip, shot cheaply and on the fly, went viral (4 million hits and counting), earning her a record deal with Interscope, a top-ten spot on Pitchfork’s best songs of 2011, and a laundry list of boldfaced fans, including Kanye West, Gwyneth Paltrow, Karl Lagerfeld (who hired her for a party at his home), and Lady Gaga’s style guru, Nicola Formichetti, who will direct Banks’s next video. The Harlem-born 20-year-old seems almost aggressively unastonished by the attention. “I definitely have more money and shit,” she admits, “but that’s all virtual stuff. I’ve been making music for a while. And I could read about myself on the Internet for a while.” And meeting the likes of Kanye? “It’s cool, but they’re just people. The skies don’t part and glow orange.” As Banks begins recording her first album, is she listening to anyone for inspiration? “Everyone,” she says, but mostly “Azealia Banks.”

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