Azealia Banks vows not to use homophobic insult any more

'The amount of people that get hurt when I use that word vs the amount of people I've said it to are just not worth it,' says the rapper

Azealia Banks (Getty)

Azealia Banks has apologised to fans and vowed to no longer use a homophobic slur.

The controversial rapper has embarked upon a series of Twitter rants and wars in recent years, most infamously with Zayn Malik in May. The 24-year-old hurled a series of homophobic and racial insults towards the former One Direction singer after apparently misinterpreting a tweet she thought was directed at her. The rant led to Banks’ Twitter account being suspended and she was dropped as the headline act from a UK festival.

She later apologised for the incident, writing on Instagram: “Employing racial/sexual slurs/stereotypes in attempts to make fun of or degrade another person or group is absolutely unacceptable and is not fair or fun for anyone”.

Banks has now taken to another social media outlet where she has vowed she is “never going to say the word f****t again”.

“The amount of people that get hurt when I used the word vs the amount of people I’ve said it to are just not worth it,” she wrote on Facebook. “This isn’t a cop out, it’s just me realising that words hurt and while I may be immune to every word and be thicker skinned than most, it doesn’t mean that I get to go around treating people with the same toughness that made my skin so thick.”

“By using those words I paint a picture of myself that isn’t the true me. I paint the picture of my upbringings, my neighbourhood, my pain and my misfortunes… I paint the picture of someone who is used to suppressing things and being defensive. I paint the picture of someone who cannot allow themselves to be vulnerable or at the very least, happy.”

The New York-born artist also apologised to fans for “having let so many of you down over the years”.

Last year, video footage emerged of the rapper appearing to show her calling an air steward a “f*****g f****t”.

In a series of tweets trying to defend herself after the incident, she wrote: “I am bisexual. My brother is trans. My employees are all gay men.. Nothing else to say.”

Earlier last year, Banks said she uses the word to describe men who do not respect women, not gay men.

“It’s never a thing about a guy being gay,” she told Sirius XM. “It was always just a man who hates women […] You can be gay or straight. You can be a straight f*****t […] F*****s are just men who want to bring women down, f**k with their heads, control them.”

On Monday, Banks responded to a Facebook user who questioned a tribute she had written to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting by bringing up her past use of the word.

“After constantly referring to us as ‘f*****s’, you suddenly claim to care about the lives of gay men?’ a Facebook user wrote.

“Who said anything about ‘caring about the lives of gay men’, this is about caring about the lives of people,” she replied.