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Azealia Banks has accused Aer Lingus staff of treating her like an “animal”, causing her to get off a flight to Dublin, in a series of tearful, profanity-laced videos.
The rapper was set to fly from London’s Gatwick Airport to the Irish capital on Monday morning, ahead of her show at The Academy on Tuesday.
She shared several updates from the airport after getting off from her flight, recounting an incident that apparently occurred when she was on the plane.
Banks said she was on the Aer Lingus flight when a “lady” asked her “some f****** questions”.
“Since I didn’t have an answer for her she went a couple of seats over and she was like staring at me. And I’m looking at her and I’m just like, girl, don’t stare at me. I didn’t fill out your Aer Lingus work application,” she said before accusing the woman of lying about the encounter.
“She goes to the captain of the plane and lies and says that I said like, ‘Don’t stare at me, I’ll sort you out. I’m like, what are you f****** talking about? I’m from New York City. I don’t even say s*** like that, you know? I don’t use that kind of slang.”
She added: “They all just like crowd around me and they’re like chastising me like I’m some f****** animal, you know? Just like, ‘Oh we’re not going to have a problem, we’re not going to have a problem?’ I’m just like, what the f*** is going on, you know?”
Banks said she got off the plane, adding: “I’m just like, s***, I’ve worked too hard in my life to be cornered by some f****** ugly Irish b****. This f****** ugly Irish woman here.”
The rapper then said security workers approached her. She used a racial slur to refer to them.
“All these f****** security n****** come over and they’re just crowding around me, treating me like a f****** wild animal.”
Banks wasn’t immediately sure how she would get to Dublin. She later said her manager had booked her on another flight.
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Sign up The rapper said Aer Lingus told her she wouldn’t be able to fly on the airline anymore due to her decision to leave the plane.
“They tried to switch it on me, like, oh, now, you can never fly on Aer Lingus because I got off the plane,” she said.
Show all 40 1 /40Albums of the year 2018 Albums of the year 2018 40. Thom Yorke - Suspiria Thom Yorke’s first ever soundtrack summons the darkness of horror, and the terror of blood and evil, over 25 tracks. A handful of these are among Yorke’s best solo work. The Radiohead frontman’s debut piece written for the 007 film Spectre was a sparse piano-led ballad, and “Suspirium”, the first single to be released from this soundtrack, takes that same intimate approach to desolate depths
Albums of the year 2018 39. Interpol - Marauder Marauder is Interpol’s most experimental to date, blending everything from rough garage rock to Motown rhythms. The band appear reinvigorated, brimming with energy and self-assurance.
Albums of the year 2018 38. Brent Cobb – Providence Canyon Brent Cobb’s music is built around people and places. The country artist returns after the release of his acclaimed 2016 album Shine On Rainy Day with Providence Canyon; a slice of blue-collar country offering fresh tales of Southern life
Albums of the year 2018 37. Black Peaks – All That Divides The Brighton metal band’s sublime second album is their most ambitious to date. Enlisting Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters, Muse) on production was a master-stroke – with his help they offer up vast sonic landscapes that recall the drama of Darion Malakian’s Scars on Broadway record, Dictator
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Albums of the year 2018 34. Cat Power - Wanderer Six years after the release of her last LP Sun, Cat Power – whose struggles with alcoholism, addiction and mental health issues have been much publicised – demonstrates “both a newfound sense of calm, and strength” on her new album
Albums of the year 2018 33. Architects - Holy Hell Holy Hell offers up some of the best tracks of the band’s career, with a through-line that maintains Tom Searle's role as an integral part of Architects, particularly on “Doomsday”, while “Hereafter” feels like the song that launches the album’s momentum. Listening to vocalist Sam Carter scream: “I wasn’t braced for the fallout” is intensely cathartic – even non-metal fans will find it hard not to be moved by the band’s sincerity. (RO)
Albums of the year 2018 32. Robyn – Honey Even in discarding such basic pop necessities as melody, Robyn has managed to create a masterpiece. With her first album in seven years, the Swedish singer delivers nine songs that glow and pulse with bittersweet sensuality, sung in a voice that sifts over the synths like icing sugar
Albums of the year 2018 31. Florence & the Machine - High as Hope On Florence & The Machine’s latest album High As Hope, her voice is just as powerful when she holds back. She seems to attribute much of this calmness to her new-found sobriety – she quit alcohol a few years ago and looks back on her twenties with a mix of fondness and regret
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Albums of the year 2018 29. The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships On their third and best album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, The 1975 have created what so many post-Radiohead bands couldn’t: a coherent pop statement with enough hope, radical honesty and genre-spanning breadth to make sense across divided generations
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Albums of the year 2018 26. Nils Frahm - All Melody The German composer’s 10th solo album is a stirring, complex work that draws on the concept of connection; a fluidity in the way the universe works
Albums of the year 2018 25. Camila Cabello - Camila Camila Cabello's debut solo album is the first time fans have been able to see her clearly
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Albums of the year 2018 22. Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel On Tell Me How You Really Feel, Courtney Barnett turns her keen eye inwards, exploring anxiety and depression while coming to terms with her own emotional life. Written as her burgeoning stature and hectic touring schedule began to take their toll, these 10 songs are Barnett’s attempt to work through her vulnerability and sadness
Albums of the year 2018 21. Blood Orange - Negro Swan For Negro Swan, Blood Orange’s fourth album, the multi-instrumentalist has dreamed up a 16-song suite that weaves together impressionist psych-pop and interstellar funk, late-Seventies Marvin Gaye and early-Eighties Prince, with some tangled ballads and insomniac blues reminiscent of Elliott Smith and King Krule thrown into the pot “Brother, we’ve seen it all and we’re tired,” Hynes sings on the A$AP Rocky-featuring “Chewing Gum”. In the company of friends, music and tradition, he’s made a kind of spiritual headquarters, somewhere the disheartened can take cover and, with an eye on tomorrow, regroup. (JM)
Albums of the year 2018 20. Cardi B - Invasion of Privacy When she sings off the hook, it’s just another moment where Cardi B runs to her own rhythm: because nothing about Invasion of Privacy is formulaic
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Albums of the year 2018 18. Ghetts – Ghetto Gospel: The New Testament Ghetts re-evaluates much of what he said on Ghetto Gospel, when he was frustrated and angry with the world. Now he looks more to the future, whether on “Next of Kin”, where he speaks from the perspective of a mother carrying her child’s coffin, or “Black Rose”, which addresses fears for his daughter in a society that places double standards on black women. It’s a reminder that grime is so much more than violence and threats. (RO)
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Albums of the year 2018 12. Troye Sivan - Bloom Bloom captures the A to Z’s of modern queer love with pinpoint precision
Albums of the year 2018 11. Ben Howard – Noonday Dream Howard’s music has always, above all, reflected the shifts and moods in nature, while he sings poetic lyrics in his signature low, warm murmur. On Noonday Dream, he expands on the Cornish landscape that impacted his earlier work and brings in sounds and instruments that spark the imagination for places further afield, in the most exquisite way
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Albums of the year 2018 8. Tamino - Amir Tamino’s music on his debut Amir draws on the old-world romance of his grandfather – a famous Arabic musician and actor ¬– but also embodies the genre-less quality of much modern pop. The musical heritage that is so essential to the 22-year-old’s sound comes to life in the dramatic, sweeping instrumentation on a song like “So It Goes”; haunting, graceful violins, bold drum beats and the shimmer of a tambourine transport the listener entirely.
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Albums of the year 2018 6. Colter Wall - Song of the Plains Wall’s songwriting is as stark as it comes: his plain-speaking manner is delivered in a slow, melancholy drawl that paints him as some lonely cowboy – the last man of the West, as he describes in the most matter-of-fact terms how a bullet ripped in to “poor Wild Bill”. There’s no fuss in the instrumentation, either, mostly just gentle picking or brisk, deep thrums on Wall’s acoustic guitar, which are bolstered by icy laps of pedal steel and the occasional harmonica. It’s effective in the simplest of ways – and allows the listener’s imagination to do the rest
Albums of the year 2018 5. Black Panther soundtrack (various artists) Kendrick Lamar co-executive produced the Black Panther soundtrack, has writing credits on its 14 tracks, and appears in various skits and features. But his most essential job on this album is that of the curator, as he brings in a staggering array of talent – from Anderson .Paak, SZA and Future to South African gqom (EDM) artist Babes Wodumo and alt-rapper Yungen Blakrok. Not all the tracks fit as neatly into the film’s biggest moments, but Lamar successfully navigates its most important themes – responsibility, black power, heroism, family dynamics, and loyalty– and weaves them into the music. It makes for a thrilling and deeply immersive journey. (RO)
Albums of the year 2018 4. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour Kacey Musgraves third album flips between wide-eyed country pop and disco-electronica. Aided by co-writers and producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk – both Nashville stalwarts – Musgraves conjures up a feeling of lightness as she melds the traditional and futuristic. At a time where mainstream artists seem forced to dwell on all the doom and gloom we hear on the news, Golden Hour is a reminder that sometimes – often, if you’re looking in the right places – life is beautiful. And you get the feeling that Musgraves could find the beauty in anything. (RO)
Albums of the year 2018 3. Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer Dirty Computer is Monáe’s gift to the LGBT+ community, non-binary people, black men and women… anyone who faces stigma and abuse just for embracing their true selves. It’s a message of love and hope to anyone who fears what is different, but who has capacity to learn and know better. And it’s seemingly a gift to herself, as well. (RO)
Albums of the year 2018 2. Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino feels more like an interlude between AM and a seventh Arctic Monkeys album – a delve into the bizarre, where even the Steinway piano has its own character. On “The Ultracheese”, the descending piano chords symbolise a kind of final bow; the last soliloquy of the night before the curtain closes. Few bands today are as brave as this.
Albums of the year 2018 1. Christine & The Queens – Chris Letissier makes her vintage synths snap, crackle, pop, fizz, freeze, squelch, shimmer and soar. There’s even a shattered glass effect (on “Stranger”) to complete the Old Skool Electronica bingo card. Treble notes bounce from air-cushioned soles. Bass lines lasso your hips. Chiffon layers of Letissier’s Anglo-French vocals glide around your neck and shoulders and roll them back. It’s ridiculously danceable. The quirky lyrical pleas for understanding of early hits like “Tilted” has been replaced by the empowered seduction of “Girlfriend”, on which lines “Don’t feel like a girlfriend/ But lover/ Damn, I’d be your lover” simmer over flickering flames of funk-guitar. In the wonderful world of Christine and the Queens, linguistic borders are as porous as those between gender, era and genre. Vive la fluidité!
She threatened to lodge a complaint against the airline in the future.
Aer Lingus confirmed to The Independent that two passengers left a Dublin-bound flight, adding that the plane left with a delay because their luggage had to be retrieved.
Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events “Aer Lingus can confirm that two guests scheduled to fly on 10:55am flight from London Gatwick to Dublin (EI233) this morning disembarked themselves prior to departure,” the airline said in a statement.
“The guests in question got off the plane safely of their own accord, while all other guests remained on board. As they had luggage in the hold, the flight was delayed while that luggage was sourced.
“The flight departed Gatwick at 12:07 and landed in Dublin at 13:22. Aer Lingus has a strict no-tolerance policy towards disruptive guest behaviour. The safety and security of our guests and crew remains our first priority.”
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