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Azealia Banks considers career change to front 'new black political party' and run for President

The volatile rapper spoke of her intentions in a Channel 4 News interview

Jenn Selby
Monday 02 March 2015 16:50 GMT
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Style icon: Azealia Banks
Style icon: Azealia Banks (Matt Barnes)

She’s barely graced the music industry with her presence, but controversial rapper Azealia Banks is already considering a change of career.

“Everyone's always saying, 'You're always ranting, you're always talking about politics. You should put it in your music',” she told Channel 4 News.

“[But] music is how I escape from everything else.

“It's discouraging to see young black men getting shot down in the street just for being black outside. It makes you angry because you feel powerless and you feel helpless.”

Adding that she feels hip-hop empowers black people, she continued: “I just feel like for centuries and centuries and centuries, black people have been painted to be these animals and just be these crazy people when we are really not,” she said.

“And I feel like all of the things like hip-hop - these are the things we have created for ourselves in the face of all of the adversity. We've created these things for ourselves and they are ours. And they make us feel good.”

“I think there needs to be some new political party, some new black political party,” she went on. “Even if they don't run for office, they just need to be like this trusted board of members.”

Asked if she’d ever consider running herself, she added: “Maybe. Yeah, I think I would. I think I could do it.”

Banks recently posed for the centrefold of Playboy. She also sparked a heated debate on why she is unable to use homophobic slurs to describe gay men when men can use the term "b**ch".

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