Azealia Banks is still experiencing fallout from an ill-advised Twitter rant earlier in the week. Her tirade, which included racist and homophobic slurs, ultimately garnered the suspension of her account on the popular social media platform as well as backlash from fans and fellow entertainers. But where her exile from Twitter was largely just a blow to her public relations and self-promotion, the latest consequences of her conduct could well begin a trend of cancelled bookings and lost earnings.
Celebrity news and gossip clearing house Perez Hilton reports that Azealia Banks was dropped by the Rinse FM Born & Bred Festival in London earlier this week as a direct result of her Twitter feud with former One Direction singer Zayn Malik. As noted in a report by U.K.-based outlet The Telegraph , Banks peppered Malik with a number of racially charged insults, prompting Malik to ask her to explain the proverbial “beef” between them.
@AZEALIABANKS why you been saying nasty things about me? I wasn’t talking about you lol?
— zayn (@zaynmalik) May 11, 2016
One of Azealia Banks’ most incendiary comments towards Zayn Malik took issue with his Pakistani heritage. In her tweets, Banks said that Malik’s extended family would be “obliterated” by the United States. She also accused Malik of acting “like a white boy pretending to be black.”
Banks also turned her inexplicable ire towards 14-year-old Disney star Skai Jackson, who gently suggested that the rapper should step back a bit from her Twitter fight with Malik. Azealia’s meltdown prompted threats of a boycott by other acts booked for the Born & Bred Festival, which ultimately resulted in her ouster from the event. Banks shrugged it all off, but Skai Jackson said that the consequences were justified.
“There should be consequences that happen when you say things about people, especially racist things,” Skai Jackson said in a Teen Vogue interview quoted by Global Grind . “I’m honestly going to say I’ve heard some of her music; she is a talented person, but all that talent is being covered up with all this negativity that she’s causing on her own.”
Following up on the flap, Perez Hilton further noted that Azealia Banks has been removed from the talent roster on the website of Primary Talent International , which reportedly handles her U.K. bookings. Her dedicated page on the site appears to have been removed by the agency.
Prior to her Twitter suspension, Azealia Banks raised eyebrows with her controversial endorsement of Donald Trump. As previously reported by Inquisitr, Banks sparred with Twitter followers who objected to her enthusiastic support of the billionaire candidate, rebuffing accusations that Trump is a racist by suggesting that racism is woven into American culture. Banks also chided Democratic candidates for talking down to African-Americans as though they are “children or pets,” a claim that was subsequently quoted by conservative pundit Herman Cainduring one of his recent commentary spots on AM radio.
According to Celebrity Net Worth , Azealia Banks has a current net worth of around $3 million, finding success with hit singles like “212.” She has a history of public feuds with other celebrities, including dust-ups with the likes of Perez Hilton and fellow rapper TI.
[Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images]