NEEDSUMLUV - Azealia Banks - NEEDSUMLUV (self released, 2012)
Harlem based rapper and singer Azealia Banks just keeps kicking up more hype. She originally came into fame a few months ago with her undeniably infectious track 212, which features her laying down a heavy-duty rap over Lazy Jay’s Float My Boat. But Banks quickly dispelled any ideas that she was a one hit wonder, going on to work with upcoming Canadian producer Lunice on Runnin’, and more recently collaborating with Lone, resulting in the fantastic track Liquorice.
As such, her latest coupling with boundary-pushing bass producer and fellow New Yorker Machinedrum is hardly erratic. In fact, one of her very first tracks, L8R, was produced by him. However, NEEDSUMLUV sees her turn down the fiery rapping of her previous hits, and instead demonstrate just how capable she is as a singer; which when combined with Machinedrum’s twitchy percussion and bubbling synth lines results in some “hella progressive R&B”.
But if you’re missing the fervent, eminently danceable sounds of 212, you need not despair— she premiered her raviest track yet, Bambi, at a Mugler fashion show in Paris a few days ago (yes, rave is now an adjective). Mugler’s creative director Nicola Formichetti is reportedly set to direct the video for Liquorice, so one assumes Azealia gave the premiere of Bambi to her in return. You can check out a rip the official Mugler release of the track on SoundCloud here.
