Here, for the uninitiated, is the timeline of 20-year-old Harlem rapper and mp3 blog darling Azealia Banks’s rise to fame: Her delightfully raunchy breakout track, “212,†hit YouTube sometime back in September, then was pulled owing to a sample dispute. Banks hit CMJ and started giving interviews about feminine power in the interim, and then right before Thanksgiving, the “212†video popped back up online. A day later, NME declared Banks the No. 1 Coolest Person on the Planet. (Predictably, some other British outlets chimed in to claim they’d discovered Azealia first. Relax, U.K.) The La Guardia High School graduate still doesn’t have a record deal — she tells Pitchfork she’s “not really scared of major labels†and is about to sign — and her first album won’t drop until next year. But she’s suddenly everywhere, thanks in no small part to the adorable, swaggerific “212†video, available for your viewing pleasure below. Watch her sass a Harry Potter hipster! See her Mickey Mouse sweatshirt! Marvel as she makes the limbo dance look cool! Fair warning: “212†is so compulsively listenable that you may find yourself singing unconsciously about ruining the C-word in front of disapproving family members (or at least one Vulture correspondent did this very weekend). It’s worth it. Azealia Banks, everyone! Put your headphones on and enjoy.
