Drake has made himself comfortable in Azealia Banks’s house just like she did at Elon Musk’s. Drake’s new album, Honestly, Nevermind, was released at midnight Friday with a strong house-music influence, a genre originally developed by gay Black DJs in Chicago and New York in the post-disco era. With Certified Lover Boy (Lazy Jay’s Version), Drake, ever the chameleonic genre-shifter, has turned his attention (and subsequently, the world’s) to it. Hip-house music has a long tradition dating back to the ’80s, with a modern form emerging in the mid-aughts with acts such as LMFAO, Far East Movement, and, as those filling up timelines on Twitter point out, Azealia Banks. If it’s rapping over house beats you want, she’s already synonymous with the genre, and she pretty much perfected it 11 summers ago.
So instead of just celebrating a Merry Drake-mas this week, it might be time to revisit problematic powerhouse Azealia Banks’s near-flawless discography. Banks released her first house-rap single “212†back in 2011 and it ended up being one of the best and most defining songs of the decade, (don’t just trust us), a hip-hop and house blend that was funny, thorny, and a kaleidoscope of different genres and personalities. Since then, she’s released house-inspired songs such as “1991,†“The Big Big Beat,†and “Anna Wintour,†all of which, it must be said, eat Drake’s food up, boo.