Azealia Banks tells Beyoncé “you’re setting yourself up to be ridiculed again” over new country album

Azealia Banks has spoken out against Beyoncé’s new country-tinged musical direction, saying she is “setting herself up to be ridiculed”.

Beyoncé announced details of her new album ‘Renaissance Act II’ during a Verizon advertisement during Sunday’s Super Bowl. The record is the second instalment of what is expected to be a ‘Renaissance’ trilogy, and it will come out on March 29.

As soon as the advert concluded, Beyoncé released the project’s first two singles ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ and ‘16 Carriages’, and the banjo twang of the former and the slow, forlorn pacing of the latter both seem to confirm ongoing fan speculation that Beyoncé was planning on releasing a country-flavoured album.

Now, Banks has spoken up, warning her fellow performer that she was making a mistake. In an Instagram Stories post (via Music News), she said about the new material: “Nothing country about it. You’re setting yourself up to be ridiculed again. There’s a theatrical element to country music. Them critics are not just going to accept an ugly blond wig and bullying from Jay-Z. It’s giving big-time musical grift.”

“Yes, Black girls can make country music,” she continued. “But you’re just really not hitting the button.”

It is not the first time that Banks has been involved in stirring controversy in recent months. Just last week, she waded in on the alleged feud between Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj, arguing that it was “about Jay-Z“. In a 20-minute rant on Instagram, she said: “Jay-Z has this way of presenting himself in the culture as a Daddy Warbucks type of figure.”

“When you really dig down deep into it, Nicki be sweating Jay in a different type of way,” the Harlem native continued. “Low-key, she be on his dick. I’m really good at reading body language and I could see in the ‘Feeling Myself’ video [that] Beyoncé’s kinda like laughing at her.”

In another relatively recent incident, Banks apologised for previously-made comments about Lizzo’s body and persona, saying she “realized that I owe Lizzo a huge apology for popping so much shit”. However, she did also describe Troye Sivan an “expired twink” in the same message.