Here's a Comprehensive List of Azealia Banks' Most Controversial Moments

The Breakdown: Azealia Banks is a talented rapper with fun flows and witty lyricism. But her musical gifts are overshadowed by more than a decade of public rants, questionable opinions, and nasty feuds with industry peers.

Controversy sells. We may not always like to admit it, but there’s something intriguing about a messy situation. It’s provocative; it gets the people going.

No one knows that better than Azealia Banks. The 212 rapper has built a reputation for stirring the pot. Over the years, she’s targeted a laundry list of celebrities with scathing critiques online, including Lil Kim, Erykah Badu, Rihanna, Rita Ora, and Cardi B.

She also shares bold (and often very problematic) opinions on race, gender, and politics. And the trouble isn’t just online — she’s got a reputation for bad behavior in public too.

When it comes to controversy, Ms. Banks is the queen. Let’s take a look at five of her messiest feuds, nastiest tirades, and wildest public meltdowns.

One of Azealia Banks’ earliest controversies was her online feud with fellow rapper Iggy Azalea. In 2012, Azalea was the only female rapper included on that year’s XXL Freshman cover, and Banks was vocal about her disapproval. Banks accused Azalea of cultural appropriation, and the pair traded insults online for years.

Things got particularly nasty in 2016. In a vulnerable moment in a radio interview on The Cruz Show, Azalea shared that the public ridicule she’d faced over the years had left her feeling suicidal. The clip was posted to Instagram, and Banks slid into the comments with a callous response: “Yass slavemaster, drive that slave truck right off the canyon!”

Despite the heartless comment, Banks and Azalea seemed to have made peace behind the scenes, with the latter sharing that the pair would be collaborating on a song in 2017. The track was never released, but Banks and Azalea haven’t had any public battles since.

Instagram became a platform for Banks’ controversial comments again in 2021 after she announced her engagement to Ryder Ripps. Ripps, who is Jewish, proposed with a ring featuring a menorah, and Banks captioned the post, “I’m Jewish now. MAZEL TOV B---H!” Jewish folks were quick to respond, alerting her that marriage wouldn’t make her a member of the faith; she would have to convert.

Banks didn’t take kindly to the correction. But her response confusingly dragged trans women into the argument. In a series of comments, she claimed that if society could do “mental gymnastics” to accept trans women, she would expect them to “bend the rules to accept this newly black Jewish coochie.” When challenged, she doubled down, writing, “… you girls are just hot gay boys with beat faces and plastic surgery.”

The comments sparked outrage from the LGBTQ+ community, who described her words as openly transphobic. But in a surprising turn of events, Banks has changed her tune in recent years. In 2025, she tweeted at J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter novelist, criticizing her for her anti-trans views. Banks wrote on Twitter: “I love you down sis, but [trans women] are not a threat to your femininity.”

J.K. Rowling is one of a long list of celebrities to get caught in the crosshairs of Banks’ Twitter fingers. One of her most shocking Twitter rants targeted another Brit — former One Direction member, Zayn Malik. In May 2016, Banks launched a series of vicious tweets at Malik, accusing him of copying her ideas in his music video.

Her rant included racist slurs, including calling Malik a “sandn*gger” and a “hairy curry scented b---h.” She also warned him that his family would be “obliterated by good ol' the U.S. of A,” presumably a reference to U.S. military activity in the Middle East (though Malik is half-Pakistani and, therefore, South Asian). Banks also threw in some homophobic slurs for good measure.

The controversy brought massive negative attention to the controversial rapper. The rant got her temporarily banned from Twitter (she’s back on the platform now). It also resulted in UK radio station Rinse FM canceling her headline appearance at their Born and Bred Festival. In October 2016, six months after the initial incident, Banks issued an apology to Malik in an open letter.

Banks has had smoke for fellow celebrities and entire communities online, but she’s also given her fans a taste of her bad behavior too. Banks was booked to tour Australia in 2021, and the tour was allegedly plagued with issues.

A representative from the tour’s management company Bizzaro told The Guardian: “She was not present for any press opportunities, she failed to arrive at any event in a timely manner, she willingly posted inaccurate, disrespectful and slanderous content online, and her lack of care and appreciation for her fans, who make such an event possible, was disgraceful.”

Banks did not agree with Bizarro’s version of events. Instead, she claimed the company was making the allegations to avoid paying her. Additionally, to Banks’ credit, she expressed her frustration with Australian crowds, citing incidents of racism and her experience of having items thrown at her in previous performances on the continent.

Not showing up for shows is one thing. Assaulting people is a whole other level of problematic. But Banks has done that too. In 2015, there were two separate incidents where Banks made news for allegedly getting physical with people.

The first incident occurred as Banks was attempting to deboard a Delta flight in September 2015. Cell phone videos captured Banks calling the flight attendant a homophobic slur as he tried to stop her from disembarking prematurely. Though it wasn’t caught on camera, an eyewitness also alleged that Banks punched a fellow passenger.

The plane incident was a mess, but not a legal one. But Banks’ altercation in December 2015 ended in an assault charge. The rapper was denied entry to an invite-only party at a New York nightclub. Banks allegedly reacted by assaulting the female security guard, punching her, spitting at her, and — most shockingly — biting her on the breast.

Police were called, and Banks was arrested and charged with third-degree assault. She pleaded guilty but avoided jail time by agreeing to complete an anger management program and avoid further legal troubles. It seems she’s stuck to the terms of that agreement, as there haven’t been any public reports of arrests for the rapper since.

Azealia Banks’ long list of conflicts, both on- and offline, has earned her a reputation for being a controversy queen. It doesn’t seem like she has any plans to stop. Her recent Twitter beef with J.K. Rowling is one of three ongoing feuds. She also had words for Lil Nas X in 2024 and Wale in 2025. We’ll have to wait and see if Banks will ever let her music be louder than her mess.