Azealia Banks talks growing up in Harlem

There is no doubt that Azealia Banks has reshed some light on the creative potential residing in Harlem. The 20-year-old rap artist recently sat down with The New York Times and opened up on her experience while growing up in her neighborhood, insisting that she had a fulfilled childhood despite being surrounded by a rough atmosphere:

“We lived in Harlem just, like, at the beginning of its gentrification . . . but my mom had our apartment since she was 18, she worked a retail job, but she worked on commission, so she made like, maybe, 75 or $80,000 a year, but our rent was so cheap since it was, like, rent-controlled, so our rent was, like, $300 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, so we always had extra money. I grew up very spoiled . . . like I had everything: I had computers, I had video games, I had dress-up clothes, I had lipstick, I had heels — not like, actual heels, play heels — I had dolls, I had birds, I had hamsters — my mom did a really good job of keeping me stimulated.”

While being surrounded by the harsh realities in Harlem, the young Harlemite hints at the juxtaposition that she has experienced and that can be witnessed in her breakthrough hit “212,” which takes the point of view of a hugely self-confident Manhattanite:

“I’ve come from the ghetto and it’s really hard’ thing? Well, I came from the ghetto but it wasn’t hard for us, y’know what I mean? Because I lived on the block with kids who were, like, crack babies. I had other aunts and uncles who lived in other parts of Harlem, and I’d go with my cousins and we’d be out on the street, y’know . . . I had a healthy juxtaposition of, like, good and bad.”

You can read the article “Hothouse Flower” in its entirety here.