Recently, People Magazine sat down with Australian Hip-Hop artist Iggy Azalea to discuss why her follow up project to 2014’s The New Classic, has experienced so many delays.

Digital Distortion, set to be Azalea’s second studio album, has been struggling to get off the ground for some time now, despite being ready for release in July of this year. While many have speculated that the delays are connected to Azalea’s complicated personal life of late, Iggy Azalea has shed some light on why Digital Distortion has yet to see the light of day.

“I just kind of felt like, on top of me needing the personal time, then feeling, ‘Okay, I’m single now. I want to have sexy songs. I want to say stuff about being single,’ ” Azalea said regarding her recent and highly publicized break-up with NBA player and fiance, Nick Young. “it’s no secret, I kind of had my personal life fall apart.”

As Iggy Azalea seems to be approaching the album from a brand new perspective, she has also been spotted spending a lot of time with rumored new boyfriend, French Montana. However, despite spending a lot of time with the Coke Boys rapper, neither have confirmed the budding relationship.

Two tracks have been released in anticipation of the new album, “Azillion” and “Team”, which both dropped before the summer, although all tracks have since been deleted from Azalea’s SoundCloud account. It’s unclear what will be kept and what will be scrapped for the new direction of the album, and even more unclear when this might be completed.

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Iggy Azalea is pissed at Nick Young yet again.

The 26 year old rapper was caught on Wednesday at an Australian airport speechless but with one message for her ex-fiance and his baby mother Keonna Green.

TMZ reporters questioned Azalea about her thoughts on Green’s US weekly interview concerning her relationship with Young and the news about their baby on the way. Banks silently responded by sticking up her middle finger to the media outlet.

Green who is Young’s baby mother from his first child, reported that she and Young rekindled their romance in September 2015 and started a secret affair, just months after he proposed to Azalea. The after math of their affair led to Green becoming pregnant with Young’s second child.

Banks told social media she was in the dark, unaware of Young’s relations with Green and even more unaware of her pregnancy and didn’t even find out until E!News came out talking about it.

Meanwhile, Green told Us Weekly that she tried to reach out to Azalea to tell her about what had happened between her and Young but got no response.

It seems like just when Azalea thought her drama with her ex were over, they got worse.

See the video of banks at the airport Here.

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The post Iggy Azalea Sends Message to Nick Young & Keonna Green appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Los Angeles Lakers’ Point Guard D’Angelo Russell is known as one of the better young pick and roll passers in the league. His timing when coming off of a firmly set Julius Randle pick, followed by slicing the defense with a sharp pass through the middle, is a thing of beauty. Timing…. That’s the keyword for today boys and girls! Only one day after Iggy Azalea announced the ending of her tumultuous engagement with Laker Guard Nick Young — followed by the most high school reaction possible from Young —  Russell is now starring in a new commercial for Foot Locker in which he makes light of the situation that likely contributed to the downfall of Icky (get it? Nick + Igg… okay nvm).

The commercial centers around projected number one pick, Ben Simmons, as he seeks out advice on how to weather the rookie storms. He’s greeted by Karl Anthony-Towns, Devin Booker, and of course Russell. After being told cliche statements like, “The hard work starts after the draft” — boring — Russell chimes in last by asking if he had a cell phone. “Gotta phone?” Russell asks before chucking it into the nearby ocean, “Trust me” he then says to a confused Simmons. This is an obvious play on the situation that almost got Russell shunned from the league last year when he video taped an unsuspecting Young talking about cheating on the Australian pop star. What followed was a leaked video, an engagement on the rocks, and a whole lot of trust issues, from both Iggy and Swaggy. Now obviously Russell, nor Foot Locker for that matter, could’ve predicted that the couple would split when they filmed the commercial, the releasing of the timing was a little distasteful.

With Young expected to not return next season, a top two pick and a healthy amount of cap room, the Lakers are in a better position than in recent years. Replacing Swaggy with let’s say Brandon Ingram, will help to cure not only their on court issues but off the court ones as well. Either way, the moral of the story is, if you video tape your friends discussing their infidelities, you might get a Footlocker commercial out of it.

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Iggy Azalea and Nick Young officially call an end to their rumoured-to-be riotous relationship. Azalea, the Australian rapper and Young, a player for the NBA, had been engaged for a year.

Azalea hit 2014 hard with her single “Fancy,” and followed up with “Work” and “Black Widow.” Azalea remains one of the few female rappers to have cracked the hip-hop glass ceiling, with a regular spot at the top of the charts.

Azalea recently addressed the break up on Instagram as she wrote:

“Unfortunately although I love Nick and have tried and tried to rebuild my trust in him, it’s become apparent in the last few weeks I am unable to. I genuinely wish Nick the best. It’s never easy to part ways with the person you planned you’re entire future with, but futures can be rewritten and as of today mine is a blank page.”

The media had been buzzing with rumours about Young’s infidelity, in which Azalea remained calm and quiet. As many celebrities know, the public can get out of hand when analyzing star’s romances.

Young took to Twitter today with a rather condensed summary of Azalea’s post, simply writing “Single.”

Azalea raps in 2014’s “Black Widow,” “Like it’ll last forever but now forever ain’t as long/ If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be stuck singing this song.” One can only hope we’ll have a Taylor Swift-esque revenge song in the works. Who’s guessing “Blank Page” is the title?

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GQ continues with an over-the-top version of “Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous,” a series of episodes of the “Most Expensivest Sh*t” featuring 2 Chainz.

On today’s episode, 2 Chainz links up with NBA-Lakers Nick Young, AKA Swaggy P, and his son to hit RIF Los Angeles. Towards the end of the episode, Nick tries to convince 2 Chainz to cop a pair of $25,000 Jordans, but our 2-chained friend turned it down with the quickness.

Check out the episode below, and if you missed out on previous episodes, check it out here.

The post Nick Young & 2 Chainz Shop for Ultra-Rare Sneakers appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Ever since “Pussy,” Iggy Azalea’s infamous ode to the female sex organ, went viral on YouTube in 2011, fans and haters alike have been clamoring for more from the young artist. But The New Classic, her oft-delayed, debut album, has been a long time coming.

Buzz for The New Classic traces back to December 2011 when the rapper revealed the title of her album during an interview. In early 2012, she hinted at a June release date, but due to record label conflicts, had to postpone the drop until 2013. By June of 2013, The New Classic, though reputedly “almost finished,” had still not been released. She told MTV that it would be out in September, pushed it back to October, and then changed it to March of 2014.   In February, she announced a new release date in April, though there were conflicting rumors as to the exact day it would come out. Some heard it would be the 14^th, others the 15^th, and still others thought maybe the 18^th. Finally, after over two and a half years of misinformation and false hype, The New Classic was released on Monday, April 21^st.

Even without an official album, Iggy has managed to achieve a lot in the last few years. She’s gone on tour with Tyga, Kirko Bangz, NAS and Rita Ora and appeared in a cypher alongside T.I. and B.o.B. at the 2012 B.E.T. Hip Hop Awards. She performed “Blurred Lines” with Robin Thicke at the MTV EMA’s last year and became the first female, non-American rapper to make XXL’s annual Top 10 Freshman list. She dated rapper A$AP Rocky and is currently seeing Lakers’ basketball player, Nick Young. She’s had a very public, often fraught friendship with T.I. who played a role in one of her music videos and performed with her on 106 & Park. She got signed to Wilhelmina Models and became “the new face” of Levi’s Jeans. She’s already toured Europe and has become known for her extravagant, big-budget music videos that have involved elephant rides in Mumbai and a full rendition of the 90’s cult classic, Clueless. She even opened for Beyonce during the singer’s recent Mrs. Carter Show world tour in Australia.

During this time, Iggy also managed to churn out a few mixtapes. Following the 2011 release of Ignorant Art, her first full-length mixtape, she dropped an EP in 2012 called Glory, followed that same year by her starkly different, Diplo-produced mixtape, Trap Gold. Whereas Ignorant Art is all trap and synth, with appearances by Y.G., Problem and Joe Moses, Trap Gold is undeniably Electronic and has only a tenuous hint of its former hip-hop origins. By expanding her repertoire to include genres outside of rap and hip-hop, Iggy was foreshadowing a shift in her musical direction. Yet despite this subtle forewarning, her debut still comes as a bit of a surprise.

The New Classic is not a hip-hop album. It’s a fusion of pop and trap, with club-friendly beats and loads of energy. With its wide range of sounds and fast tempos, The New Classic is like Christmas come early for DJs and is well suited for the club, even without remixes. Guest artists, like Charli XCX, Rita Ora and Mavado, play a vital role because more often than not, Iggy has left the choruses to them, which makes one wonder, is this her album or theirs?

The lead single, “Work,” is easily the best song on the album (and not just because of the lap dance scene in the music video or the twerkability of the beat). Iggy has said that one of her main goals for the album was to use it as a springboard for sharing her story and revealing more about herself and, with “Work,” she did exactly that. We hear about how she juggled multiple jobs and saved money for years so that she could move to the United States at the age of 16. We learn that she was swindled and taken advantage of in her first record deal and get insight into the events that have toughened her up and made her the person she is today. “Work” is a musical autobiography about the Aussie’s life and everything about it—the voice, the lyrics, and the music video—revolves around her.

Though she manages to tell bits and pieces of her story in some of the songs, the rest of the album has little to do with her. The voices that stand out the most tend to be those of the featured artists’, which gives the album a joint effort feel, rather than solo. It’s obvious that Iggy was trying to appeal to a wider audience by making her music more pop and mainstream, but she diluted her own voice in doing so. There are a lot of reasons why her fans love her and her bizarre, hybrid accent is one of them. It’s one of the things that makes her so unique and it’s why her sound is so different from others.

But this is not the case with The New Classic. At times, it’s a musical mess. The transitions from one genre to the next are rough. The choruses don’t complement her raps. The tempo shifts are disruptive and far from seamless. Case in point: “Fancy,” in which singer Charli XCX handles the chorus. It’s actually a pretty good song, but it could have been better. On December 5, 2013, the original, unfinished version of the song, then titled “Leave It,” got leaked online. It’s almost exactly the same as the version that made it on the album (it has the same DJ Mustard beat and Iggy’s lyrics are unchanged), there’s just one difference: the chorus. Iggy is the only singer on “Leave It” and it is she who raps the chorus. But in “Fancy,” the task of covering the chorus is left to Charli XCX, who adds her distinctive ’80s, goth sound to the previously simple, measured beat. In this case, the merging of musical styles works, but the chorus change is still puzzling. “Leave It” is a great song, even without input from other artists, and one in which Iggy really shows off her lyrical talents.  So why change it and ruin a good thing when you have it?

It’s disappointing that Iggy relied so heavily on others—be it their voices or their sound—when making this album. She’s got talent (just listen to her previous work), but sadly there are only glimmers of it here.

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