Iggy Azalea

Iggy Azalea, the Australian rapper born Amethyst Amelia Kelly, shifted from a prominent modeling background into rap prominence during the mid-2010s. She reached the Hot 100 through three tracks—"Fancy," "Problem," and "Black Widow"—that saturated radio throughout 2014. Though her first album, The New Classic, landed in the Top Three across North America and Australia, years passed before another full project appeared, as label disputes and discarded recordings suddenly stalled her cultural ascent. She released In My Defense in 2019 as her proper second album, then followed it with assorted singles over the next two years, among them 2020’s “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching” and 2021’s “Sip It.”

Her forthright, audacious writing drew from the approach of Missy Elliott, Trina, and Nicki Minaj. Azalea relocated to the United States in 2006 at age 16, citing a desire to reach rap’s point of origin. After moving between Miami, Houston, and Atlanta, she absorbed the regional cadence and rap ethos of those cities, then dropped the trap-rooted mixtape Ignorant Art in 2011 soon after settling in Los Angeles. A clip for the track “Pu$$y” circulated online and gained YouTube traction through its explicit content. Around the same period, her emerging connection with rising rapper A$AP Rocky generated press attention—she inked the title of his debut album onto her knuckles—yet her recording plans stalled when intended work with T.I. collapsed amid label conflicts.

During spring 2012 she joined Wilhelmina Models International and committed to modeling full-time, securing the role as the “New Face of Levi’s Jeans.” Later that year her profile surged when XXL Magazine featured her on the cover of its yearly Top Ten Freshman edition alongside Danny Brown, Roscoe Dash, and French Montana. As the first female, non-American rapper on that list, she drew serious notice from hip-hop listeners, including Diplo, who collaborated on her next mixtape, TrapGold, before she signed with Mercury Records for the official early-2014 release The New Classic. The set reached the Top Three in Australasia and North America, yielding the hit singles “Fancy” and “Black Widow.” It was reissued later that year as Reclassified and added five fresh recordings, among them the U.S. Top 30 single “Beg for It.”

She resurfaced in 2016 with the track “Team,” built around a clear sample of Juvenile’s 1999 hit “Back That Thang Up.” Repeated postponements of her second studio album continued for years afterward. She kept issuing independent singles, among them the 2017 trio “Team,” “Mo Bounce,” and “Switch.” The Quavo-assisted “Savior,” positioned as the lead single for album number two, surfaced in early 2018 yet did not appear on her subsequent project. Instead, the six-song EP Survive the Summer arrived that August via Island Records and contained the singles “Tokyo Snow Trip” and “Kream” with Tyga. By year’s end Azalea had exited Island and launched her own independent outlet, Bad Dreams Records, distributed through Empire.

In March 2019 she unveiled “Sally Walker,” presenting it as the lead single for the long-delayed sophomore LP In My Defense. Released that summer, the assertive project extended the stark, brooding tone of Survive the Summer and featured guest spots from Lil Yachty, Kash Doll, and Juicy J. Despite repeated delays, divided reviews, and surrounding controversy that had trailed her in the years before In My Defense, the album still performed solidly, peaking at number 50 on the U.S. Billboard charts. After closing 2019 with the EP Wicked Lips, she paired with Tinashe in 2020 on the single “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching.” Early 2021 brought two more tracks: “Sip It” with Tyga and “Brazil.”