Iggy Azalea 264

Amethyst Amelia Kelly (born June 7, 1990), better known by her stage name Iggy Azalea, is an Australian rapper and songwriter signed to her own label Bad Dream Records. After being raised in a small town called Mullumbimby and feeling like an outsider, in 2006, at the age of 16, she moved to the United States to pursue a career in hip hop music, stating that she was drawn to the birthplace of rap, and resided in the Southern part of the country.

Moving from Miami to Houston to Atlanta, Iggy absorbed the Southern-style drawl of her surroundings and released her debut project, a mixtape titled Ignorant Art in September 2011, shortly after relocating to Los Angeles. Iggy commented that she made it “with intent to make people question and redefine old ideals.” The project’s raw electronic sound accentuated her unique style that would become a trademark throughout her career. Prior to the release of the mixtape, she had been sharing several home videos on her YouTube channel as an underground rapper and her debut music video for “Pu$$y” quickly went viral due to its explicit nature. In 2012, Iggy became the first female and the first non-American rapper to be featured on XXL’s annual Freshman Class cover issue.

Iggy then aligned herself with the self-proclaimed “King of the South” T.I., who executive produced her free EP Glory released in July 2012 through his Grand Hustle imprint, which included their popular collaboration “Murda Bizness”. Later that year, she was featured on the Hustle Gang Cypher at the BET Hip Hop Awards. In October 2012, Iggy released her second mixtape TrapGold, produced entirely by Diplo and 1st Down of FKi. In the following year, she was selected as the tour opening act for the likes of Beyoncé and Nas.

Iggy’s debut studio album The New Classic was finally released in April 2014 after she secured significant label deals with Island Def Jam and Mercury Records in the previous year. It topped the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums making her the first non-American female rapper to reach the summit of the chart. The album was promoted by a number of single releases: the acclaimed autobiographical “Work”, “Bounce”, “Change Your Life” and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping single “Fancy”, which made Iggy only the fourth female rapper in the history of that chart to reach number one, claiming the longest-leading reign with seven consecutive weeks. She also went on to achieve three top ten hits simultaneously on the Hot 100 along with her feature on Ariana Grande’s “Problem” and the fifth single from the album, “Black Widow,” later that year. The New Classic garnered Iggy four Grammy Award nominations, among many other awards and accolades. In November 2014, the album was reissued in a repackaged version titled Reclassified featuring five newly recorded songs, including “Beg For It” and “Trouble.”

Iggy has also notably collaborated with various other artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Wiz Khalifa and Britney Spears, having amassed hundred millions of streams. In one of the more unlikely crossover success stories, Iggy became one of the most polarizing figures in the music industry suffering a tirade of social media backlash over race and hip-hop culture, but the lightning rod rapper credits the many that have supported her instead, naming some of the women she grew up idolizing particularly Missy Elliott and Lil' Kim.

Digital Distortion had been announced as her sophomore project in 2016 but was ultimately scrapped due to label issues. It was slated to include the singles “Team”, “Mo Bounce”, and “Switch”. In late 2017, Iggy revealed she had parted ways with Def Jam Recordings. She joined Island Records in the following year by releasing the single “Savior.” Her first full project in four years titled Survive The Summer was preceded by the single “Kream” and was finally released on August 3rd, 2018.

Months after the EP Iggy decided to part ways with her label and be independent. In 2019 she released three singles under her own label Bad Dream Records, the songs “Sally Walker,” “Started,” and “Fuck It Up' (with Kash Doll). The tracks are part of her first full project in five years, her sophomore studio album In My Defense that was released on July 19, 2019.

Soon after that her EP Wicked Lips was released after a short delay due to her being five months pregnant at the time, spawning the lead single “Lola”. In 2020 after releasing the Tinashe assisted “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching” Iggy Azalea announced her third official studio album titled End Of An Era released on August 13, 2021, the deluxe version of it on September 17th 2021. The project’s first official single “Sip It” was released on April 2, 2021 along with the B-side “Brazil”. The second official single of the project “I Am The Strip Club” was released on July 2, 2021.

Prior to the release of her third studio album Iggy Azalea expressed her desire to take a break from making music. She since then released a perfume, a makeup line and embarked on two tours accompanying American rapper Pitbull on his I Feel Good and Can’t Stop Us Now Summer shows as a supporting act.

Fast forward a year and on August 8, 2022 Iggy finally announced her return and her plans to release new music.

When quizzed by fans she revealed that she never stopped recording music during her hiatus and that she’s taking her time planning her next steps. During this time span, she worked on some songs (e.g. “Starter Kit”) with AJRuinedMyRecord, the producer of her third studio album “The End of an Era”, for the most part, with a potential release at some point in 2023.

On October 7, 2022, Iggy has stated that few months earlier she started working with new producers (e.g. Play Picasso and Sergio R.) and Tory Lanez and that he will be the executive producer of her fourth studio album. After recording some songs (including “Boss Bitch” and a collaboration with Fivio Foreign), towards the end of 2022, they ended their collaboration because Tory Lanez was found guilty of shooting Megan Thee Stallion and other charges.

In early January 2023, the Australian rapper joined OnlyFans, releasing a stream of exclusive and uncensored photos, videos, music, illustrations, and poetry as part of her year-long multimedia project titled “Hotter Than Hell”.

In early April 2023, Iggy announced that she changed the executive producer of her fourth studio album, choosing the renowned Tricky Stewart. On August 25, Iggy released her first post-retirement track “Money Come” as a lead single. It was supposed to be dropped earlier, but was delayed due to complications filming the music video following a back surgery in which she had a life-threatening experience due to a severe infection. Shortly after the drop of the lead single off her new album Iggy teased three new tracks on X: “Starter Kit”, “Ain’t Enough” and “Knuckin' Buck*”.

However, after a few months, on January 3, 2024, she announced via a post on X that she had officially scrapped her 4th studio album and was retiring from music to dedicate herself to other projects.