Azealia Banks Says Jay-Z and Lil Kim Are the Only Rappers Who Have Improved With Age

Azealia Banks had a few thoughts about Jay-Z and Lil Kim, and noted them as some of the only MC’s who have shown any creative improvement over the years.

“Jay-Z on that Jay Electronica record was really some crazy s**t,” Banks said in a post to her Instagram Story. “I never heard Jay-Z sound like that and it was a clear evolution and maturation of his artistry.”

She was speaking on Jay Electronica’s 2020 album A Written Testimony, which featured Hov on all ten songs. Banks then offered one more take in the same post about Lil Kim.

“Lil’ Kim did something really masterful with ‘9’. She adulterated today’s trends and made an undeniably New York rap album,” Banks wrote of the Brooklyn rapper. “A musical triumph if you will. ‘9’ proved that Lil’ Kim is the origin species from which all female rap is spawned.”

Banks and her opinions have gotten her in hot water over the years, and she recently engaged in a feud with Grimes, who teased an unreleased track at a virtual reality festival called Splendour XR that she said was about “having to defeat Azealia Banks when she tried to destroy my life.”

Banks quickly bit back at the pop singer for this claim, saying that the incident she was referring to was from 2018, and that Grimes had “some psychosexual obsession” with her.

“I think it’s bitterness cuz she doesn’t have the musical capacity i have,” Banks wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post.