Azealia Banks Causes Trouble With ‘Harlem Shake’ Remix

Last week, Azealia Banks released her remix of Baauer’s Harlem Shake and this week released an accompanying video. Harlem Shake, for those uninitiated, is the basis for the latest DIY Internet meme to smother your online productivity with a thick plume of infectious and distracting smoke.

Banks’ ode to the original, with her sashaying hips and trademark mermaid locks, was unfortunately not taken graciously by its creator, with Baauer successfully petitioning for the song to be removed from Soundcloud.

When an event such as this occurs, the only logical action is to take to Twitter and cause a total celebrity-embroiled shitstorm.

“Cause its not your song lol” was not a sufficient answer to Banks’ inquiry on why Baauer was “coccblockin” her, leading Banks to accuse Baauer of being a “pussy” who doesn’t belong in hip hop.

Perez Hilton, of course, weighed in for some reason, ironically misspelling his undying loyalty to #TeamBauuer. The insulting banter led to Azealia calling Hilton a “faggot”, which she defined as “coward, liar, backstabber,” and therefore outside of the homophobic context. This faux-pas was not easily forgiven; with Banks Tweeting later how she is shunned for saying “faggot” where men in hip hop do so without consequence often. Her conclusion was that, “this situation is a perfect example of how difficult it is to be a female who raps.” She may have a point.

More stuff happened, and then Diplo, who signed Baauer to his Mad Decent label, got a smear all over Twitter despite their work together on Fuck Up The Fun.

Banks’ reasoning for remixing Harlem Shake in the beginning was surprisingly succinct for a 160 characters and makes an insightful commentary into the integrity of intellectual property and remixing in the name of art: “Art is supposed to be inspiring. If you’re mad at someone for being excited and inspired by your art then you’re doing it wrong.”

Hundreds of Harlem Shake versions have mushroomed on the Internet, with our favourite compilation available here. We don’t see Baauer petitioning for them to be taken down, do we?

Thanks again, Internet.