Rapper Azealia Banks is known for her lack of a filter when it comes to letting out her frustrations or, depending on the case, her rage. She’s also known for dropping the occasional homophobic slur and for getting physically violent when she goes in a rage.
All that and so much more came out to light again some hours ago, after she was involved in a nasty altercation on a Delta Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles. And there’s video of her outburst.
Azealia loses her temper, gets violent
TMZ has the video in question, which begins after one Delta flight attendant stepped in to try to get Azealia to calm down. Some minutes earlier, she’d gotten into a fight with a French couple sitting on the seats in front of her, who were blocking her way when she tried to get off the plane in a hurry, upon landing.
Azealia claimed that the French man slapped her in the face, but eyewitnesses tell TMZ that he merely put out his hand to get her to stop, because she was nearly trampling over them in her rush to get to the exit.
The same eyewitnesses say that Azealia’s response was to spit at him, punch him in the face and make a grab for his shirt. This is when the flight attendant stepped in to help calm things down: his first move was to prevent the rapper from fleeing, by securing the bag she’d just retrieved from the overhead compartment.
She started pulling on it, urging him to let go. The pilot came out as well, urging Azealia to calm down and informing her that he had called the cops. This is when she called the flight attendant the F-word, the homophobic slur.
TMZ further reports that, once she managed to get her bag, Azealia literally ran off the plane, dropping her cell phone.
“Police caught up with Azealia at baggage claim and spoke with witnesses as well, but the French couple decided not to press charges because they were here on holiday and didn't want the hassle,” the report says.
Azealia fights back on Twitter
In a series of tweets posted after the incident, the rapper says that the only apology she intends to issue has nothing to do with the French dude she assaulted or the flight attendant she insulted, but with her fans.
She argues that she was being manhandled, so she responded with violence because she’s not the kind of woman to take this kind of abuse. As for how the incident is being reported in the press, Azealia says that it’s a clear case of racial bias, in that she’s being portrayed as angry and out of control, when all she was doing was defending herself.
Azealia won’t apologize for the racial slur either because she’s bisexual herself and thus (in her mind) she can’t be homophobic.
I will make one apology. And it's to apologize to the feelings of the people who enjoy my music and hate seeing me in drama.
— AZEALIABANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) September 23, 2015
I only OWE an apology to my fans. My true true ride or die fans. The rest of yall can pick up a rock and suck on it !!
— AZEALIABANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) September 23, 2015
Because the fans saw how those men were handling me. The fans know that I'm 5'2, 106 llbs and was genuinely terrified in that moment.
— AZEALIABANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) September 23, 2015
I've been a victim of domestic abuse before and I have a flight or fight reaction whenever men get in my face.
— AZEALIABANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) September 23, 2015
And to be quite honest IM REALLY tired of the world trying to police the way black women should or shouldn't express themselves.
— AZEALIABANKS (@AZEALIABANKS) September 23, 2015