Rise and Fall of Iggy Azalea
In the summer of 2014, Iggy Azalea was at the top of the Billboard charts. By summer 2015, with a canceled tour and a whole lot of drama, the Australian-born rapper is struggling to stay relevant. What went wrong? Below, check out some key moments in Azalea's roller-coaster career.
Azalea dominated the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart during the summer of 2014, thanks to two hit songs: "Fancy," off her debut CD, The New Classic; and Ariana Grande's "Problem," on which Azalea provided the rap verse. In May of that year, Azalea became the first artist since the Beatles to have their first two hits rank number one and two simultaneously when "Fancy" and "Problem" took the top two spots. Fancy would remain at number one for seven consecutive weeks, officially making it 2014's Song of the Summer.
Azalea faced her first of many public woes in September 2014, when reports broke of a sex tape featuring the Australian-born rapper was being shopped around to numerous places, including the company that distributed Kim Kardashian's now-infamous video. The shopper turned out to be Azalea's ex-boyfriend, Hefe Wine, who also wanted the rights to music she had recorded before hitting it big. Thus began a long, drawn-out legal battle that did not reach a settlement until July 2015. According to multiple reports, Azalea agreed to pay Wine a miniscule sum of money, worth less than a Honda Accord.
As "Fancy" ascended to the top of the charts, Iggy Azalea began to receive a number of harsh criticisms from members of the hip-hop community, including Nicki Minaj, who claimed Azalea was misrepresenting and exploiting rap culture. Among those who came down hardest: rapper Azealia Banks, who took major issue with the four Grammy nominations Azalea had received in December 2014, and had been feuding with Iggy for years. "When they give these Grammys out, all it says to white kids is: 'Oh yeah, you're great, you're amazing, you can do whatever you put your mind to," said Banks in an interview with Hot 97. "And it says to black kids: 'You don't have s***.'"

Azalea later responded to Banks' interview in a series of angry tweets, writing, "Special msg for banks: There are many black artists succeeding in all genres. The reason you haven't is because of your piss poor attitude." Things eventually got so tense, so nasty, that even Q-Tip and T.I. stepped into defend Banks. In an especially heated moment, Q-Tip tweeted out a long history of the origins of hip-hop, directed solely at Azalea.
Amid her ongoing Twitter feud with Banks, Azalea announced her first arena tour, The Great Escape Tour, which would begin in Fresno, Calif., in April 2015. Just weeks before she was supposed to hit the road, Azalea postponed the tour until the fall, amid rumors that she was being difficult with her management team and refusing to promote the tour. Then, in May, Azalea canceled the tour altogether, telling her fans she'd be back on the road after finishing her second album. Sources for Billboard claimed poor ticket sales factored into the tour's cancellation, with some venues reporting just 20 tickets sold. Those reports were later denied by concert promoter AEG Live.
Although her professional life was in shambles, Azalea was able to report some good news on the personal front when she got engaged to her boyfriend, Los Angeles Lakers player Nick Young, on June 1, 2015. The 10.43 carat ring was reported to be valued at a whopping $500,000. Insert your "Fancy" joke here.
Azalea was forced to cancel her performance at the 2015 Pittsburgh Pride after multiple groups pulled out of the gay pride parade over homophobic tweets that Azalea had posted prior to fame. "I am a firm believer in equality," Azalea wrote, mere days before her scheduled performance. "Unfortunately in the past as a young person, I used words I should not have. The last thing I want is for something so carelessly said to be interpreted as reflective of my character." Ironically, Azalea was replaced by Nick Jonas, who was originally supposed to be her arena tour’s opening act.
Never the one to avoid a heated debate over Twitter, Azalea enraged fans of Britney Spears—and possibly Spears herself—after she seemingly accused Spears of being the reason that their joint single, "Bad Girls," flopped on the charts. "its [sic] difficult to send a song up the charts without additional promo and tv performances etc. unfortunately im [sic] just featured..." Azalea tweeted to a fan who mentioned that the single had bombed. Fans naturally threw their arms in the air at Azalea's tweet, to the point where Azalea felt the need to step in and make things worse. "my comment is factual, it applies to any song. I dont have to suck the womans a****** 24/7 to be her friend, do i? bye girls," she wrote. The following day, Spears appeared to tweet out a jab at both Azalea and the canceled Great Escape tour, writing, "Can’t wait to get back to Vegas. So thankful I have shows for the rest of the year to look forward to... #YouWantAPieceOfMe."
Azalea's future in the business will ultimately depend the quality of any subsequent music she plans to release. On that end, things already appear to be off to a rocky start. In June, she told a fan on Twitter she had scrapped an entire six months of work and started over. Was that a sign she's starting to get a clue—or is there more drama ahead? Time will ultimately tell.