Azealia Banks is never one to mince words, and she’s revived a decade-old feud with Lily Allen as she came to Beyoncé’s defense.
The “212” rapper took to her Instagram Stories over the weekend to call out the British pop star for her criticism of Bey’s Cowboy Carter album, and she recalled a play-by-play of an alleged phone call between herself and Allen that took place a “few years ago.”
“Okay @lilyallen you’re going to stop right there and sit this one out,” Banks wrote over an accompanying Billboard story regarding Allen framing Bey’s country pivot as “quite calculated.” Banks also brought up an alleged phone conversation between the two.
“Shall we discuss that phone call to me – a few years ago – obviously off your face – crying and sobbing asking me to forgive you for randomly being racist?” she wrote in part.
Billboard has reached out to Allen for comment.
Allen name-dropped Banks on the April 4 episode of her Miss Me? podcast while dissecting Beyoncé’s Dolla Parton “Jolene” cover.
“I read a comment from Azealia Banks where she was like, ‘Stop talking about Jay-Z as if anyone wants to f–k him,” Allen said, laughing. “Literally, no one’s even looked at him for about 10 years, relax.”
Co-host Miquita Oliver then asked Allen if she found the Brooklyn rap mogul attractive, and she replied, “I mean, I’m attracted to power, so yes? But maybe not physically,” said the singer, who is married to Stranger Things star David Harbour. “I don’t want my current husband to get upset, but it’s not really the physical I go for.”
Allen continued to dig into Beyoncé’s decision to explore a country album with Cowboy Carter.
“It’s very weird that you’d cover the most successful songs in that genre,” Allen mused. “I just feel like it’s quite an interesting thing to do when you’re like trying to tackle a new genre and you just choose the biggest song in that genre to cover. I mean, you do you, Beyoncé, and she literally is doing her. Or is she doing Dolly?”
Allen continued: “The front cover is her in a cowboy hat, riding on a horse. She was wearing a blonde wig and a cowboy hat [at the Grammys]. It’s a bit about challenging these institutions that have thus far rejected Beyoncé as the icon and institution she is herself.”
Azealia Banks’ and Lily Allen’s history runs deep, as they previously feuded in 2013 while engaging in a Twitter beef that ended with Banks dissing Allen’s ex-husband Sam Cooper and saying he looked like a “thumb.”
Regardless of any critique, Beyoncé galloped to the No. 1 album in the country — her eighth in her discography — with Cowboy Carter topping the Billboard 200 with 407,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending April 4, according to Luminate.
