Iggy Azalea

Iggy Azalea is an Australian rapper from Mullumbimby in New South Wales. Her real name is Amethyst Amelia Kelly and she was born on June 7 1990 in Sydney.

Azalea moved to America when she was 16, having dropped out of high school and saved money for the trip by cleaning hotel rooms and houses with her mother. She released her debut mixtape ‘Ignorant Art’ five years later. In 2012, she signed to Atlanta rapper T.I.’s label, Grand Hustle. In July of the same year, she released an EP called ‘Glory’, which featured guest appearances from T.I., B.o.B and Pusha T.

Following the release of the EP, Azalea made history by becoming both the first female rapper and first non-American rapper to be featured on hip-hop magazine XXL’s annual Top 10 Freshmen cover issue.

Her debut album ‘The New Classic’ was delayed until 2014 after originally being scheduled for release in October 2013. Azalea discussed her frustrations around the release in an interview with Australian newspaper, Herald Sun. “It’s done, it’s so depressing to say this but it’s [coming out at] the beginning of March. It’s so far away but I just have to accept that.”

The album was eventually released on April 21 2014 via Virgin EMI and Def Jam Recordings. NME described it as “nothing game-changing” and scoring it four out of 10. ‘The New Classic’ went to Number One in the Official Albums Chart in the UK. One of the album’s singles, ‘Fancy’, which featured Charli XCX, went to Number One on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. This achievement made her only the fourth solo female rapper to top the chart.

Azalea also guested on Ariana Grande’s track, ‘Problem’, which charted at Number Two in the same week as ‘Fancy’. Only The Beatles had previously been placed at Number One and Two in the same week before. Azalea later commented on this achievement, saying she would “rather be the Rolling Stones.”

‘The New Classic’ is to be reissued as ‘Reclassified’ on November 24 2014 and is set to feature six new songs.