Iggy Azalea Admits: I’m not on top anymore, but I’m still here, cleaning up the mess.

Iggy Azalea Admits: I’m not on top anymore, but I’m still here, cleaning up the mess.

Iggy Azalea has experienced her share of ups and downs. The 27-year-old Australian rapper burst on the scene four years ago with the hit song “Fancy,” from her chart topping debut album “The New Classic.” Since then, she has failed to make waves musically, after experiencing a number of setbacks including record label issues, lawsuits and album delays. In 2016, she also experienced a very public breakup with fiance NBA baller Nick Young. Recently, she opened up about her career, what she learned from her mistakes and what’s next. Peep the excerpts below.

On the height of her career:

Before it was like, ‘We’re at the top of the mountain, and we have to stay at the top,’ I slid down the mountain a bit.

On why her 2015 tour “The Great Escape” was canceled: 

I was mentally exhausted and I wasn’t really in a place to start making new music, honestly. I never really was recording my second album in the height of my success, weirdly enough.

 Looking back at her career:

In the way anybody looks back on life: there are moments that I loved, and there are moments where I cringe. You look back at it with love, and there are other things where your like, ‘Oh God, I was such an idiot’.

On starting over with a new label and management:

I’m not on top anymore, honey, I admit but I’m still here, cleaning up the mess now. At least now, though, I have some perspective on it. And I will say that’s good, because it’s hard to resolve things when you’re still in the thick of it.

On if she has any regrets: 

I have regrets, yes, tons, of course. Anybody’s gonna… I don’t beat myself up about it at the same time, because of it, everything, was like landing on Mars. I just think it’s a lot for anybody to digest.

On having learning the difference between constructive criticism and trolls:

It’s hard to separate trolling from legitimate criticism. When you get thrown into the deep end, you have a natural inclination as a human to defend your character. There were times, in retrospect, where I was way too defensive… where there was so much coming from every direction that I just didn’t have the ability to pick through what was valid and what wasn’t. I just felt like, ugh, I’m walling off everything.

It always is, and always will be a point of frustration. But for me as a woman, it is tough to know when to speak about those things and when to stop, because it can kind of make you seem like you’re being a victim instead of taking accountability.

Iggy Azalea

On switching labels and pressures from the industry:

They were being very supportive and doing the best that they could do, but creatively, I don’t think we were able to understand what it was that I was trying to do moving forward, and I felt a little bit like what they would’ve loved to do is recreate The New Classic. And I get that, from a business perspective. …The only pressure was to keep making pop music. I remember sitting there saying to somebody with the label, whose name I won’t mention, ‘I don’t want to make music for your 10-year-old daughter anymore.

On being tricked into going to an intervention for her mental health and anger issues in Arizona:

I thought I was coming in to speak about something else. Then they were like, ‘We think you need to go away to this place.’ They were like, ‘We think you’re really talented and you can go to the studio and make hits all day, but we don’t know if, you know, someone says something about you and you have a reaction it could ruin a branding deal. We need you to go and speak to these people and make sure that you’re mentally prepared to come out with new music.’ I didn’t want to go there — I didn’t like the idea of being sent away somewhere. I was pissed.

I’ve never really sat down and had an honest conversation with professional people. It was good to say something to somebody who could give me the tools and information on how to make my life manageable when I’m feeling those things. So it was really useful — I’m glad that I went.

On working with Migos member Quavo on the song “Savior” and her industry friends:

He gains nothing for being on the song, Everybody’s probably just like, ‘Oh, but she sucks,’ or ‘Oh, he just did it for money.’ No, he hit me up and we sent music back and forth, and he wanted to do that song.

If I’m being honest, the only people who have been there for me are Quavo, Kesha and Demi [Lovato]. And everyone else has pretty much acted like I don’t exist.

By: Dalvin Perkins