Bob and Azealia Banks | Photo: RPDR/Alantis
Bob the Drag Queen has given his opinion on the controversy surrounding Azealia Banks this week, after she criticized RuPaul on Twitter and accused him of plagiarism.
The Liquorice singer filed a copyright claim against the TV star, claiming his song Call Me Mother copied her song The Big Big Beat from 2016.
Speaking about the row, Bob said in a vlog: ‘I know I’m about a day late, but I wanted to take a minute to weigh in on this Azealia Banks ‘The Big Big Beat’ / ‘Call Me Mother’ controversy because it’s actually a conversation much larger than those two songs.’
He furthermore continued: ’Something that’s quite common in queer black culture is that our culture is so underground and has roots that are hard to trace so people like to come in and co-opt ideas from black queer culture and act like it’s their own idea. Now [such as] house music.
‘House music didn’t start with Azealia Banks. House music is from the early ‘80s in Chicago when disco was fading out but you still needed something to dance to. So people – groups like Future or Frankie Knuckles – would make these amazing tracks that really caught on. So in the black queer community in Chicago it became huge and big and expansive.’
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Addressing the rapper directly, he also added: ‘Azealia Amanda Banks from Harlem, New York. Listen, since you’re so interested in co-opting black queer culture and propagating it as your own, I think it’s time to drag you deep into the miasma of one of black queer culture’s greatest traditions: reading.’
Bob is known for winning the eighth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
‘I’m disappointed in him first and foremost as a black person’
The row kicked off earlier this week when Azealia tweeted: ‘I’m disappointed in him [Ru] first and foremost as a black person. He was supposed to have my back … But he went with popular white gay sentiment and felt like I was disposable enough to steal from and discard. F*ck him.’
It’s not the first war of words Azealia, known for songs 212 and 1991, has been embroiled in.
She has previously had public arguments with the likes of Iggy Azalea, Lily Allen and Zayn Malik.
Earlier this week, openly gay singer MNEK slammed Azealia following her comments about Ru, sating he would never collaborate with her.
‘She actively hates gay ppl but exploits our culture. i’ll pass,’ he tweeted.
