FEATURE:
Second Spin
Iggy Azalea - The New Classic
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HERE is an album where…
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
the sales and popularity were not matched by critical reviews. It is an interesting phenomenon that fascinates me. Sydney-born Iggy Azalea (Amethyst Amelia Kelly) released her debut album, The New Classic, in 2014. I really like the album and feel it was vastly underrated. I shall bring in a couple of contrasting reviews. If one judges it upon sales and chart positions, it can be seen as a success::
“The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 52,000 copies in the United States. The New Classic was the highest-charting female rap album, since Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012) and the highest chart entry for a female rapper's debut album since Minaj's Pink Friday (2010) entered at number 2. The album also moved up to number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top Rap Albums, making Azalea the first non-American female rapper to reach the summit of these charts
The album's produced 5 singles, "Work", "Bounce", and "Change Your Life" were released as the first three singles all of which saw success in charts worldwide. The fourth single, "Fancy" featuring British singer Charli XCX was an international success, reaching the top-five in Australia and the United Kingdom, and peaking at number one in New Zealand, the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and the Canadian Hot 100. The fifth single, "Black Widow" featuring British singer Rita Ora, peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming her highest-charting single as a lead artist on that chart, and also peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100”.
The public reacted positively to the introduction of a wonderful talent. Indeed, the five singles did well. Maybe one of the problems is the running order. Although we get the singles nicely dispersed through The New Classic, I don’t think the album starts as strongly as it could have. Also, the final two tracks are not the best on the album. It is a rare case of the torso/middle of the album being stronger. It means you get a relatively unspectacular start and end; one then experiences the best bits in the centre. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing – perhaps a slight reshuffle would have created a better and more even listening experience. I feel a track like Work could have opened The New Classic with greater aplomb. Although there are a few collaborations (Black Widow features Rita Ora; Charli XCX is on Fancy), they are well-chosen and suit the song. Azalea is confident and compelling through the album. Some felt that the songs on The New Classic were less forward-looking than those on E.P.s like Glory (2012). In their review, this is what AllMusic observed:
“Australian rapper Iggy Azalea's rise to Island Records/Hustle Gang status was quite strange, seeing as how she was a high fashion model gone Dirty South rap, like some kind of Down Under mix of Lana Del Rey and Trina. Dating A$AP Rocky meant she had her rap game proper, and it was all the more tantalizing when her privileged party anthems landed some whip smart punch lines, but two tracks into The New Classic, "Don't Need Y'all" take her from detached to jaded, making this debut album one icy cold coming out party. By the album-closing "F**K Love," her snarled declaration "I'm already in love with myself" is a redundant credo of epic proportions, but get past the narrow "me me me" theme of the album and it's amazing how "live" it all feels.
Chalk it up to cutting-edge taste as trapstep group Watch the Duck turn the cut "100" into something blog-worthy, while a Mavado appearance and an electro-dancehall production from the Invisible Men and the Arcade make "Lady Patra" the highlight to pick for Mad Decent or Diplo fans. Put the tried and true singalong "Change Your Life" with T.I. on the track list, along with the traptastic "Fancy" featuring Charli XCX, and The New Classic features an EP or so worth of memorable moments that mash fashion, sass, high tax bracket mackin', and flashy beats. Taken in as an album and Azalea's constant "bow down" attitude makes this a cuckoldish experience, so think "some will pay for what others pay to avoid" and approach accordingly”.
Iggy Azalea said how she wanted to talk about herself and her story more on her debut album. There were a few reviewers who felt the songs (on the album) that spoke of self-improvement and striving were more relatable and appealing than those which seemed emptier and shallower. I would agree. Overall, mind, The New Classic is an album that got some unfair stick. I wonder if reviewers would alter their viewpoint if they approached the album fresh now? I feel there are at least six or seven songs on the album that are really strong and stand up to repeated listens.
I will end with a review that is more positive. The Line of Best Fit sat down with The New Classic and they had this to say:
“The New Classic is an ambitious pop-rap record, steering Iggy Azalea out of her comfort zone – you can glimpse her actually singing for example, and she dabbles in acoustic soul (“100”) as well as electro-reggae/dancehall-lite (“Lady Patra”) alongside her standard trappy chart-bait.
It’s not a groundbreaking record sonically – though it is fantastic, it’s her story and her words that are the draw. It’s a pretty famous story, summed up in “Work”, but essentially, she moved from her native Oz to Miami age 16, all alone, to pursue a career in rap. Initially, as she scaled the ziggurat via Southern hip-hop with an Atlantan drawl that usurped her own Aussie accent, we saw Azalea dip into gangsta rap and garner controversy (mainly for early YouTube hit “Pu$$y”), but now as that chapter of her life ends, she emerges stronger, truer and more vocally talented than 90% of the top rappers in mainstream hip-hop.
Almost eight years on from being fresh off the boat, she’s flourished, becoming the kind of superstar that’ll give you whiplash when she enters the room. The New Classic chronicles the hardships of that journey. On first glance, dressed to the nines on red carpets, she might appear a silver spoonfed doll, but she’s as real and down-to-earth as they come (“Don’t Need Y’all” is pretty representative of that). This debut album proper, eagerly anticipated across the globe, is Azalea celebrating the end of a near-decade of ordeals. It’s Azalea’s retrospective, not just cheering recent successes, but documenting everything she’s had to overcome in the process, for posterity and to stimulate her legions of fans.
“Goddess” is emblematic of the LP’s core tenet. It sounds like a track Kanye West would have as a set staple. In terms of Azalea’s repertoire, it’s a career highlight: the production is flawless fusillade, an apocalpyso hip-pop Armageddon. It’s a galvanising rapture, Beyoncé-esque in terms of motivation and female – heck, human – empowerment, and her snarled, coiled-larynx spiel in the chorus fuses razorwire, boomslang venom and the piston-firing impetus of a Rocky speech. Oh, and did we mention it’s got a kickass, totally out-of-place-and-therefore-awesome hair metal axe solo at the end? No? Well it does.
Although the magnifying glass Azalea employs mainly scrutinises her trials and tribulations, she’s not one for ignoring the overwhelming urge to lunge for pop. The focus is clearly on the innate themes and words bursting from her lips like doves from a Vegas magician’s sleeve, but tracks like “Change Your Life” (featuring mentor T.I.), “Black Widow” (featuring Rita Ora) and “Fancy” (featuring pop catalyst Charli XCX) are slabs of indulgent, Top 40-ravaging behemoths. Anthem is a word bandied around more than coke in an ’80s Wall Street film, but for “Fancy” at least, it’s apt. It’s uplifting, self-affirming and packed with the rousing singalong strains that are integral to a genuine pop classic these days. It’s a new classic (badum-tish).
Iggy Azalea might seem like an act easy to deride or yell “sell-out!” to, due to her transformation from the Sleigh Bells-sampling early mixtapes to the EDM-twanged furore of major label success, but her rags-to-riches saga is inspirational. Listening to The New Classic, you can tell that she’s not changed one bit. She’s got a bigger platform, she’s infinitely grateful for the chances given to her – there’s no rap entitlement on display, and even brand-dropping doesn’t feel disingenuous or superficial, somehow – and, furthermore, she’s a grounded everyman rap icon. It’s endearing to no end. Azalea’s an affable bundle of chum-ly charm with lessons (not patronising lectures) that are applicable for anyone with a lick of ambition – “Impossible Is Nothing” is probably the best example. If you’ve got your sights set on stardom, on making a name for yourself, Azalea’s the role model you should adore. Let her gospel be an allegory for your rise”.
If you have not investigated The New Classic, give it a spin. It does have its weaker moments - though there are plenty of good tracks that highlight Iggy Azalea’s talent. I do think that The New Classic is a stronger album than 2019’s In My Defense – maybe the five-year gap between albums sapped some of the energy and promise of the debut. Whilst not perfect, The New Classic of 2014 is an album that…
CAN hold its head up.