Rap-Up
Exclusive: Iggy Azalea Talks Tyga & Wiz Khalifa Collaborations, Support for Demi Lovato
It’s been four years since Iggy Azalea became a household name with her debut album The New Classic, which spawned the chart-topping hit “Fancy.” Now Australia’s hottest import returns with her new project Survive the Summer.
On the eve of its release, the 28-year-old rapper stopped by Rap-Up HQ to discuss the six-track project, which features the Tyga-assisted single “Kream.” The Wu-Tang-sampled track is a throwback to her mixtape days, but Iggy wasn’t sure how it would be received.
“I felt like I was in a way taking a risk by going back to my mixtape vibe,” she said. “I was going against what had been my recipe for success for the last few years. … Being on a bigger platform now, how would those people feel about mixtape Iggy?”
She and Tyga met around 2009 and developed a close friendship. Iggy even offered him some musical advice, which helped inspire his platinum hit “Taste.” “People wanna see basically ‘Rack City’ Tyga,” she told him at the time. “I was like, ‘People wanna see you get your dick out and just smack someone across the face with it.’ Musically, that’s what we want from you.”
In addition to Tyga, Wiz Khalifa appears on “Omg” off Survive the Summer. The two previously collaborated on “Go Hard or Go Home” off the Furious 7 soundtrack. “It has this very bouncy vibe that makes you want to rap comically without meaning to,” said Iggy, who revealed that she rewrote her verse numerous times.
“There are like 57 million versions of it and I just couldn’t pick, so at least with Wiz, I was like, ‘Hey look, I only have to pick one verse now.'”
Plus, Iggy shared her support for her close friend Demi Lovato, who was hospitalized after an apparent drug overdose last month.
“When someone’s going through something like that, they need time and space to figure it out for themselves,” she said. “I know my friends. I know she has a lot of people checking on her, making sure she’s OK and I know she’s OK. So I just want to give her time. When it’s time for us to talk, we’ll talk.”
While artists like Ariana Grande and Bruno Mars tweeted their support for the pop star, Iggy remained silent on social media after the news broke. “You don’t need to say whatever the hashtag is because your connection is deeper than that. I don’t need to do that because I have a direct line of communication.,” she said, adding, “I just think she needs privacy right now.”