Erykah Badu Calls Out Iggy Azalea At Soul Train Awards

Erykah Badu, while hosting the 2015 Soul Train Awards, called out Iggy Azalea for her suspect rapping abilities.

Erykah Badu Disses Iggy Azalea

During Badu’s monologue Sunday night, she made Azalea a prime target of one of her jokes. Badu led up to the joke by explaining that the Soul Train Awards were for R&B and soul music – not hip-hop and rap.

“As you know, I am the queen of neo soul and people say I have this common effect on rappers: that I make them change gods and wear crochet hats, shoulder pads,” Badu said, making a joke at her own expense. “So they have banned me from all of the hip-hop awards with a sign saying ‘Erykah Badu, leave our rappers alone.'”

Badu went on to pretend to take phone calls from people in the rap genre who had hoped to get by the rules and earn an invite to the Soul Train Awards.

“Uh yes? Who is this? Iggy Azalea?” Badu said, picking up one of the faux calls. “Yeah, hey. Oh, no, no, no, no, you can come, ’cause what you doin’ is definitely not rap.”

Badu received ample applause for the snark about the “Fancy” singer.

 

The diss by Badu comes as the latest attack against Azalea’s career in the rap industry. Earlier this year, T.I., who had picked the Australian performer out of relative obscurity to usher her into the mainstream, publicly announced that he had stopped working with her.

“I ain’t gonna make no excuses. In her defense, she had a lot thrown at her at one time. Any human being anywhere [is gonna] have a hard time adjusting,” T.I. said of Azalea on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning.

“It’s very difficult to be the new kid and to be the butt of the jokes…It came at a time when culturally in this nation—when she’s not from here—we were actually looking for a source to place that pent-up aggression,” he added. “Some stuff they brought upon themselves. In some cases, it kind of was the easiest place to put some pent-up aggression.”

At the time of T.I.’s interview, he had yet to talk to Azalea about cutting professional ties with her. Azalea, who canceled her Great Escape Tour back in May, has not hinted at any upcoming music projects.