Azealia Banks (UH-ZEE-LEE-YUH) seemed to explode out of nowhere when the ’212′ video dropped online earlier this year. But the now 20 year old Harlem rapper and singer had already caught the attention of the industry in 2009 when she signed to XL Recordings.

Things didn’t quite go to plan however and Miss Banks has already given them a right dressing down in a recent NME article – you really don’t want to get on this one’s bad side. Controversy swarms around the potty-mouthed beauty; copyright issues with the Lazy Jay sample used on ’212′ saw any postings of the video removed. Of course this only increased the hype with people scrambling to find the video online, which is a genius black-and-white take of Banks in a Disney jumper, smiling sweetly as she raps ‘I guess that cunt gettin’ eaten’. Her lewd lyrics are crawling with the filthiest sexual references and trip out of her smiling lips without breaking sweat, this incongruity is part of what makes her so magnetic. I can’t put my finger on how she does it but as a girl rapping about sleeping with your boyfriend and stealing your thunder, she is still immensely likeable.

Banks is also a force to be reckoned with live; she recently played a Sold Out show in Hoxton Bar & Kitchen to a room full of London hipsters and managed to have them screaming on their feet on a Sunday evening, no mean feat I tells ya. People seemed surprised that she could actually sing and rap bloody brilliantly and wasn’t just another child of hype.

Banks admits to preferring singing to rapping and there’s a nice little ‘Slow Hands’ (Interpol) cover available online should your ears be too tender for the cock-dick-fuck-cunt rhymes of her raps. On some songs, like ‘Barbie Shit’, there are flickers of Nicki Minaj but something about Azealia seems more down to earth and real, you’re more likely to find her in an ironic cartoon jumper than pink hair and theatrical gowns.

The rumour mill is saying that she has signed a big deal with a major, no less than she deserves, and is recording her new album with Paul Epworth (Adele, Florence & The Machine). Not since Peaches have we been this excited about a sexually explicit female artist calling the shots, expect big things….

Catch Azealia live in the UK as part of the NME Awards show, get tickets here.

Connie Meade