New music: Azealia Banks - Liquorice

New York rap "sensation" Azealia Banks was top of the NME's Cool List of people you've probably never heard of this year. But, contrary to expectations, she's actually very good.

Regular readers will know of my obsession with Kid Sister, the Chicago MC who combines smooth 90s R&B melodies with hard Detroit house music to create the best party-time rap music since Naughty By Nature. Well, Azealia does the same thing with added sexual swear words.

Her current single, 212, is an erotically-charged ode to oral sex which uses the c-word (the really offensive one) more often than a feature-length episode of The Thick Of It. She's following it up next year with Liquorice, a slightly-less-offensive, but still taboo-busting song about inter-racial love affairs.

Speaking to Pitchfork earlier this year, Azealia said it was the song she was most excited about on her forthcoming debut album, which is being recorded with Paul Epworth in London.

She posted the track on Soundcloud over the weekend, and it's really quite something.

Liquorice by Azealia Banks


PS: If the backing track sounds naggingly familiar, that's because its lifted from a the Pineapple Crush EP by Nottingham musician Lone. You might have stumbled across the track one night when you were hastily switching off Rob Da Bank's Radio 1 show to get to Mellow Magic.

Lone - Pineapple Crush

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