Lord, Save Us From Iggy Azalea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3hXC5yNZOc Here at The Root, we are regularly delighted, in the middle of an otherwise droll news day, to have some new music and visuals dropped upon us, as happened last week with Janelle Monรกeโ€™s double fantasy, or weeks before, when โ€œAll the Starsโ€ further stoked our anticipation for Black Panther. Suggested Reading Three Friends…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3hXC5yNZOc

Here at The Root, we are regularly delighted, in the middle of an otherwise droll news day, to have some new music and visuals dropped upon us, as happened last week with Janelle Monรกeโ€™s double fantasy, or weeks before, when โ€œAll the Starsโ€ further stoked our anticipation for Black Panther.

Video will return here when scrolled back into view
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?

And then there are drops we can only file under โ€œThings No One Asked For.โ€ These are the videos thatโ€”while good for a laughโ€”do nothing to further our cultural conversation, other than to punctuate it with a big-ass neon โ€œWhy?โ€

Iggy Azaleaโ€™s latest release (God, I hate typing that), โ€œSavior,โ€ featuring Quavo, is one such โ€œwhy.โ€ Like, why does Azalea still have a record dealโ€”let alone a major video budgetโ€”in 2018? Why doesnโ€™t she have more than one facial expression? Whyโ€”as my colleague Danielle Young askedโ€”didnโ€™t she just go for broke and call it โ€œWhite Saviorโ€? And why, nearly 30 years after the fact, did anyone think we needed a โ€œLike a Prayerโ€ reboot?

Because truly, thatโ€™s what this isโ€”nearly four minutes of deeply Catholic iconography that offended even my former-Catholic-schoolgirl sensibilities (is Azalea even Catholic?). There were altars and pews, mourning veils and monks, baptisms and bastardized religiosity in feathered bustiers, complete with neon halos and crucifixes. All that was missing was a gospel choir and Black Jesus, as played by Leon (who likely wouldโ€™ve greatly improved this travesty, to be honest).

And while I suppose we should be grateful that Azalea seems to have at least momentarily moved off of appropriating black culture to appropriate Madonna (who was appropriating ... but thatโ€™s another post), whatโ€™s really the most offensive thing about this release is that Iggy Azalea is now appropriating relevance. Because seriously, nobody asked for this, and Azalea for damn sure isnโ€™t the savior anybody needs right now, unless itโ€™s to save us from her. As The Rootโ€™s Senior Editor Stephen A. Crockett quipped: โ€œCan it be that if we all band together, we can send our collective memory back to a time when Iggy wasnโ€™t a thing? Weโ€™ve done it before with Paris Hilton.โ€

Now, thatโ€™s something to pray for.

Straight From The Root

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