Iggy Azalea – Pussy

Description

“Pussy” (stylized as “Pu$$y“) is a song by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, taken from her debut mixtape, Ignorant Art (2011). Azalea uploaded the song’s music video on YouTube in August 2011, where it went viral, helping to propel the young rapper to prominence. Azalea has performed the track regularly since its release as a part of her live shows setlist, including on her 2014 The New Classic Tour.

“Pu$$y” was recorded in Los Angeles in 2011, where Azalea had been residing since 2010 after migrating from Australia to Miami in prior years to pursue her rap career, and was produced by Chordz 3D and Fuego from D.R.U.G.S., the production team behind her debut mixtape Ignorant Art. The intro of the track, featured on the mixtape and Azalea’s original self-released video version, contains a dialogue between Eddie Murphy and Grace Jones from their 1992 romantic comedy film Boomerang.

In October 2011, Chordz 3D, a member of D.R.U.G.S., said of the song: “I knew Iggy was a star from the moment I met her. When we did ‘Pu$$y’, I knew we were on to something, and it would be just a matter of time before the world see’s [sic] what I saw. I’m grateful that the response has been positive so far.”^[7] Azalea talked about the attention received by the release: “I definitely have a plan but I didn’t contrive to put out ‘Pu$$y’ and think that people would super hate it, or that it would open up these doors, because it’s so out of the box that I just didn’t think that it’d really go like that. I definitely have a master-plan that I’m trying to accomplish, which by the way has nothing to do with vaginas.” Explaining the concept behind it, Azalea added, “The song is pretty forward but I don’t really relate what I say to my personal life … I’m talking about that just because I, personally as a female, think that it’s so ridiculous that there’s this double standard where I can’t say that, or if I do say it it’s this or that,” she reflected, “I said it because of that, and not because I’m super kinky and want everybody to know about my great vagina.”

The song originated from her remix of Gucci Mane‘s 2011 song “Gucci Two Times.” Azalea explained, “I really liked the song, but it was a remix thing. I wanted to make like a part two, I wanted to do it again, bigger and better, have a real video and so that’s why I decided to do that, it was kind of an ongoing experiment.” She elaborated in an earlier interview saying, “The song ‘Pu$$y’ comes from the Gucci Mane ‘Two Times’ remix that I did on my YouTube page and that was kind of just a joke we would say in the studio … and I was like ‘Someone should put that as a line on their song’, and no one would ever do it,” leading her to create her own version entitled “Pussy Two Times”. “It’s so funny to me because that song wasn’t even about vaginas, it just happened to get on my crotch, but it’s actually saying ‘you’re all pussies’ … I just did it [the video] because people obviously like vaginas, so I’ll do it there but it’s so weird to me to see the part two actually be about ‘pussy’.”

During an interview in early 2012, Azalea also talked about the perception people had of her sexually-charged imagery, “So much of what I do that’s controversial in America wouldn’t be a big deal back home. America is a highly sexualized society but people are afraid to admit what they like. When people tell me that I have to be sexy that’s demeaning, not powerful. To a lot of people, a powerful, sexy woman is vulgar. When I first came out people said, she only raps about her vagina. I’m not a vagina rapper! [Laughs.] I talk about many other things. The video [for ‘Pu$$y’] could’ve been way more sexual. I held back because I didn’t think people could handle it. [Laughs.]” Talking about her upcoming debut album, she pointed out, “For me, the type of topics that I really like to address in my music are ones that are relevant to women – love and breakup or, I have songs like ‘Pu$$y’, which is like surface level stuff but really it’s just kind of wanting to feel powerful as a woman.”