album review: azealia banks - broke with expensive taste

Azealia Banks surprised released her long awaited debut album Broke With Expensive Taste on November 7. Prior to the album's release Azealia blacked out her social media sites teasing fans and leaving many to wonder what she had up her sleeve. A few months ago Azealia asked her followers on Twitter when she should release her album and I guess she listened to her fans. Originally Azealia was planning to finally drop her debut at the top of the year. Boy I'm glad she didn't wait! Broke With Expensive Taste opens with the playful track Idle Delilah. The song is very 90s with the instrumentation and various change in genres. Gimme A Chance is very New York with its sample use and Azealia's flow. Desperado is perhaps one of my favorite songs. Azealia describes the song as a song for the "sophisticated caffeine drinkers" who "commute". The song is very fast in pace and the tempo changes throughout. JFK a duet is aimed at a pop star(Lady Gaga) who stole Azealia's style according to the rapper. 212, Luxury, Chasing Time are some of the songs on here that were previously heard but fit it the flow of the album nonetheless. Soda is a song about self medicating which to me could easily be a single. Miss Amor and Miss Camaraderie were originally meant to be singles. Miss Amor in my opinion is more enjoyable though Azealia personally endears Miss Camaraderie. Ice Princess, which is the probably the only song remotely close to tapping into Azealia's Hip Hop roots finds Azealia bringing her word choices and flow to the forefront. Heavy Metal & Reflective features a spacy sparse beat that Azealia rides over complete with boasting and bragging. The video for the song was released over the Summer. BBD is another previously heard song but its another song that's more along the lines of Heavy Metal and Ice Princess. All in all Azealia has put together a solid album that was definitely worth the release. I think my only complaint is I wish we would of got other songs in favor of the ones we already heard but you can't have everything.

Production: Ariel Pink(Nude Beach A Go Go), AraabMuzik(Ice Princess), Lone(Miss Camaraderie, BBD)

Guests: Theopolious London,

Release Date: November 7

Label: Azealia Banks Records/Prospect Park

First Week Sales: 11,000 +

Now available on iTunes and Spotify.