'Live from the zoo, this the new 212'.
Controversial Harlem rapper Azealia Banks breakout hit "212" is a very tough act to follow, and her latest track "Chi Chi" unfortunately does not quite live up to its own hype. The dark and brooding track stands in stark contrast to her last single ("The Big Beat"), which increased the intensity of gyrations on many dance floors with its club-ready Detroit house beats and Banks' charismatic sensuality. The bass-heavy beat in Banks' latest track nevertheless fuels a reminder to everyone (not that she was ever lacking in memorability) of her unparalleled ability to spit bars at a clinically menacing pace.
While the lyrics traffic in familiar cliches of living it up and being insurmountably better than any unspecific rivals or opponents (in terms of materialistic possessions, sex appeal and artistic prowess), Banks keeps you entertained with her effortless rap flow and deft wordplay: 'Hear my Lexus purr, I just crept to jers/ Got genuine leather interi and my texture fur/ Icy bezel, I'm freezy and my necklace splurge/ Watch me run up on them niggas with that tech and burst/ Now niggas wreck their dough for my X and O/ La Perla provocateur lace, I feed 'em sex and blow'. She further reinforces her thuggish street cred by dropping slang words for cocaine and a reference to Scarface (1983): 'Get that perico on Broadway/ Chi Chi get the yayo'.
One can only wish that Banks' future involves more music and fewer controversies, although it might also be a good idea for Banks to address some of the ghosts in the past. Her previous altercation with Russell Crowe and the relationship between skin bleaching and the "continuation of the falsification of self with being a black person in America" seem like promising biographical sources of inspiration that could provide some serious weight to those machine gun-paced lyrics.
