“212” to Azealia Banks is what “Video Games” was to Lana Del Rey. Having uploaded singular, albeit hugely successful viral smashes, both girls suddenly found themselves with a whole lotta hype to live up to. But unlike Del Rey, who arguably buckled beneath her overnight-sensation-based-on-one-song status, Banks’ consistency skyrocketed her through the pressure.
So I’m not surprised to say “Jumanji” is the Harlem rapper’s fiercest cut since “212.” This is largely thanks to Hudson Mohawke and Nick Hook, who pump the track with a tropicana production sanguine enough to slip into summer playlists everywhere, savage enough to support Banks’ ever-bratty flow.
No doubt about it, Banks’ projectile delivery is the most exciting vocal we have heard in female rap since Nicki Minaj first hit the scene. And so proficiently weaved are her fun phonetics and nervy half-rhymes, that you simply forgive Banks for the constant braggadocio, or quote, “being all about the bread“:
About my bread ’til dead up
I plan to blam on long hammers
Long weave out the limo
Nanananananana
They want my photos and pictures
Inside of they candid cameras
Bloggers, critics, and scandals
Man-handle-savage, I damage ya
But come this jammer jammer, go anthem-banana’s apocalypso chorus (complete with obligatory steel drums), the firecracker is quick to remind us she is still Banks from the block:
Real bitch, all day
Uptown, Broadway
“Jumanji” is taken from Azealia Banks’ forthcoming mixtape, Fantastic, out July 4th.
