Artist News

Azealia Banks collaborates with Ariel Pink, remixes Harlem Shake

By | Published on Tuesday 19 February 2013

Azealia Banks

So as per familiar protocol, a dependably non-dependable Azealia Banks hasn’t released that first official single, ‘Yung Rapunxel’, she was PR-ing via Twitter last month, in line with its original 12 Feb release date (it’s since been set back to March). But she has, she says, been in the studio with Ariel Pink, so… that’s something, at least.

Meanwhile, Banks has been hitting other virtual headlines over an unofficial (and, says its maker, DJ Baauer, totally unauthorised) rework of ‘Harlem Shake’, the 2012 dance track that went Top 3 in the UK charts this week thanks to the latest silly-dance phenomenon on YouTube. As everyone in the known world contributed their own efforts to the ‘Harlem Shake’ video fad, Banks went and released a version of the track on which she guests.

The Banks-featuring edit began as an official collaboration with Baauer it seems, but one he decided not to put out. The Mad Decent-signed producer, real name Harry Rodrigues, tells The Daily Beast: “She laid something on ‘Harlem Shake’ and it was so-so. Didn’t love it. And that was a little while ago, and since all this video stuff happened, our plans all changed. Because of that, we decided to just release the song on its own with no vocal version. So we told her, ‘Please don’t release your version’. And she said, ‘Well, I’m going to put it online anyway’. And we said, ‘Please don’t. We’d really like it if you didn’t’. And she did”.

Oh dear. But it isn’t all bad for Baauer, who is set to capitalise on his new found ‘Harlem Shake’ infamy via collaborations with AlunaGeorge’s Aluna Francis and, potentially, A$AP Rocky. Take that, Azealia Banks.

And if you’re somehow oblivious to the whole ‘Harlem Shake’ thing, this may or may not help you understand.



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