Azealia Banks Accuses Beyoncé's Team Of Payola & Smear Tactics

Azealia Banks claimed Beyoncé and Roc Nation engaged in payola to help “Texas Hold ‘Em” reach No. 1 on Billboard’s country music chart. Banks bashed Beyoncé and Billboard after the publication ran a story about Banks’ history of feuds.

“It’s becoming INCREASINGLY obvious you let your staff take payments to spew any b####### in these weak attempts to control narratives,” Banks wrote on Instagram in response to Billboard’s article. “But, the fact that my message regarding beyonce and roc nations treatment/sabotaging of black female artists/writers behind the scenes and her audacious expectation that black women somehow join her in a moment of pride for being ‘the first black woman to top the country charts’ ( Ugh I almost vomited ) was enough for their team to pay for this weak attempt at damage control is very tickling.”

She continued, “I think it’s pathetic that in the year 2024, a global superstar and her husband’s overwhelmingly desperate attempts to snag an ‘album of the year,’ – obviously to pump some steam into the curious attempt to ‘disrupt’ the power structure of the music industry with their own DSP – Tidal , needs to hinge on these offensively infantilizing epithets like ‘first black woman (to spend payola at country radio LOL)’ as if she deserves something special simply for being black. This post-BLM propaganda isn’t masking how both songs pale in comparison to literally every single artist making contemporary white americana country music.”

Banks reiterated her disappointment with Beyoncé’s country music, saying “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” were not good songs. Banks believed her opinion was validated by alleged attempts to discredit her.

“I want to celebrate her for evolving in her craft, womanhood and skill,” Banks wrote. “If the songs were good you’d be writing about them and not Azealia’s opinion on them. but the songs are not good, she doesn’t seem cognizant, as if she’s in a chemical straitjacket, the pr statements are unnecessarily political/redundant…..”

Earlier this week, Banks brutally scrutinized Beyoncé, Jay-Z and the Cowboy Carter album. Banks also embraced her trolling by posting a photo of herself in a cowboy outfit.