April 15, 2025 • 49 mins
Bridget revisits one of the most unexpected beefs of the 2010s: Azealia Banks vs. Elon Musk.
From cryptic Instagram stories to allegations of LSD-fueled tweets, we break down Azealia banks’ contributions to culture, what really happened when she was stuck at Elon Musk’s house during the infamous Tesla “funding secured” weekend, what it reveals about Musk’s decision making, and what it means for all of us.
Rachel Sennott’s “We’re from LA” skit: https://www.tiktok.com/@ericatthedisco/video/7131240180157009198?lang=en
A Brief History of the Beef Between Azealia Banks, Elon Musk & Grimes: https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/azaelia-banks-musk-grimes-beef-timeline
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
There are No Girls on the Internet. As a production
of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative, I'm Bridget Todd, and this
is there are no girls on the Internet. So I
don't need to tell anybody listening that everything feels awful.
My idols are dead and my enemies are in power.
(00:26):
But there is one tiny, tiny, tiny silver lining, which
is that everything going on gives me a reason to
talk about my absolute favorite moment in pop culture history,
the moment that is my personal Roman Empire, and that
is the time that Azalea Banks was trapped in Elon
Musk's house. I have been wanting to make this episode
(00:48):
for literal years, and now is the time.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Congratulations, Bridget. I know you have wanted to make this
episode for a very long time. Why now you've been
waiting so long? Why to great question?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I think there is this attitude amongst I lovingly call
these people like normies, like people who are not listening
to this podcast. If you're listening to this podcast, you
are not a normy, like people who are not super
online that think that Elon Musk is this brilliant guy,
this brilliant businessman who has started companies that are super
successful and that it would actually be a good thing
(01:24):
for the country if he brought all that genius, business acumen,
shrue decision making and sound judgment to the country, Like
when I go home and visit family a lot of
times they I think they have a very surface level,
casual understanding of who Elon Musk is, and I think
(01:44):
that that really allows them to feed into this narrative
that he is this smart, sound, solid guy. I do
think that attitude is starting to break a little bit,
you know. I think that we're starting to see people,
even Trump supporters, be like, well, well, I love Trump,
but I hate that Elon Musk. So I do think
some of this addit who is starting to break and
(02:05):
where people are starting to globally see him for who
he really is. But when somebody has that opinion about
Elon Musk that he's this like smart guy, that just
tells me that that person has really not been following
Elon Musk's absolute historic record of dogshit decision making like
truly L after L after l, because if they were,
(02:27):
there is no way that they would think this is
a sound mind that we want in the White House.
They would be saying, this is somebody that I would
not be putting in charge of anything.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
My personal favorite is I just watched this like hour
long YouTube video about him lying about being good at
video games. It just really stuck with me. He's like
the richest man in the world, and he invested so
much time and money in creating this false narrative that
he's good at video games, like for what he just
(03:00):
seems like an unwell dude, Mike.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That is a great example. It's these elaborate lies that
remind me of that kid that we all knew in
like elementary school, who would lie just to lie, and
then like build out a whole fantasy world to maintain
a self aggrandizing lie. If you were a billionaire, why
would you feel the need to construct an alternate reality
(03:24):
where you're good at a specific video game? That is
not something a well adjusted dare I say, shrewd mind
spends time doing. And so when I hear like normy
people who clearly have not been following every aspect of
Elon's career of lies, scams, and losses say like, oh,
he's a smart guy. I just know they're not there there.
(03:45):
They don't know him like we know him, because the
kind of person who creates a fiction about them being
good at a video game is not the kind of
person that we would then want to empower in the
White House.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, I get the sense that he's like Trump, like
truly is genius level at like something like holding people's
attentions and like believing his own lies. I think I
don't know exactly what it is, but like, clearly these
guys are good at something, but like rational decision making
doesn't seem to be it.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So I will give Trump something like I am loath
to give this man any kind of a compliment he
from all from people who have talked to him, he
does seem like somebody who has like a certain kind
of charisma, a certain kind of like quality that makes
people want to listen to him, engage with him, watch
what he has to say. I think a lot of
(04:38):
that comes from being somebody who who became empowered on
reality television, where it doesn't really matter what you're selling
as much as like how you sell it. Elon must
doesn't have any of that. I think that like Elon
Musk doesn't know how to talk to people, doesn't know
wouldn't know charisma if it bit him on the butt,
Like He's just not like the things that make Trump
(04:58):
good at being a fascist leader. I do not think
that Elon Musk casts and I think we see that
in the one hundred different examples from his career that
really demonstrate this, But I would argue maybe none demonstrate
it quite as well as what happened between him and
Azalea Banks, which, by the way, I watched this shit
(05:21):
go down live like I lived it. I was like,
like every story that Banks dropped, I was screenshotting like
I was there, And I guess it's one of those
things that, like, you truly had to be there. And
if you're thinking, Bridget, what are you talking about? Listen up,
because if you weren't there, I'm about to fill y'all in.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, Bridget, I wasn't there. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Well, we got to start with who is Azalea Banks.
I kind of like, can't imagine somebody would be an
avid listener to this podcast and not know about Azalea Banks.
But the kind of top level she is a musician
from she had a come up in this very interesting
moment in pop culture. She got big initially on MySpace
(06:07):
in two thousand and eight before being hooked up with
a recording deal thanks to Diplow when she was age eighteen.
Don't worry, that's gonna be the only Diplow mention of
this episode.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
We don't have to get into a fight about Diplo.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Well, people listening are probably like, oh, because Diplow is
like this a problematic character in his own right. But
you and I had that big fight about Diplow. We
don't need to We don't need to religate religate it now, but.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
We don't need to religate Diplow Gate.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So Azalea Banks was doing super interesting stuff that really
highlighted this nexus of culture at the time, Like, honestly,
had things happen differently, I can see myself making an
episode about how Azalea Banks was one of these people
who really successfully and in an at an early time,
saw the power of internet culture very early in her career.
(06:55):
But I'll las so Azalea Banks was like doing things
like she used you Tube to share her demo tracks,
including a cover of do you Know that band? Inner Poll?
They kind of go like an indie band where the
vocalist has kind of a nasally voice, like all of
his singing is sort of like it's not too late,
Like it's like a very soposic you know what I'm
talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, I was like really into Interpol in the odds.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, well, did you know that she released a cover
of their song slow Hands on YouTube way back in
the day.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I have to admit I did not know that she.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Was someone who was, for me, like a very important
figure in early internet culture and really use that culture
for her own come up. In twenty eleven, she starts
writing the song two one two, which would go on
to be her opus. And she starts writing it a
month before getting addicted from her apartment on Dykman Street
(07:49):
in Harlem. So she is like really a Harlem girl,
like about that Harlem life. I actually didn't know this.
I found that I learned this from doing the research
for this episode. She initially released two one two just
as a free download on her website in twenty eleven,
and people loved it so much, like it became like
a song that was being used in big fashion shows
and on television, and so it was not until the
(08:11):
following year that she actually included it on her first
debut album called nineteen ninety one. But when she first
released that song two on two. She had not even
had an album yet. She was still like kind of
an unknown in the music world. But like, we really
have to take a little bit of a detour here,
because when I say that Azalea Banks is two one
two changed culture, I really mean it. I can make
(08:33):
an entire episode about that song. I won't, but I could,
but I won't, But I would argue that it was
not only the best song of twenty twelve, but probably
the most culturally relevant. Like if I was thinking about
the like not just twenty twelve, if I was thinking
about like the aughts, the twenty ten's in general, if
there was a song I had to pick to represent
(08:54):
that particular era, it would be two one two. Like
no other song sums up that particular moment meant in music, fashion,
and culture. Billboard magazine agrees with me. Billboard recognized two
and two as one of the songs that defined the decade.
And then also, just like her story, being really like
of an era, this relatively unknown, super online broke girl
(09:18):
from Harlem releasing music just on her website that gets
blown up by like big music blogs and goes on
to become a global smash sensation like that is really
a story that is of an era. If you've seen
that movie Blingering about those young people in la who
were like robbing Paris Hiltan, that Azalia banks Is two
(09:39):
one two is used in the trailer, and I'll say
that movie was directed by Sofia Coppola. Nobody knows how
to pick music that defines an era like Sophia Coppola.
I was listening to this podcast called This had Oscar
Bus about how the song two one two in that
trailer is really meant to sum up the twenty tens,
and that it easily could have been in that trailer
(10:00):
a song by a band like the ting Tings, which
also had a lot of buzz in the twenty tens.
But that how, when you rewatch the trailer in twenty
twenty five, it's clear that the ting Tings somehow is
the wrong choice and Azalea banks Is two on two
is like the correct choice to represent the decade. But
like in the twenty tens, we maybe didn't realize how
era defining that song was, and like looking back today,
(10:24):
it really had a staying power culturally.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, even I know that song, it's it's an awesome song.
Still you still hear it like a lot? Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Absolutely, Like that song is the culture. There's this really
funny video of the actress Rachel Sanoy doing like a
skit on YouTube that uses that song. I'll, I'll it's
if you haven't seen it, it's like her being like,
we're from la If you don't have an eating disorder,
get one byatch Like it's like very funny and so
like this song, it's just like really defined an era.
(10:56):
It's still the song that I get dressed to when
I'm like getting ready for a night out. I love it.
I don't care it is. It is my forever banger,
and a lot of people listening, I know you agree
with me. You might not say it out loud, you
might have had the courage to say it in a
microphone like I do. But a lot of people agree
with me. I'm not the only one, Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So it sounds like you really like Azalia banks Bridge.
It so like, what's the problem.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
It's her? Her, She's the problem. It's her. Azalea is
super problematic. I'm not even sure if problematic is the
right word to describe her. Like we would be here
all day if I did a complete accounting of all
of her like problems and missteps, which honestly I would
actually love to do in another episode or another podcast. So, like,
(11:43):
I don't even know how to describe or put into
words her her brand of exactly whatever is going on
with her. I looked at her wiki to see how
it's framed there, and it says, quote, Banks's social media
presence and outspoken views, especially on US politics and race,
as well as disputes with other artists have attracted significant controversy.
(12:04):
And I'm thinking, like, yeah, that's like kind of putting
it mildly. Also side note, her Wikipedia has a section
that's just called disputes and Controversies.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, you never want that, or maybe you do. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
If I become famous and somebody makes so Wikipedia page
for me, I want there to be a section that
just disputes.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Grievances, grievances.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I need a grievances section. Okay, So the real like
og Azilia followers probably remember that she would get on
Instagram live and just really do some stuff, like one
time she was sacrificing live chickens as part of a
religious ceremony. In her closet in her apartment to like.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
She she was.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
She did a lot of stuff out there, like she
was like you never really knew what you were gonna
get when you went to her Instagram live. I'll put
it that way.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I did not see that coming.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Okay, well yeah, chick Live. Chicken sacrifice is part of this.
So yeah. So this is actually one of the reasons
why I'm so fascinated by Azilia Banks. And also like
we'll kind of always have, I guess a soft spot
for her, Like she's kind of one of my problematic
thaves despite all the things that she has said and done,
because I feel like, like I really get the sense
(13:24):
that she was someone who was in the exact right place,
in the exact right time and culture to really explode,
and she's like very talented, and I do think that
she's someone who could have been huge, Like this might
be controversial, but like she could have been doci right,
Like she really was someone who was the right time,
(13:45):
right place, had the talent. But I think that she
burned a lot of her own bridges and got in
her own way, and her career really never took off
the way that I think it should have, and you know,
not only is that a shame because of like, I
would love to see a world where like she's thriving
and like we're all getting to hear really cool music.
But a lot of the reasons why her career has
(14:07):
stalled the way it has just seems like it's like
her own fault, right, because she does just say and
do the wildest stuff, stuff that like I really am
not cool with. Just to give you a sense, a
lot of the stuff that she says and does is
homophobic and transphobic and racist. Like back in twenty fifteen,
she compared the LGBTQ community to quote the white gay kkks.
(14:31):
She was filmed hurling homophobic slurs at a flight attendant,
like stuff like that. In twenty twenty and twenty twenty one,
she made a series of transphobic contents about trans women,
specifically when it came to gender performing healthcare and surgeries.
She just recently, like it, within the last few weeks,
got booted from Amsterdam's Electronic Queer Inclusive Milkshake Festival. She
(14:54):
was dropped from their lineup for its twenty twenty five festival.
So I will say she it did seem to sort
of backtrack some of this stuff. In February, she called
out Harry Potter author JK. Rowling, who was like known transphobe,
for her transphobic comments, saying, I love you down Cis,
but trans women are not a threat to your femininity.
(15:17):
You really are too rich in legendary to keep subviewing
the same kind of stuff over and over. But I
will say about Azelia Banks is like there seems to
be no real clear through line, Like she spoke out
in favor of Kamala Harris, owing to later say that
she voted for Trump, Like she is someone that I
would not expect consistency from, I'll put it that way.
(15:38):
But something that I would do is listen to a
true crime style podcast about the night that she got
into a huge feud with the Rizza from Wu Tang Clan,
wherein the Rizza says he brought her to a party
at Russell Crowe. That actor, I think he's Australian.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Is he Australian?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Sure? Maybe?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I think so. Well, fact check that that Rizza brought
Azalea Banks to a party at Russell Crowe's hotel room
that turned into a some sort of a dispute or
altercation that got physical The story goes that Crow had
a party at this hotel Azilia is as guest. There
(16:20):
was some kind of altercation. I have read that Azalea
Banks allegedly objected to the music that Crowe was playing
at the party, which is which if that is true,
you gotta that's like pretty funny. So Azalea says that
Russell Crowe spat on her and used the in slur
(16:41):
at her. Now, at first, the Rizza disputed all of
this and he was like totally on Russell Crowe side
and said that Azalea just went nuts and she started
threatening to cut people with a broken bottle, and that
like he was so horrified because uh, you know, she
was his guest and that Russell Crowe handled it really well.
Blah blah blah blah. At first he was like totally
(17:03):
taking Russell Crowe's side. But literally years later there is
a finally did admit like, yeah, Azalia Banks was telling
the truth and Russell Crowe spat on her. So this
is a good example of why I find Azilia Banks
so fascinating and part of the reason why I want
to talk about her today is because absolutely sis says
(17:25):
and does awful things things that I am not ideologically
aligned with at all, things that I am not down with.
But she reads to me kind of like somebody who
is a bit like a broken clock right, Like she
is right twice a day, and when she's wrong, she
is super super super monumentally wrong, but when she's right,
(17:47):
she is so really right. I saw this tweet from
the account having a laugh that I thought was like, oh,
that really put it. Well, they're right browsing Azalea Banks's tweets.
Oh that's a very fun an insightful critique of a
contemporary pop star. That too. H Actually no, I don't
think that race of people are descended from rats. Like
(18:09):
that is the experience of being exposed to Azilia Banks's opinions.
You're like, oh, good take, Oh great take. Oh wait,
actually really really not good take, like opposite of good take.
I am not aligned with that take.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yikes. Okay, going back one, I googled Russell Crowe is
from New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Oh New Zealand, Sorry to all my Australians out there,
got y'all confused with New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, and I guess he doesn't come off as looking
too good in that story.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So despite all of her behavior. I don't automatically discount
the things that she says outright, like a lot of
people are like, oh, she's an unreliable narrior, can't trust her,
like she'll just say whatever. And I get that, but
I actually don't outright discount the things that she says,
which brings me to Elon Musk, because Azilia Banks has
(18:58):
essentially accused Eli holding her hostage in his home in
what she describes as a get out style situation, and
she basically live tweeted the entire thing and it turned
into a literal sec investigation.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
A get out style situation.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Those are her words, not mine.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Okay, So I gotta ask why was Azalia Banks in
Elon Musk's house in the first place.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
So the reason why Azalea is at Elon Musk's house
in the first place involves another musician, Grimes. Honestly, Grimes's
downfall via Elon Musk could be studied, like I would
love to make another episode all about that. But there
was a time where we mostly knew Grimes as this
like respected electronic musician who talked a lot about like
anti colonialism and anti capitalism. She had a ton of
(19:50):
indie street cred, but in twenty eighteen, she lost a
lot of that street cred when she debuted her relationship
with Elon Musk at the the Met Gala. So Grimes
now needs a way to revive her indie bona fides,
and Azalea Banks needs a musical collaborator on her album,
so the two decide to link up. So Grimes and
(20:11):
Banks were meant to be collaborating on Banks's notoriously troubled
second album, and they both separately confirmed this back in June.
According to Banks, Grimes invited her to fly out to
la to stay at Musk's place to finish putting the
finishing touches on their album, which Banks did. Now here's
where it gets weird. So, according to Azalia, she goes
(20:33):
to Elon Musk's house and Grimes doesn't show, so Zily
Banks is like, oh, I must have got the date
wrong and just heads home and continues living her life.
Oh wait, no, just kidding. Because she's Azalea freaking Banks.
She decides to essentially stay and live post her entire
weird ass stay at Elon Mus's house, saying that she
had been alone in his house waiting for grimes to
show up four days. So here's where I should say
(20:57):
up front and come for me if you must. But
everything that Azilia says she saw go down at Elon
Musk's house, I believe her. Like she is someone who
is unreliable and says and does wild shit. I will
own that up front. But like, something about the way
that she describes this stuff just really does sound like
(21:19):
Elon behavior to me. Like I know a lot about
Elon Musk. I've been following his career for a really
long time, and from everything that we know about Musk,
his erratic behavior, his poor leadership and impulsive decision making
and drug use, everything that Banks says sounds like something
he would do. Everything that she says that she saw
(21:40):
sounds like the person that we currently have making decisions
in the White House. So when people talk about this feud,
they tend to frame it as like, oh, Azilia Banks,
this is this unreliable narrator. But I don't think that
she's more or less unreliable or like crazy than Musk.
Like the entire laundry list of reasons why Aziliah Banks
is an underlie narrator, I feel like that list is
(22:02):
just as long, if not longer for Elon Musk, and
I don't like that people just dismiss what Banks has
to say about what she saw and what that says
about Elon's ability to run things, given that he's essentially
running our country like she might be out of pocket,
not out of ten times. But I still think that
we should hear her out about what she says happened
and use that to draw some conclusions about the stability
(22:25):
of the leadership we currently have in the White House.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Stability is not a word that I would use to
describe Elon Musk, or what's happening in the White House,
or governing America's foreign policy, or how our entire society
or economy feel at the moment. So yeah, at this point,
I'm willing to believe a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, this is the self appointed arbiter of efficiency, right,
Like let that sink in Like he has decided, Oh no,
I know all about it. Efficiency. I'm the one who
should be driving efficiency for the United States.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Let's take a quick break at our back.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
So Azilia Banks arrives at Elon Musk's house A few
days later, on August seventh, Musk starts tweeting some classic
Musk erratic shit. Shout out to the website Highest Nobriety
because a lot of this has since been deleted, but
they kept a very clear record of what went down,
and I'll link that in the comments, or I'll link
that in the show notes. So Elon tweets that he's
(23:40):
quote considering taking Tesla private at four hundred and twenty
dollars funding secure. So, Mike, are you are you a
genius enough to understand the joke there? Like why he
would say that he's taking it private at four twenty?
Do you get it? Is it too sophisticated for you?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I believe that's a reference to what the kids call merrillan.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, it's a it's a marijuana joke, a weed joke.
It's I know, Elon's jokes are always they're just like.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
They're not good. It's not're not good shoke. Like it
makes me think of like the movie How High or
something right, Like I thought that shit was hilarious when
I was like sixteen and high?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
How dare you how hot? Don't don't do method man
like that? Like their humor is a lot is it
may not be the most sophisticated out there, but it's
not just for.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Twenty oh lo, well, like, you're right, you're right, I'm
thinking of different shows that that is a good, good movie.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
So Musk's for twenty announcement made Tesla shaer skyrocket, closing
the market and an eleven percent rise, with stocks at
three hundred and seventy nine dollars and fifty seven cents apiece.
This rise brought Musk's personal network up to twenty five
point eight billion, earning him one point four billion dollars
that single day. It kind of becomes a meme being like, oh,
(24:57):
I'm going public at four twenty. But you kind of
can't just do that, according to the SEC, because on
August eighth, the Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC
had opened an inquiry into Musk's announcements about taking Tesla
private on Twitter. If his claim was to prove untrue,
Musk's tweet may have violated US securities law. So not great,
(25:20):
like he could be committing financial crimes publicly on Twitter
with Azalea Banks in his house live streaming the entire thing.
And if you believe Azalea Banks, she was essentially a
witness to all of this, And not only that, she's
providing like play by play commentary of everything that he's doing.
(25:41):
So if the SEC is kind of low key accusing
him of a crime, you get Azalea Banks in your
house at the same time giving a public blow by
blow of those alleged crimes. So this is what I
mean when I say that we should really think about
what this incident means. And like the fact that he
is now in charge of so much of how our
country is run, Like, this is not a smart person.
(26:03):
It's not a savvy person. This is not an efficient person,
Azilia said. I saw him in the kitchen tucking his
tail between his legs, scrounging for investors to cover his ass.
After that tweet, she told Business Insider he was stressed
and red in the face. He's not cute at all
in person, she added.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Not cute at all. What is insult.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
This is something else you gonna learn about Azilia is
that she really good at a turn of phrase, Like,
no matter what you think about her, she really is
a good talk Well we'll talk more about it in
a minute, but she really is a very good insulter.
Like nobody, nobody can insult like her. She really is
good at it. So, Banks says that Elon tweeted all
of this, all of this stuff about taking Tesla public
(26:47):
while he was allegedly on acid, a claim that I
absolutely woulde hundred percent believe. She wrote that she waited
around all weekend while Grimes coddled her boyfriend for being
too stupid to know not to go on Twitter while
on acid. So, according to if you believe his Ellie Banks,
this entire thing was like a manifestation of a bad
(27:07):
acid trip or something.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
And also, going on Twitter while on acid does seem
like a very bad idea.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Terrible idea. Again, somebody who thinks it's a good idea
to take acid go on Twitter and start maybe kind
of allegedly low key tweeting about your business's crimes. Is
that the kind of mind that we want a hair
away from the executive? I would argue, No, I would argue, Now.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know, another businessman, though, might have had like a
whole communications team in place to manage his communications, and
they wouldn't have tweeted a bunch of lies while on acid.
But his way is much more efficient. He's just got
that team out entirely. Okay. So so she says that
(27:56):
he was on acid at the time, does he agree.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
No.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Once reporters start asking questions, he was like, oh, that
never happened. Speaking with Gizmoto for an article published on
August thirteenth, Musk says that quote he never even met
Azalea Banks or communicated with her in any way. At
this point, Grimes announces that she's heading to Vegas to
meet Elin to go to a hacker conference, so she's
not coming back to his house at all to do
this collaboration, and Azalea is not happy. Meanwhile, Banks goes
(28:23):
off on Grimes and Musk in a series of Instagram stories,
accusing Crimes of actually being the one who was leaking
the information about what Elon is doing. So I gotta
give a little PSA here. This is me reading Azalea
Banks's words, just so we're all clear, she writes. Lol.
Elon Musk is better off hiring an escort. At least
(28:45):
an escort would have kept her mouth shut about his business.
He's got some dirty sneaker inbred out the woods, paps
beer pussy, meth head junkie running around town telling everyone
everything about him, all because she needed a date to
the Metga to hide his shrinking dick from Amber heard Lol.
Elon Musk was once in a relationship with Amberherd, a
(29:06):
fucking rebound, a beta male who took steroids and got
hair plugs to convince himself he was alpha. There's no
reason that in this collab with Crimes, I know so
much about Elon Musk. Grimes really is an idiot, and
Elon Musk really is part of the problem when you
talk about white male privilege and colonialism. His family's wealth
is rooted in emeralds and ore mines in Southern Africa
(29:28):
during apartheid. This trash ass beta male pig was given
his start in life because his disgusting racist parents took
advantage of thousands of black people. Ask Elon Musk what
the fuck he has done for Africa? Nothing? He ignores it.
These fake ass libertarian shit baggs.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Damn oh okay, I mean that's an insult.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Do you see what I'm saying? Because quote trash ass
beta male pig that isn't like that is a turn like,
there's like layers and.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Levels to that as an insult, dirty inbred out of
the woods paths fear pussy meth head junkie. I hate
to laugh, but that's strong language. They're fighting words for.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Me, fighting words. And what's also interesting about this is
she's writing this in twenty eighteen. This like it was
definitely part of the public understanding of Elon Musk at
the reason why he got wealthy is because of his
family's connections in South Africa, particularly their like Emerald mind.
But that was not something that like your casual observer
(30:35):
of Elon Musk was talking about, right like, if you
knew that, you knew that, and it was it was
out there. It was a note like I knew that
in twenty eighteen. But I think like Elon Musk even
back in twenty eighteen, occupied a different space in our
political and social and cultural imagination. And I would argue
that Azeliot Banks was kind of one of the one
of the early people who took that from like something
(30:57):
that people who are pretty read in on these tech
spaces new and kind of pushed it forward to more popular,
accessible imagination. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
It does, And I guess the other way to say
that would be getting mixed up with Azalea Banks. Was
the beginning of Elon Musk's downfall from tech genius Golden
boy to half the country engaging in active protests about
how terrible he is.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I would say in a lot of ways, yes, like
even if you look at the reporting from tech reporters
that I like and trust, like I think in twenty eighteen,
Kara Swisher was still talking about Elon Musk like he
was like a sound genius that we should be looking
to for like innovation and stuff like. I do think
that Azalea Banks, say what you will about her, was
(31:44):
on the early side of this kind of turn in
our popular understanding of Elon Musk. Again, this would be
really clear. Lots of people have been telling the truth
about who Elon Musk is for a long time, and
I don't want to discount that, but a lot of
people were not, And I think that Azalea Banks was
somebody who really paved the way of our under our
(32:09):
current understanding of who Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Is fake ass libertarian.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yes, So remember how Elon Musk told Gizmoto, I have
never met Azalea Banks, not even once, And he was like,
very specific and definitive about it, so he was lying.
He walked that back and was like, Okay, maybe I
did meet her once. On August sixteenth, the New York
Times confirmed that Musk and Banks did meet briefly. Musk
(32:36):
told the paper quote, I saw her on Friday morning
for two seconds at about a thirty foot distance as
she was leaving the house. He continued, I just finished
working out. She was not within hearing range. I didn't
even realize who it was. That's literally the only time
I've ever laid eyes on her. Again, that just sounds
like a lie to me. The fact that he threw
(32:57):
in the like I had just left my bench press.
Is that a gym? It's like, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Like yeah, it just sounds like a lie. Like it
just sounds like a lie. Like like I saw her
from thirty feet away. I didn't even recognize her, but
it was her, and it did Like.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
I'm sure that he has some Like I mean, I
live in a one bedroom apartment, so like if I
saw somebody in my apartment from thirty feet away, and
I'd have some questions. But I just can't imagine that
he's like, oh, who's so I'm sure that he has
like a huge compound mansion whatever, But I still can't
imagine that you would see somebody in your house from
thirty feet away and not be like, who is this
person in my house? Like I like, I feel I
feel like you would have a.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Follow up, Yeah, why is this person leaving my house?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
And who are they and what are they doing in
my house? So where'd I believe that he saw her
from thirty feet away? And like was just like like
thirty feet is not that long, ag and he just
like like there was no words exchanged.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah, it's a little it defies credibility a little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I'm not buying it. I'm not buying it at all. Meanwhile,
Azalea Banks is still in his house. On August twentieth,
Banks tagged Elon Musk in her Instagram story, writing you
need to contact me asap. I need my phone back now.
She said that Musk had involved an attorney in all
of this, writing quote, they came up with all these
(34:16):
threats of blackmail. They paid my attorney offs to take
my phone and delete evidence. And then in an Instagram story,
Banks said that she wanted to go home and quote,
none of this shit has anything to fucking do with me.
So it sounds like at this point stuff is like
actually getting quite messy and like maybe She's like, I
don't want to be involved in this anymore. Shortly after this,
(34:37):
Musk deleted his Instagram altogether.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Wait, so the timeline here. She tweeted all that shit
and then continued to live in his house.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, so she's live tweeting, according to her like from
his house.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yikes.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Okay, So Azelia Banks then starts releasing screenshots of texts
that she had with Grimes, which only recently, as in
like a few months ago, Grimes actually confirmed were real.
So I was gonna have to say, like allegedly text
with her and Grimes because who knows maybe their doctor
and who knows Grimes. We have it from Grimes, these
are real texts. In the text, Azalea and Grimes get
(35:15):
into Elon's SEC allegations. Grimes says, quote, he just got
into weed because of me, and he's super entertained by
four to twenty So when he decided to take the
stock private, he calculated that it was worth four hundred
and nineteen dollars, so he round it up to four
twenty four a laugh, and now the SEC is investigating
him for fraud. These texts are very revealing, but they're
(35:36):
also like very funny to me, because Banks is just
so fucking mean to Grimes in these texts, and Grimes
just sort of comes off as like kind of clueless,
like LLL, we're besties. Like at one point, Grimes is
like telling Azalea Banks that she should find a boyfriend
so we can be pregnant at the same time. It'll
be so fun, and Banks replies, yeah, girl, as soon
(35:58):
as you sober up. Mean it mean, it's so mean.
So the New York Times asks Musk, like, what the
hell is going on. In an interview with The Times,
must said that he was not high when he sent
the four to twenty funding secure tweet. He said it
seemed like better karma at four twenty than four nineteen,
(36:20):
but I was not on weed. To be clear, weed
is not helpful for productivity. There's a reason for the
word stone. You just sit there like a stone on weed.
Also side note, by this time, there was plenty of
like public footage of him smoking joints on Joe Rogan's podcast,
So I don't know why he's trying to pretend like
I am too productive to have ever smoked weed. And
then it's like, well, there's videos of you smoking weed,
(36:40):
so I don't. I don't know what this is. And
also I.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Thought the claim was that he was on acid, not
on indeed.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Very perceptive right because she never mentioned weed. She said
acid specifically.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Pretty different substances, correct.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I think at this point Banks was like, Yeah, this
is too much heat, even for my wild So she
kind of apologizes to Elon Musk via a letter that
she posted on social media after she had left his house.
She says in it, she says that during the time
that she was in his home quote, she was welcome
to a lot of information about Musk that made her
feel awkward or uncomfortable, but that she never had any
(37:16):
intentions of using that information against him. Mind you, In
her apology, she never says she was lying about anything
or that she made anything up. He just says, I
inadvertently got a lot of information about you, and it
wasn't I didn't mean to tell the world about information,
and I wasn't trying to use it against you. It's
telling to me that she doesn't say she made it up.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, I mean, there's just a lot going on here.
The fact that she's posting all of this to a
variety of social platforms is something I don't know what
it is, but it's something.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Well. Right after her apology that she posted on social
media to musk, she then posted a screenshot of a
Washington Post story about Tesla remaining public and captioned it quote,
if it ain't broke, don't let your druggy art school
girlfriend convince you to break it. And then in a
later Instagram story, she writes, quote, congratulate fucking relations. I
(38:07):
literally save you from being eaten alive by a weird,
cannibalistic feminist, pagan lesbian electronic music cult.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Wow. So she like hates Grimes at this point.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
I'm not even sure if I would say that she does,
But I just think that Grimes is someone that she
just cannot help insulting. Like she just like really does
not respect Grimes at all that she wants to make
that clear, like two Grimes of Space.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
More. After a quick break, let's get right back into it.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
So Bangs has left must house, and you might think
that this is where things end and we forget about everything,
But you know who didn't forget You know who doesn't
forget elephants, Elephants and the sec. Because Azalia Banks was
subpoenaed in a lawsuit against Tesla and Elon Musk, which
according to the complaint, was partly focused on what happened
(39:14):
during that time that she spent at his house. Banks
did an interview with Business Insider via DMS when this
whole thing was happening, saying the first round of Elon
Musk bullshit was stressful enough. I don't have bandwidth for
another row with him. Also side note, Business Insider was
also subpoenas, Like they were subpoena and everybody. They really
wanted to get to the bottom of what was going
on in this situation.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And it's interesting because like this was the first Trumpe administration. Yeah,
you're SEC going after Musk.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah. So, Azalea was subpoenaed by attorneys for plaintiffs in
a class action lawsuit against Musk and Tesla. The lawsuit,
filed by Tesla investors in twenty eighteen, alleged that Musk
made false and misleading statements when he tweeted that funding
was quote secured to take Tesla private at four to
twenty a share in twenty eighteen. It makes absolute sense
(40:03):
that the SEC would come to talk to Azalia after
that four twenty tweet because she again. She said that
she saw him with her own eyes scrounging for investors
to cover his ass on that tweet, and that she
tweeted it. He tweeted it while he was ineborated on acid,
and like I said, Business Insider was also subpoena for
their DMS with Azale Banks. Here's a little taste of
(40:23):
the subpoena quote. Grimes and miss Banks were in close
contact with mister Musk before and after the tweet and
are believed to be in possession of relevant evidence concerning
mister Musk's motives. This is from Adam m Apton and
Levi Korninski, the firm representing the investors. Business Insider also
appears to have relevant evidence in light of its relationship
with Miss Banks. So what happened, Well, I will say
(40:47):
that a jury did clear Musk of liability, and it
seems like that's kind of it. Back in October of
twenty twenty four, a federal peels court seemed unlikely to
disturb the jury's verdict clearing Musk in his company of
liability over the allegations of the misled investors when he
tweeted on social media. Back in twenty eighteen, that funding
had been secured to take Tesla private. So Elon did
(41:09):
not face liability and probably won't on this specific thing.
But that incident really does linger large in our cultural
understanding of who Musk is, whether you realize it or not.
So the thing about Azalea Banks is that she goes
nuclear immediately, and she does it with this like venom
(41:32):
and cleverness that just really has staying power. So it's
like what we were just talking about, how she really
was on the early side of how we understand or
like the fraud that we now understand Elon Musk's to
be right, like she got there before Kara Swisher got there,
And all of these really mean claims and like turns
(41:53):
of phrase that we think about when we think about
Elon Musk today in twenty twenty five, some of that
really did originate with Zalea Banks. So, Mike, have you
I don't want to be crass, but have you ever
heard the claim that Elon Musk got a botched penis
implant surgery?
Speaker 2 (42:08):
I have heard that claim. I have no idea whether
it's true or not.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Well, that claim was really buttressed by Banks, she replied
to somebody on Twitter who claimed that Musk had a
quote botched penis implant, and Azalea Banks seemingly affirmed that.
She said, oh, Grimes told me about that too. So
first of all, it's like Grimes does. It does sound
like Azalia was right if you believe this that like
(42:34):
Grimes really was telling her a lot of information about
the Elon Musk, like personal information.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, it's pretty personal.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
So like her takedowns of Musk or like verbal takedowns
of him really like are devastating and searing and they last,
Like I see people calling Elon Musk a trash ass
beta pig all the time on the internet, all the time,
every day, and so like, do you know the kind
(43:04):
of like online meme of calling Elon Musk like nicknames
like apartheid Clyde?
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I do? And you know it makes sense because I
think that's like his wealth uncontrovertibly comes out of the
apartheid system.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Right it does. And Azalea Banks was the person who
gave him that nickname in January of twenty nineteen, during
part of their feud, according to Urban Dictionary, On January fifth,
twenty nineteen, Azalea Banks posted a story in which she
referred to Musk as Apartheid Clyde, a reference to Musk
growing up in South Africa during the era of apartheid
and his father ERL. Musk owning a fifty percent share
(43:41):
and an emerald mind in Zambiath. On that day, several
users on x slash Twitter posted about Banks calling him
Apartheid Clyde. So she really, like you know, that's even
today in twenty twenty five. That is to become the
language of like how just every day Broke's on the
internet like me try he digs at elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
It is amazing that he can have such an enormous
profile and seemingly like not have a history. Like you
really have to look for it to learn about his history,
his parent's history, his grandparent's history, And it's there, but
you have to look for it.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, it is there. Like I've listened to some like
very disturbing podcasts about his father. There is compelling evidence,
like and his relationship with his mom is super weird.
Like his mom is like gorgeous, she's a model, but
she is just like someone who is really trying hard
(44:41):
to shield her son from any type of criticism. In
this way, that's like well, okay, you don't get to
do that when he's like, you know, a special employee
of the White House, right, Like people are allowed to
criticize your role in shaping our democracy in our life lady.
So yeah, his his family situation is pretty dark and
(45:01):
pretty weird and like out there publicly. And so what's
interesting to me how for so long he was just
this like rich guy who made cars, like even though
all that information was out there, like he it really
I think it really is. It says something about the
ease of myth making in the United States that you
(45:23):
could sort of like build this mythos about yourself where
you're this you know, genius upstart who knows everything about everything,
who you know, succeeds on his own independence, not because
of anybody's diamond mind or emerald mind. And that can
sort of be accepted until somebody like Azalea Banks comes
along and like you know, shatters that shatters that shatters
(45:48):
that image like she is with that old Apple commercial
of the woman like running up and like throwing a
hammer at the glass, Like that is Azalea Banks penetrating
Elon Musk's uh the glass that it is this like
fictionalized world that he has built for himself.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Yeah, that's a it's a nice way to describe it
there with that nineteen eighty four ad imagery.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
I know people are like, what are you talking about? Like,
look it up, kids, It was a commercial on TV
for Apple computers. Look it up kids.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
All right, let's bring this back. Let's bring it back. Okay,
So where do you want to go next?
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Bridget So, even though it sounds like they kind of
smoothed over their feud, today, Azalea Banks is imagining a
world without Elon Musk. According to a piece in Dazed,
Banks has announced the release of an upcoming track that
appears to imagine Musk's quote public execution. In a now
deleted Instagram post, she shared the details of one of
(46:42):
two songs that were filtered out of her thirty minute
release called Young Rapunzel Part Two, set in thirty thirty
ninety six Corolla Parentheses Motorman tell us the story of
Alon Dust, a wealthy technocrat who devises the perfect scheme
to entice poor people into allowing their brains to be
used as an interface Coitcidentally, the venturer is called Neuralink,
(47:05):
the name of Musk's company that is actually working on
mind reading software. In Banks's song Alon Dust's quote neural
activity is eventually cut off by the aioverlord played by
Azalea Banks herself, rendering him a vegetable and erasing him
as a threat to humanity.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Okay, so they're cool now, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
They sound cool. They sound like no problems, it's all
been buried.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Yeah, good buds.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
So first of all, I just find this to be
such an interesting moment where my two favorite things, pop
culture and tech, kind of intersect. So it's like one
of the reasons why I'm so obsessed with this story.
But I guess the bottom line is, and why I
wanted to share this today was that I think today,
in twenty twenty five, most people, definitely people listening to
(47:54):
this podcast do not have the popular cultural misconception that
Elon Musk is this like stable, efficient, good leader.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
But Elon muss thought it was a good idea to
let Azalea Banks his wild ass into his life, into
his home, around his partner, around his businesses. And this
is the man whose decision making acumen, we are being
told is solid and stable enough to be leading our
country and I'll just say we are in danger. I'll
(48:24):
just leave it there. We are in danger.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
Yeah, my god, Uh, do me a favor. Let's not
have her on the show, azil Banks. I'm sure it
would be entertaining, but like, are.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
You out of your mind? The way if she ever
wanted to call she has a it would be like
she didn't come on the show anytime she wants. I mean,
then again, what if she's in my house, like she
won't leave and she's live tweeting if.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
She sees Yeah, it just it seems like playing with fire.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
On the podcast who Weekly, Bobby Finger once joked that
Azalea Banks, an iPhone and a whi if I connection
could take down the whole Trump administration. And this is
before Elon was in the administration. This was the first
time around it. I firmly believe he is right. Got
a story about an interesting thing in tech or just
want to say hi? You can read us at Hello
(49:16):
at tangodi dot com. You can also find transcripts for
today's episode at tengody dot com. There Are No Girls
on the Internet was created by me Bridget Todd. It's
a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed creative Jonathan Strickland as
our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer.
Michael Almado is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd.
If you want to help us grow, rate and review.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
Us on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
There are No Girls on the Internet. As a production
of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative, I'm Bridget Todd, and this
is there are no girls on the Internet. So I
don't need to tell anybody listening that everything feels awful.
My idols are dead and my enemies are in power.
(00:26):
But there is one tiny, tiny, tiny silver lining, which
is that everything going on gives me a reason to
talk about my absolute favorite moment in pop culture history,
the moment that is my personal Roman Empire, and that
is the time that Azalea Banks was trapped in Elon
Musk's house. I have been wanting to make this episode
(00:48):
for literal years, and now is the time.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Congratulations, Bridget. I know you have wanted to make this
episode for a very long time. Why now you've been
waiting so long? Why to great question?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I think there is this attitude amongst I lovingly call
these people like normies, like people who are not listening
to this podcast. If you're listening to this podcast, you
are not a normy, like people who are not super
online that think that Elon Musk is this brilliant guy,
this brilliant businessman who has started companies that are super
successful and that it would actually be a good thing
(01:24):
for the country if he brought all that genius, business acumen,
shrue decision making and sound judgment to the country, Like
when I go home and visit family a lot of
times they I think they have a very surface level,
casual understanding of who Elon Musk is, and I think
(01:44):
that that really allows them to feed into this narrative
that he is this smart, sound, solid guy. I do
think that attitude is starting to break a little bit,
you know. I think that we're starting to see people,
even Trump supporters, be like, well, well, I love Trump,
but I hate that Elon Musk. So I do think
some of this addit who is starting to break and
(02:05):
where people are starting to globally see him for who
he really is. But when somebody has that opinion about
Elon Musk that he's this like smart guy, that just
tells me that that person has really not been following
Elon Musk's absolute historic record of dogshit decision making like
truly L after L after l, because if they were,
(02:27):
there is no way that they would think this is
a sound mind that we want in the White House.
They would be saying, this is somebody that I would
not be putting in charge of anything.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
My personal favorite is I just watched this like hour
long YouTube video about him lying about being good at
video games. It just really stuck with me. He's like
the richest man in the world, and he invested so
much time and money in creating this false narrative that
he's good at video games, like for what he just
(03:00):
seems like an unwell dude, Mike.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That is a great example. It's these elaborate lies that
remind me of that kid that we all knew in
like elementary school, who would lie just to lie, and
then like build out a whole fantasy world to maintain
a self aggrandizing lie. If you were a billionaire, why
would you feel the need to construct an alternate reality
(03:24):
where you're good at a specific video game? That is
not something a well adjusted dare I say, shrewd mind
spends time doing. And so when I hear like normy
people who clearly have not been following every aspect of
Elon's career of lies, scams, and losses say like, oh,
he's a smart guy. I just know they're not there there.
(03:45):
They don't know him like we know him, because the
kind of person who creates a fiction about them being
good at a video game is not the kind of
person that we would then want to empower in the
White House.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, I get the sense that he's like Trump, like
truly is genius level at like something like holding people's
attentions and like believing his own lies. I think I
don't know exactly what it is, but like, clearly these
guys are good at something, but like rational decision making
doesn't seem to be it.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So I will give Trump something like I am loath
to give this man any kind of a compliment he
from all from people who have talked to him, he
does seem like somebody who has like a certain kind
of charisma, a certain kind of like quality that makes
people want to listen to him, engage with him, watch
what he has to say. I think a lot of
(04:38):
that comes from being somebody who who became empowered on
reality television, where it doesn't really matter what you're selling
as much as like how you sell it. Elon must
doesn't have any of that. I think that like Elon
Musk doesn't know how to talk to people, doesn't know
wouldn't know charisma if it bit him on the butt,
Like He's just not like the things that make Trump
(04:58):
good at being a fascist leader. I do not think
that Elon Musk casts and I think we see that
in the one hundred different examples from his career that
really demonstrate this, But I would argue maybe none demonstrate
it quite as well as what happened between him and
Azalea Banks, which, by the way, I watched this shit
(05:21):
go down live like I lived it. I was like,
like every story that Banks dropped, I was screenshotting like
I was there, And I guess it's one of those
things that, like, you truly had to be there. And
if you're thinking, Bridget, what are you talking about? Listen up,
because if you weren't there, I'm about to fill y'all in.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Okay, Bridget, I wasn't there. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Well, we got to start with who is Azalea Banks.
I kind of like, can't imagine somebody would be an
avid listener to this podcast and not know about Azalea Banks.
But the kind of top level she is a musician
from she had a come up in this very interesting
moment in pop culture. She got big initially on MySpace
(06:07):
in two thousand and eight before being hooked up with
a recording deal thanks to Diplow when she was age eighteen.
Don't worry, that's gonna be the only Diplow mention of
this episode.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
We don't have to get into a fight about Diplo.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Well, people listening are probably like, oh, because Diplow is
like this a problematic character in his own right. But
you and I had that big fight about Diplow. We
don't need to We don't need to religate religate it now, but.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
We don't need to religate Diplow Gate.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So Azalea Banks was doing super interesting stuff that really
highlighted this nexus of culture at the time, Like, honestly,
had things happen differently, I can see myself making an
episode about how Azalea Banks was one of these people
who really successfully and in an at an early time,
saw the power of internet culture very early in her career.
(06:55):
But I'll las so Azalea Banks was like doing things
like she used you Tube to share her demo tracks,
including a cover of do you Know that band? Inner Poll?
They kind of go like an indie band where the
vocalist has kind of a nasally voice, like all of
his singing is sort of like it's not too late,
Like it's like a very soposic you know what I'm
talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, I was like really into Interpol in the odds.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, well, did you know that she released a cover
of their song slow Hands on YouTube way back in
the day.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I have to admit I did not know that she.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Was someone who was, for me, like a very important
figure in early internet culture and really use that culture
for her own come up. In twenty eleven, she starts
writing the song two one two, which would go on
to be her opus. And she starts writing it a
month before getting addicted from her apartment on Dykman Street
(07:49):
in Harlem. So she is like really a Harlem girl,
like about that Harlem life. I actually didn't know this.
I found that I learned this from doing the research
for this episode. She initially released two one two just
as a free download on her website in twenty eleven,
and people loved it so much, like it became like
a song that was being used in big fashion shows
and on television, and so it was not until the
(08:11):
following year that she actually included it on her first
debut album called nineteen ninety one. But when she first
released that song two on two. She had not even
had an album yet. She was still like kind of
an unknown in the music world. But like, we really
have to take a little bit of a detour here,
because when I say that Azalea Banks is two one
two changed culture, I really mean it. I can make
(08:33):
an entire episode about that song. I won't, but I could,
but I won't, But I would argue that it was
not only the best song of twenty twelve, but probably
the most culturally relevant. Like if I was thinking about
the like not just twenty twelve, if I was thinking
about like the aughts, the twenty ten's in general, if
there was a song I had to pick to represent
(08:54):
that particular era, it would be two one two. Like
no other song sums up that particular moment meant in music, fashion,
and culture. Billboard magazine agrees with me. Billboard recognized two
and two as one of the songs that defined the decade.
And then also, just like her story, being really like
of an era, this relatively unknown, super online broke girl
(09:18):
from Harlem releasing music just on her website that gets
blown up by like big music blogs and goes on
to become a global smash sensation like that is really
a story that is of an era. If you've seen
that movie Blingering about those young people in la who
were like robbing Paris Hiltan, that Azalia banks Is two
(09:39):
one two is used in the trailer, and I'll say
that movie was directed by Sofia Coppola. Nobody knows how
to pick music that defines an era like Sophia Coppola.
I was listening to this podcast called This had Oscar
Bus about how the song two one two in that
trailer is really meant to sum up the twenty tens,
and that it easily could have been in that trailer
(10:00):
a song by a band like the ting Tings, which
also had a lot of buzz in the twenty tens.
But that how, when you rewatch the trailer in twenty
twenty five, it's clear that the ting Tings somehow is
the wrong choice and Azalea banks Is two on two
is like the correct choice to represent the decade. But
like in the twenty tens, we maybe didn't realize how
era defining that song was, and like looking back today,
(10:24):
it really had a staying power culturally.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, even I know that song, it's it's an awesome song.
Still you still hear it like a lot? Oh?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Absolutely, Like that song is the culture. There's this really
funny video of the actress Rachel Sanoy doing like a
skit on YouTube that uses that song. I'll, I'll it's
if you haven't seen it, it's like her being like,
we're from la If you don't have an eating disorder,
get one byatch Like it's like very funny and so
like this song, it's just like really defined an era.
(10:56):
It's still the song that I get dressed to when
I'm like getting ready for a night out. I love it.
I don't care it is. It is my forever banger,
and a lot of people listening, I know you agree
with me. You might not say it out loud, you
might have had the courage to say it in a
microphone like I do. But a lot of people agree
with me. I'm not the only one, Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So it sounds like you really like Azalia banks Bridge.
It so like, what's the problem.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
It's her? Her, She's the problem. It's her. Azalea is
super problematic. I'm not even sure if problematic is the
right word to describe her. Like we would be here
all day if I did a complete accounting of all
of her like problems and missteps, which honestly I would
actually love to do in another episode or another podcast. So, like,
(11:43):
I don't even know how to describe or put into
words her her brand of exactly whatever is going on
with her. I looked at her wiki to see how
it's framed there, and it says, quote, Banks's social media
presence and outspoken views, especially on US politics and race,
as well as disputes with other artists have attracted significant controversy.
(12:04):
And I'm thinking, like, yeah, that's like kind of putting
it mildly. Also side note, her Wikipedia has a section
that's just called disputes and Controversies.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, you never want that, or maybe you do. I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
If I become famous and somebody makes so Wikipedia page
for me, I want there to be a section that
just disputes.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Grievances, grievances.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I need a grievances section. Okay, So the real like
og Azilia followers probably remember that she would get on
Instagram live and just really do some stuff, like one
time she was sacrificing live chickens as part of a
religious ceremony. In her closet in her apartment to like.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
She she was.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
She did a lot of stuff out there, like she
was like you never really knew what you were gonna
get when you went to her Instagram live. I'll put
it that way.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I did not see that coming.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Okay, well yeah, chick Live. Chicken sacrifice is part of this.
So yeah. So this is actually one of the reasons
why I'm so fascinated by Azilia Banks. And also like
we'll kind of always have, I guess a soft spot
for her, Like she's kind of one of my problematic
thaves despite all the things that she has said and done,
because I feel like, like I really get the sense
(13:24):
that she was someone who was in the exact right place,
in the exact right time and culture to really explode,
and she's like very talented, and I do think that
she's someone who could have been huge, Like this might
be controversial, but like she could have been doci right,
Like she really was someone who was the right time,
(13:45):
right place, had the talent. But I think that she
burned a lot of her own bridges and got in
her own way, and her career really never took off
the way that I think it should have, and you know,
not only is that a shame because of like, I
would love to see a world where like she's thriving
and like we're all getting to hear really cool music.
But a lot of the reasons why her career has
(14:07):
stalled the way it has just seems like it's like
her own fault, right, because she does just say and
do the wildest stuff, stuff that like I really am
not cool with. Just to give you a sense, a
lot of the stuff that she says and does is
homophobic and transphobic and racist. Like back in twenty fifteen,
she compared the LGBTQ community to quote the white gay kkks.
(14:31):
She was filmed hurling homophobic slurs at a flight attendant,
like stuff like that. In twenty twenty and twenty twenty one,
she made a series of transphobic contents about trans women,
specifically when it came to gender performing healthcare and surgeries.
She just recently, like it, within the last few weeks,
got booted from Amsterdam's Electronic Queer Inclusive Milkshake Festival. She
(14:54):
was dropped from their lineup for its twenty twenty five festival.
So I will say she it did seem to sort
of backtrack some of this stuff. In February, she called
out Harry Potter author JK. Rowling, who was like known transphobe,
for her transphobic comments, saying, I love you down Cis,
but trans women are not a threat to your femininity.
(15:17):
You really are too rich in legendary to keep subviewing
the same kind of stuff over and over. But I
will say about Azelia Banks is like there seems to
be no real clear through line, Like she spoke out
in favor of Kamala Harris, owing to later say that
she voted for Trump, Like she is someone that I
would not expect consistency from, I'll put it that way.
(15:38):
But something that I would do is listen to a
true crime style podcast about the night that she got
into a huge feud with the Rizza from Wu Tang Clan,
wherein the Rizza says he brought her to a party
at Russell Crowe. That actor, I think he's Australian.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Is he Australian?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Sure? Maybe?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I think so. Well, fact check that that Rizza brought
Azalea Banks to a party at Russell Crowe's hotel room
that turned into a some sort of a dispute or
altercation that got physical The story goes that Crow had
a party at this hotel Azilia is as guest. There
(16:20):
was some kind of altercation. I have read that Azalea
Banks allegedly objected to the music that Crowe was playing
at the party, which is which if that is true,
you gotta that's like pretty funny. So Azalea says that
Russell Crowe spat on her and used the in slur
(16:41):
at her. Now, at first, the Rizza disputed all of
this and he was like totally on Russell Crowe side
and said that Azalea just went nuts and she started
threatening to cut people with a broken bottle, and that
like he was so horrified because uh, you know, she
was his guest and that Russell Crowe handled it really well.
Blah blah blah blah. At first he was like totally
(17:03):
taking Russell Crowe's side. But literally years later there is
a finally did admit like, yeah, Azalia Banks was telling
the truth and Russell Crowe spat on her. So this
is a good example of why I find Azilia Banks
so fascinating and part of the reason why I want
to talk about her today is because absolutely sis says
(17:25):
and does awful things things that I am not ideologically
aligned with at all, things that I am not down with.
But she reads to me kind of like somebody who
is a bit like a broken clock right, Like she
is right twice a day, and when she's wrong, she
is super super super monumentally wrong, but when she's right,
(17:47):
she is so really right. I saw this tweet from
the account having a laugh that I thought was like, oh,
that really put it. Well, they're right browsing Azalea Banks's tweets.
Oh that's a very fun an insightful critique of a
contemporary pop star. That too. H Actually no, I don't
think that race of people are descended from rats. Like
(18:09):
that is the experience of being exposed to Azilia Banks's opinions.
You're like, oh, good take, Oh great take. Oh wait,
actually really really not good take, like opposite of good take.
I am not aligned with that take.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yikes. Okay, going back one, I googled Russell Crowe is
from New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Oh New Zealand, Sorry to all my Australians out there,
got y'all confused with New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, and I guess he doesn't come off as looking
too good in that story.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So despite all of her behavior. I don't automatically discount
the things that she says outright, like a lot of
people are like, oh, she's an unreliable narrior, can't trust her,
like she'll just say whatever. And I get that, but
I actually don't outright discount the things that she says,
which brings me to Elon Musk, because Azilia Banks has
(18:58):
essentially accused Eli holding her hostage in his home in
what she describes as a get out style situation, and
she basically live tweeted the entire thing and it turned
into a literal sec investigation.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
A get out style situation.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Those are her words, not mine.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Okay, So I gotta ask why was Azalia Banks in
Elon Musk's house in the first place.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
So the reason why Azalea is at Elon Musk's house
in the first place involves another musician, Grimes. Honestly, Grimes's
downfall via Elon Musk could be studied, like I would
love to make another episode all about that. But there
was a time where we mostly knew Grimes as this
like respected electronic musician who talked a lot about like
anti colonialism and anti capitalism. She had a ton of
(19:50):
indie street cred, but in twenty eighteen, she lost a
lot of that street cred when she debuted her relationship
with Elon Musk at the the Met Gala. So Grimes
now needs a way to revive her indie bona fides,
and Azalea Banks needs a musical collaborator on her album,
so the two decide to link up. So Grimes and
(20:11):
Banks were meant to be collaborating on Banks's notoriously troubled
second album, and they both separately confirmed this back in June.
According to Banks, Grimes invited her to fly out to
la to stay at Musk's place to finish putting the
finishing touches on their album, which Banks did. Now here's
where it gets weird. So, according to Azalia, she goes
(20:33):
to Elon Musk's house and Grimes doesn't show, so Zily
Banks is like, oh, I must have got the date
wrong and just heads home and continues living her life.
Oh wait, no, just kidding. Because she's Azalea freaking Banks.
She decides to essentially stay and live post her entire
weird ass stay at Elon Mus's house, saying that she
had been alone in his house waiting for grimes to
show up four days. So here's where I should say
(20:57):
up front and come for me if you must. But
everything that Azilia says she saw go down at Elon
Musk's house, I believe her. Like she is someone who
is unreliable and says and does wild shit. I will
own that up front. But like, something about the way
that she describes this stuff just really does sound like
(21:19):
Elon behavior to me. Like I know a lot about
Elon Musk. I've been following his career for a really
long time, and from everything that we know about Musk,
his erratic behavior, his poor leadership and impulsive decision making
and drug use, everything that Banks says sounds like something
he would do. Everything that she says that she saw
(21:40):
sounds like the person that we currently have making decisions
in the White House. So when people talk about this feud,
they tend to frame it as like, oh, Azilia Banks,
this is this unreliable narrator. But I don't think that
she's more or less unreliable or like crazy than Musk.
Like the entire laundry list of reasons why Aziliah Banks
is an underlie narrator, I feel like that list is
(22:02):
just as long, if not longer for Elon Musk, and
I don't like that people just dismiss what Banks has
to say about what she saw and what that says
about Elon's ability to run things, given that he's essentially
running our country like she might be out of pocket,
not out of ten times. But I still think that
we should hear her out about what she says happened
and use that to draw some conclusions about the stability
(22:25):
of the leadership we currently have in the White House.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Stability is not a word that I would use to
describe Elon Musk, or what's happening in the White House,
or governing America's foreign policy, or how our entire society
or economy feel at the moment. So yeah, at this point,
I'm willing to believe a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, this is the self appointed arbiter of efficiency, right,
Like let that sink in Like he has decided, Oh no,
I know all about it. Efficiency. I'm the one who
should be driving efficiency for the United States.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Let's take a quick break at our back.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
So Azilia Banks arrives at Elon Musk's house A few
days later, on August seventh, Musk starts tweeting some classic
Musk erratic shit. Shout out to the website Highest Nobriety
because a lot of this has since been deleted, but
they kept a very clear record of what went down,
and I'll link that in the comments, or I'll link
that in the show notes. So Elon tweets that he's
(23:40):
quote considering taking Tesla private at four hundred and twenty
dollars funding secure. So, Mike, are you are you a
genius enough to understand the joke there? Like why he
would say that he's taking it private at four twenty?
Do you get it? Is it too sophisticated for you?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I believe that's a reference to what the kids call merrillan.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah, it's a it's a marijuana joke, a weed joke.
It's I know, Elon's jokes are always they're just like.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
They're not good. It's not're not good shoke. Like it
makes me think of like the movie How High or
something right, Like I thought that shit was hilarious when
I was like sixteen and high?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
How dare you how hot? Don't don't do method man
like that? Like their humor is a lot is it
may not be the most sophisticated out there, but it's
not just for.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Twenty oh lo, well, like, you're right, you're right, I'm
thinking of different shows that that is a good, good movie.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
So Musk's for twenty announcement made Tesla shaer skyrocket, closing
the market and an eleven percent rise, with stocks at
three hundred and seventy nine dollars and fifty seven cents apiece.
This rise brought Musk's personal network up to twenty five
point eight billion, earning him one point four billion dollars
that single day. It kind of becomes a meme being like, oh,
(24:57):
I'm going public at four twenty. But you kind of
can't just do that, according to the SEC, because on
August eighth, the Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC
had opened an inquiry into Musk's announcements about taking Tesla
private on Twitter. If his claim was to prove untrue,
Musk's tweet may have violated US securities law. So not great,
(25:20):
like he could be committing financial crimes publicly on Twitter
with Azalea Banks in his house live streaming the entire thing.
And if you believe Azalea Banks, she was essentially a
witness to all of this, And not only that, she's
providing like play by play commentary of everything that he's doing.
(25:41):
So if the SEC is kind of low key accusing
him of a crime, you get Azalea Banks in your
house at the same time giving a public blow by
blow of those alleged crimes. So this is what I
mean when I say that we should really think about
what this incident means. And like the fact that he
is now in charge of so much of how our
country is run, Like, this is not a smart person.
(26:03):
It's not a savvy person. This is not an efficient person,
Azilia said. I saw him in the kitchen tucking his
tail between his legs, scrounging for investors to cover his ass.
After that tweet, she told Business Insider he was stressed
and red in the face. He's not cute at all
in person, she added.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Not cute at all. What is insult.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
This is something else you gonna learn about Azilia is
that she really good at a turn of phrase, Like,
no matter what you think about her, she really is
a good talk Well we'll talk more about it in
a minute, but she really is a very good insulter.
Like nobody, nobody can insult like her. She really is
good at it. So, Banks says that Elon tweeted all
of this, all of this stuff about taking Tesla public
(26:47):
while he was allegedly on acid, a claim that I
absolutely woulde hundred percent believe. She wrote that she waited
around all weekend while Grimes coddled her boyfriend for being
too stupid to know not to go on Twitter while
on acid. So, according to if you believe his Ellie Banks,
this entire thing was like a manifestation of a bad
(27:07):
acid trip or something.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
And also, going on Twitter while on acid does seem
like a very bad idea.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Terrible idea. Again, somebody who thinks it's a good idea
to take acid go on Twitter and start maybe kind
of allegedly low key tweeting about your business's crimes. Is
that the kind of mind that we want a hair
away from the executive? I would argue, No, I would argue, Now.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know, another businessman, though, might have had like a
whole communications team in place to manage his communications, and
they wouldn't have tweeted a bunch of lies while on acid.
But his way is much more efficient. He's just got
that team out entirely. Okay. So so she says that
(27:56):
he was on acid at the time, does he agree.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
No.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Once reporters start asking questions, he was like, oh, that
never happened. Speaking with Gizmoto for an article published on
August thirteenth, Musk says that quote he never even met
Azalea Banks or communicated with her in any way. At
this point, Grimes announces that she's heading to Vegas to
meet Elin to go to a hacker conference, so she's
not coming back to his house at all to do
this collaboration, and Azalea is not happy. Meanwhile, Banks goes
(28:23):
off on Grimes and Musk in a series of Instagram stories,
accusing Crimes of actually being the one who was leaking
the information about what Elon is doing. So I gotta
give a little PSA here. This is me reading Azalea
Banks's words, just so we're all clear, she writes. Lol.
Elon Musk is better off hiring an escort. At least
(28:45):
an escort would have kept her mouth shut about his business.
He's got some dirty sneaker inbred out the woods, paps
beer pussy, meth head junkie running around town telling everyone
everything about him, all because she needed a date to
the Metga to hide his shrinking dick from Amber heard Lol.
Elon Musk was once in a relationship with Amberherd, a
(29:06):
fucking rebound, a beta male who took steroids and got
hair plugs to convince himself he was alpha. There's no
reason that in this collab with Crimes, I know so
much about Elon Musk. Grimes really is an idiot, and
Elon Musk really is part of the problem when you
talk about white male privilege and colonialism. His family's wealth
is rooted in emeralds and ore mines in Southern Africa
(29:28):
during apartheid. This trash ass beta male pig was given
his start in life because his disgusting racist parents took
advantage of thousands of black people. Ask Elon Musk what
the fuck he has done for Africa? Nothing? He ignores it.
These fake ass libertarian shit baggs.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Damn oh okay, I mean that's an insult.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Do you see what I'm saying? Because quote trash ass
beta male pig that isn't like that is a turn like,
there's like layers and.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Levels to that as an insult, dirty inbred out of
the woods paths fear pussy meth head junkie. I hate
to laugh, but that's strong language. They're fighting words for.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Me, fighting words. And what's also interesting about this is
she's writing this in twenty eighteen. This like it was
definitely part of the public understanding of Elon Musk at
the reason why he got wealthy is because of his
family's connections in South Africa, particularly their like Emerald mind.
But that was not something that like your casual observer
(30:35):
of Elon Musk was talking about, right like, if you
knew that, you knew that, and it was it was
out there. It was a note like I knew that
in twenty eighteen. But I think like Elon Musk even
back in twenty eighteen, occupied a different space in our
political and social and cultural imagination. And I would argue
that Azeliot Banks was kind of one of the one
of the early people who took that from like something
(30:57):
that people who are pretty read in on these tech
spaces new and kind of pushed it forward to more popular,
accessible imagination. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
It does, And I guess the other way to say
that would be getting mixed up with Azalea Banks. Was
the beginning of Elon Musk's downfall from tech genius Golden
boy to half the country engaging in active protests about
how terrible he is.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I would say in a lot of ways, yes, like
even if you look at the reporting from tech reporters
that I like and trust, like I think in twenty eighteen,
Kara Swisher was still talking about Elon Musk like he
was like a sound genius that we should be looking
to for like innovation and stuff like. I do think
that Azalea Banks, say what you will about her, was
(31:44):
on the early side of this kind of turn in
our popular understanding of Elon Musk. Again, this would be
really clear. Lots of people have been telling the truth
about who Elon Musk is for a long time, and
I don't want to discount that, but a lot of
people were not, And I think that Azalea Banks was
somebody who really paved the way of our under our
(32:09):
current understanding of who Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Is fake ass libertarian.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yes, So remember how Elon Musk told Gizmoto, I have
never met Azalea Banks, not even once, And he was like,
very specific and definitive about it, so he was lying.
He walked that back and was like, Okay, maybe I
did meet her once. On August sixteenth, the New York
Times confirmed that Musk and Banks did meet briefly. Musk
(32:36):
told the paper quote, I saw her on Friday morning
for two seconds at about a thirty foot distance as
she was leaving the house. He continued, I just finished
working out. She was not within hearing range. I didn't
even realize who it was. That's literally the only time
I've ever laid eyes on her. Again, that just sounds
like a lie to me. The fact that he threw
(32:57):
in the like I had just left my bench press.
Is that a gym? It's like, okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Like yeah, it just sounds like a lie. Like it
just sounds like a lie. Like like I saw her
from thirty feet away. I didn't even recognize her, but
it was her, and it did Like.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
I'm sure that he has some Like I mean, I
live in a one bedroom apartment, so like if I
saw somebody in my apartment from thirty feet away, and
I'd have some questions. But I just can't imagine that
he's like, oh, who's so I'm sure that he has
like a huge compound mansion whatever, But I still can't
imagine that you would see somebody in your house from
thirty feet away and not be like, who is this
person in my house? Like I like, I feel I
feel like you would have a.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Follow up, Yeah, why is this person leaving my house?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
And who are they and what are they doing in
my house? So where'd I believe that he saw her
from thirty feet away? And like was just like like
thirty feet is not that long, ag and he just
like like there was no words exchanged.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah, it's a little it defies credibility a little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I'm not buying it. I'm not buying it at all. Meanwhile,
Azalea Banks is still in his house. On August twentieth,
Banks tagged Elon Musk in her Instagram story, writing you
need to contact me asap. I need my phone back now.
She said that Musk had involved an attorney in all
of this, writing quote, they came up with all these
(34:16):
threats of blackmail. They paid my attorney offs to take
my phone and delete evidence. And then in an Instagram story,
Banks said that she wanted to go home and quote,
none of this shit has anything to fucking do with me.
So it sounds like at this point stuff is like
actually getting quite messy and like maybe She's like, I
don't want to be involved in this anymore. Shortly after this,
(34:37):
Musk deleted his Instagram altogether.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Wait, so the timeline here. She tweeted all that shit
and then continued to live in his house.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, so she's live tweeting, according to her like from
his house.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yikes.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Okay, So Azelia Banks then starts releasing screenshots of texts
that she had with Grimes, which only recently, as in
like a few months ago, Grimes actually confirmed were real.
So I was gonna have to say, like allegedly text
with her and Grimes because who knows maybe their doctor
and who knows Grimes. We have it from Grimes, these
are real texts. In the text, Azalea and Grimes get
(35:15):
into Elon's SEC allegations. Grimes says, quote, he just got
into weed because of me, and he's super entertained by
four to twenty So when he decided to take the
stock private, he calculated that it was worth four hundred
and nineteen dollars, so he round it up to four
twenty four a laugh, and now the SEC is investigating
him for fraud. These texts are very revealing, but they're
(35:36):
also like very funny to me, because Banks is just
so fucking mean to Grimes in these texts, and Grimes
just sort of comes off as like kind of clueless,
like LLL, we're besties. Like at one point, Grimes is
like telling Azalea Banks that she should find a boyfriend
so we can be pregnant at the same time. It'll
be so fun, and Banks replies, yeah, girl, as soon
(35:58):
as you sober up. Mean it mean, it's so mean.
So the New York Times asks Musk, like, what the
hell is going on. In an interview with The Times,
must said that he was not high when he sent
the four to twenty funding secure tweet. He said it
seemed like better karma at four twenty than four nineteen,
(36:20):
but I was not on weed. To be clear, weed
is not helpful for productivity. There's a reason for the
word stone. You just sit there like a stone on weed.
Also side note, by this time, there was plenty of
like public footage of him smoking joints on Joe Rogan's podcast,
So I don't know why he's trying to pretend like
I am too productive to have ever smoked weed. And
then it's like, well, there's videos of you smoking weed,
(36:40):
so I don't. I don't know what this is. And
also I.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Thought the claim was that he was on acid, not
on indeed.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Very perceptive right because she never mentioned weed. She said
acid specifically.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Pretty different substances, correct.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I think at this point Banks was like, Yeah, this
is too much heat, even for my wild So she
kind of apologizes to Elon Musk via a letter that
she posted on social media after she had left his house.
She says in it, she says that during the time
that she was in his home quote, she was welcome
to a lot of information about Musk that made her
feel awkward or uncomfortable, but that she never had any
(37:16):
intentions of using that information against him. Mind you, In
her apology, she never says she was lying about anything
or that she made anything up. He just says, I
inadvertently got a lot of information about you, and it
wasn't I didn't mean to tell the world about information,
and I wasn't trying to use it against you. It's
telling to me that she doesn't say she made it up.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, I mean, there's just a lot going on here.
The fact that she's posting all of this to a
variety of social platforms is something I don't know what
it is, but it's something.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Well. Right after her apology that she posted on social
media to musk, she then posted a screenshot of a
Washington Post story about Tesla remaining public and captioned it quote,
if it ain't broke, don't let your druggy art school
girlfriend convince you to break it. And then in a
later Instagram story, she writes, quote, congratulate fucking relations. I
(38:07):
literally save you from being eaten alive by a weird,
cannibalistic feminist, pagan lesbian electronic music cult.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Wow. So she like hates Grimes at this point.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
I'm not even sure if I would say that she does,
But I just think that Grimes is someone that she
just cannot help insulting. Like she just like really does
not respect Grimes at all that she wants to make
that clear, like two Grimes of Space.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
More. After a quick break, let's get right back into it.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
So Bangs has left must house, and you might think
that this is where things end and we forget about everything,
But you know who didn't forget You know who doesn't
forget elephants, Elephants and the sec. Because Azalia Banks was
subpoenaed in a lawsuit against Tesla and Elon Musk, which
according to the complaint, was partly focused on what happened
(39:14):
during that time that she spent at his house. Banks
did an interview with Business Insider via DMS when this
whole thing was happening, saying the first round of Elon
Musk bullshit was stressful enough. I don't have bandwidth for
another row with him. Also side note, Business Insider was
also subpoenas, Like they were subpoena and everybody. They really
wanted to get to the bottom of what was going
on in this situation.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And it's interesting because like this was the first Trumpe administration. Yeah,
you're SEC going after Musk.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Yeah. So, Azalea was subpoenaed by attorneys for plaintiffs in
a class action lawsuit against Musk and Tesla. The lawsuit,
filed by Tesla investors in twenty eighteen, alleged that Musk
made false and misleading statements when he tweeted that funding
was quote secured to take Tesla private at four to
twenty a share in twenty eighteen. It makes absolute sense
(40:03):
that the SEC would come to talk to Azalia after
that four twenty tweet because she again. She said that
she saw him with her own eyes scrounging for investors
to cover his ass on that tweet, and that she
tweeted it. He tweeted it while he was ineborated on acid,
and like I said, Business Insider was also subpoena for
their DMS with Azale Banks. Here's a little taste of
(40:23):
the subpoena quote. Grimes and miss Banks were in close
contact with mister Musk before and after the tweet and
are believed to be in possession of relevant evidence concerning
mister Musk's motives. This is from Adam m Apton and
Levi Korninski, the firm representing the investors. Business Insider also
appears to have relevant evidence in light of its relationship
with Miss Banks. So what happened, Well, I will say
(40:47):
that a jury did clear Musk of liability, and it
seems like that's kind of it. Back in October of
twenty twenty four, a federal peels court seemed unlikely to
disturb the jury's verdict clearing Musk in his company of
liability over the allegations of the misled investors when he
tweeted on social media. Back in twenty eighteen, that funding
had been secured to take Tesla private. So Elon did
(41:09):
not face liability and probably won't on this specific thing.
But that incident really does linger large in our cultural
understanding of who Musk is, whether you realize it or not.
So the thing about Azalea Banks is that she goes
nuclear immediately, and she does it with this like venom
(41:32):
and cleverness that just really has staying power. So it's
like what we were just talking about, how she really
was on the early side of how we understand or
like the fraud that we now understand Elon Musk's to
be right, like she got there before Kara Swisher got there,
And all of these really mean claims and like turns
(41:53):
of phrase that we think about when we think about
Elon Musk today in twenty twenty five, some of that
really did originate with Zalea Banks. So, Mike, have you
I don't want to be crass, but have you ever
heard the claim that Elon Musk got a botched penis
implant surgery?
Speaker 2 (42:08):
I have heard that claim. I have no idea whether
it's true or not.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Well, that claim was really buttressed by Banks, she replied
to somebody on Twitter who claimed that Musk had a
quote botched penis implant, and Azalea Banks seemingly affirmed that.
She said, oh, Grimes told me about that too. So
first of all, it's like Grimes does. It does sound
like Azalia was right if you believe this that like
(42:34):
Grimes really was telling her a lot of information about
the Elon Musk, like personal information.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, it's pretty personal.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
So like her takedowns of Musk or like verbal takedowns
of him really like are devastating and searing and they last,
Like I see people calling Elon Musk a trash ass
beta pig all the time on the internet, all the time,
every day, and so like, do you know the kind
(43:04):
of like online meme of calling Elon Musk like nicknames
like apartheid Clyde?
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I do? And you know it makes sense because I
think that's like his wealth uncontrovertibly comes out of the
apartheid system.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Right it does. And Azalea Banks was the person who
gave him that nickname in January of twenty nineteen, during
part of their feud, according to Urban Dictionary, On January fifth,
twenty nineteen, Azalea Banks posted a story in which she
referred to Musk as Apartheid Clyde, a reference to Musk
growing up in South Africa during the era of apartheid
and his father ERL. Musk owning a fifty percent share
(43:41):
and an emerald mind in Zambiath. On that day, several
users on x slash Twitter posted about Banks calling him
Apartheid Clyde. So she really, like you know, that's even
today in twenty twenty five. That is to become the
language of like how just every day Broke's on the
internet like me try he digs at elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
It is amazing that he can have such an enormous
profile and seemingly like not have a history. Like you
really have to look for it to learn about his history,
his parent's history, his grandparent's history, And it's there, but
you have to look for it.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, it is there. Like I've listened to some like
very disturbing podcasts about his father. There is compelling evidence,
like and his relationship with his mom is super weird.
Like his mom is like gorgeous, she's a model, but
she is just like someone who is really trying hard
(44:41):
to shield her son from any type of criticism. In
this way, that's like well, okay, you don't get to
do that when he's like, you know, a special employee
of the White House, right, Like people are allowed to
criticize your role in shaping our democracy in our life lady.
So yeah, his his family situation is pretty dark and
(45:01):
pretty weird and like out there publicly. And so what's
interesting to me how for so long he was just
this like rich guy who made cars, like even though
all that information was out there, like he it really
I think it really is. It says something about the
ease of myth making in the United States that you
(45:23):
could sort of like build this mythos about yourself where
you're this you know, genius upstart who knows everything about everything,
who you know, succeeds on his own independence, not because
of anybody's diamond mind or emerald mind. And that can
sort of be accepted until somebody like Azalea Banks comes
along and like you know, shatters that shatters that shatters
(45:48):
that image like she is with that old Apple commercial
of the woman like running up and like throwing a
hammer at the glass, Like that is Azalea Banks penetrating
Elon Musk's uh the glass that it is this like
fictionalized world that he has built for himself.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Yeah, that's a it's a nice way to describe it
there with that nineteen eighty four ad imagery.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
I know people are like, what are you talking about? Like,
look it up, kids, It was a commercial on TV
for Apple computers. Look it up kids.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
All right, let's bring this back. Let's bring it back. Okay,
So where do you want to go next?
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Bridget So, even though it sounds like they kind of
smoothed over their feud, today, Azalea Banks is imagining a
world without Elon Musk. According to a piece in Dazed,
Banks has announced the release of an upcoming track that
appears to imagine Musk's quote public execution. In a now
deleted Instagram post, she shared the details of one of
(46:42):
two songs that were filtered out of her thirty minute
release called Young Rapunzel Part Two, set in thirty thirty
ninety six Corolla Parentheses Motorman tell us the story of
Alon Dust, a wealthy technocrat who devises the perfect scheme
to entice poor people into allowing their brains to be
used as an interface Coitcidentally, the venturer is called Neuralink,
(47:05):
the name of Musk's company that is actually working on
mind reading software. In Banks's song Alon Dust's quote neural
activity is eventually cut off by the aioverlord played by
Azalea Banks herself, rendering him a vegetable and erasing him
as a threat to humanity.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Okay, so they're cool now, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:28):
They sound cool. They sound like no problems, it's all
been buried.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Yeah, good buds.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
So first of all, I just find this to be
such an interesting moment where my two favorite things, pop
culture and tech, kind of intersect. So it's like one
of the reasons why I'm so obsessed with this story.
But I guess the bottom line is, and why I
wanted to share this today was that I think today,
in twenty twenty five, most people, definitely people listening to
(47:54):
this podcast do not have the popular cultural misconception that
Elon Musk is this like stable, efficient, good leader.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
But Elon muss thought it was a good idea to
let Azalea Banks his wild ass into his life, into
his home, around his partner, around his businesses. And this
is the man whose decision making acumen, we are being
told is solid and stable enough to be leading our
country and I'll just say we are in danger. I'll
(48:24):
just leave it there. We are in danger.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
Yeah, my god, Uh, do me a favor. Let's not
have her on the show, azil Banks. I'm sure it
would be entertaining, but like, are.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
You out of your mind? The way if she ever
wanted to call she has a it would be like
she didn't come on the show anytime she wants. I mean,
then again, what if she's in my house, like she
won't leave and she's live tweeting if.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
She sees Yeah, it just it seems like playing with fire.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
On the podcast who Weekly, Bobby Finger once joked that
Azalea Banks, an iPhone and a whi if I connection
could take down the whole Trump administration. And this is
before Elon was in the administration. This was the first
time around it. I firmly believe he is right. Got
a story about an interesting thing in tech or just
want to say hi? You can read us at Hello
(49:16):
at tangodi dot com. You can also find transcripts for
today's episode at tengody dot com. There Are No Girls
on the Internet was created by me Bridget Todd. It's
a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed creative Jonathan Strickland as
our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer.
Michael Almado is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd.
If you want to help us grow, rate and review.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
Us on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
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