Hailing from Australia, blonde beauty Iggy Azalea seemed to come out of nowhere for lots of listeners, but after some help from T.I. the young rapper/model had no problem conquering the airwaves and winning over fans with her hit singles "Fancy" and "Work." Find out more in her Kidzworld Bio.
Amethyst Amelia Kelly (i.e Iggy Azalea)
Diva from Down Under
Her sound might be straight up Miami meets Southern Rap, but Iggy Azalea (born Amethyst Amelia Kelly on June 7th, 1990) comes all the way from Sydney, Australia. Artistic talent runs in the family, her dad was both a comic artist and a painter, and Iggy says that being encouraged to look at art at a young age influenced her tastes and interests. The only class she liked at school was art, and she was often made fun of as a kid at school for creating her own homemade outfits. Knowing that her passion was in music, she started rapping at age 14, even trying to put together a TLC style music group with two other girls. Unfortunately for Iggy, the other members weren't as serious about music as she was, and she disbanded the group.
Iggy pursued her dream by moving to America
Australia to America
School was never Iggy's favorite thing, and she had her heart set on moving to America as soon as she realized that the hip hop and rap music that she loved all started there. She quit school and cleaned houses with her mother in order to save up and travel to the U.S. Just before her 16th birthday she had saved up enough money to "visit" America - or so her parents thought! Turns out, she never had any intention of coming home, and was soon a resident of the U.S., living in Houston, Miami and Atlanta and learning how to rap, she says Southern rap has influenced her style more than anything.
"I lived in the South for five years; you pick up things from your surroundings and teachers. The people who taught me to rap are all from the South and so was the music I had listened to as a teen."
She took the stage name "Iggy" after her childhood dog and "Azalea" from the street she grew up on as a kid. According to Iggy her raps "sucked" when she was first starting, but she didn't mind getting laughed at, and soon she was being lured to L.A. by Interscope Records in 2010. She started to blow up on the internet after posting some freestyle raps on YouTube, and by 2011 she had released her first mixtape Ignorant Art.
Glory and The New Classic
Iggy was making waves in the hip hop community as a rising talent to watch, and by December 2011 she had announced her debut studio album was in the works. She reached out to one of her idols, rapper T.I., to help her the direction of her debut album, and eventually signed with his label Grand Hustle Records. Before releasing The New Classic, which fans knew was in the works, she put out the Glory EP and built a name for herself among new fans opening for Rita Ora. She made her debut on U.S. TV at the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards alongside T.I and B.o.B.
Her debut album The New Classic was released in 2014Courtesy of Grand Hustle Records
The New Classic was released in 2014, with the singles "Work" and "Fancy" debuting in live performances in 2013. Part of the delay on the album was becuase Iggy had signed on to tour with Beyoncé on The Mrs. Carter Tour. "Work" and "Fancy" featuring British singer Charlie XCX took over the airwaves when they were released. Iggy Azalea is also featured on the debut single "Problem" from Ariana Grande's second studio album and on a song from the new Jennifer Lopez album AKA. The New Classic is the highest charting female rap album since Nicki Minaj released Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded!
Not content just rapping, she also signed a contract with Wilhemina models and is now the face of Levi's "Go Forth" campaign. Iggy is rumoured to be dating Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Nick Young.
Have Your Say
What do you think of Iggy Azalea? Let us know in the comments section below.
