Rapper Azealia Banks and singer Erykah Badu attacked Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album cover, which featured patriotic imagery, calling the pop star “Whiteyonce” and accusing her of being in “white woman cosplay” and “reinforcing” false pro-USA rhetoric.
Beyoncé posted the cover of her upcoming album, “Cowboy Carter,” to her Instagram account on Tuesday, and quickly fell under attack for appearing too patriotic.
“I’m kinda ashamed at how u switch from baobab trees and black parade to this literal pick me stuff,” Banks reacted, referring to the Grammy Award-winning single from The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack that Beyoncé executive produced in 2019, according to a report by Billboard.
Banks also referred to Beyoncé as “Whiteyonce,” and accused her of being in “white woman cosplay” and “reinforcing the false rhetoric that country music is a post civil war white art form.”
“Like u do lame stuff like bring out some black listed white women (Dixie Chicks) at the country music awards and they would never ever do the same for you,” the rapper wrote, referring to Beyoncé’s 2016 CMA Awards performance with The Dixie Chicks.
Banks’ tirade continued:
Ur always sharing ur platform with white women who are so jealous of you but have such a long history of sabotaging other black women’s careers. There was so much pertinent cultural commentary to be made here. I don’t get why you have to be in a white woman cosplay to make — (what’s really folk/bluegrass/adult contemporary) facsimile “country” music. Like you had a phonetics coach, and aced the vowel placements and twang to the lyrical and melodic phrasing that is the backbone of contemporary confederate romanticism in a song.
“You’re reinforcing the false rhetoric that country music is a post civil war white art form. And subsequently reinforcing the idea that there is no racism, segregation, slavery, violence, theft, massacres, plagues, manifest destiny craziness that form the bedrock of epithets like ‘proud to be an American,’ or ‘god bless the usa,'” Banks claimed.
The “Luxury” rapper also took a shot at Beyoncé’s album title, writing, “Wow, we didn’t even try to put even a little effort into a more artistic title?”
Erykah Badu also reacted to Beyoncé’s album, calling on the pop star’s husband, rapper Jay Z, to intervene.
“To Jay Z. Say somethin Jay. You gone let this woman and these bees do this to me?” Badu wrote in a Wednesday X post.
It remains unclear exactly what Badu was referring to.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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