Bad Gay Episode 5: Transcript and Show Notes
(The times associated with youtube clips are estimated)
(Remember that this is just a script and written in a way that’s easy for me to discuss/read, so do not expect perfect grammar/punctuation.)
Today on Bad Gay, we’re talking about Azealia Banks and The Vixen. After laying low for a while, Azealia releases a new song and does an interview on The Breakfast Club where she’s finding herself back in the news for the same controversial behavior that caused her disappearance in the first place.
To begin she throws gasoline onto her already fiery feud with Cardi B. Then rescinds her support for and insults Donald Trump.
And lastly, she makes a serious allegation ag ainst RZA about his behavior during the time of her Russel Crowe altercation and the filming of their debut movie, Love Beats Rhymes.
Then-next on the agenda, The Vixen was sent home on last week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, but a particular topic arose that seems to have been a catalyst to a lot of the racial tensions influencing her behavior on the show.
Well, you’re gonna want to stick around because I have the exclusive inside scoop about the exact South Side Trash comments she says motivated her to start getting serious about her political side of drag.
Thanks for joining me. It is Thursday, May 17th, I’m your host, Kyle Flynn, and you’re listening to
The Bad Gay Podcast.
(Play Anna Wintour) Ugh that is such a great song. That was her newest track Anna Wintour. It got it’s name probably most obviously because it’s a vogue track and Anna Wintour is the editor or something of Vogue Magazine. She also goes on to say that her “choice to name the song Anna Wintour is because she relates to her being a strong, powerful and larger than life soul in a petite, tidy and feminine body.” She then says that “while others may see Anna as intimidating, she sees a woman who was born into this world with an absolute certainty about her place in it.”
This is actually Azealia’s first song to chart on Billboard starting at #24 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/8356579/billboard-dance-chart-upstarts-azealia-banks-yellow-claw-paris-hilton
Unfortunately Banks always manages to find her way into the news not due to her exceptional talent as a musical artist but by overshadowing it with her controversial statements.
21:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r17fqELkv7g
To recap, Banks cops to calling Cardi B an untalented rat because her rap style has dumbed down the conversation on black female culture, and goes on to take shots at Cardi’s spelling and grammar, going so far as to describe her as uncouth.
Honestly, I have to take Azealia’s side on this one and hear me out. She’s right about Cardi B, but that doesn’t make Cardi’s music any less fun to listen to. Cardi is like high fructose corn syrup. She’s a cheap alternative that kids love and if you have too much of your insides will rot.
Well, it seems like Azealia’s comments hit a nerve.
Cardi released a statement on instagram that stated: “I reread this a couple of times for the Akeelahs and the bees out there!! A woman who constantly finds joy in belittling black women (Beyonce, https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/cardi-b-azealia-banks-beef/
Then soon-after, Cardi deleted her instagram and set her twitter to private.
I get the instagram thing… I mean, I don’t, but what I really don’t get is setting a twitter account to private. Like a million people already follow you. What do you think is going to become private all of a sudden?
Also, it looks like apparently Azealia wasn’t the only rapper feuding with Cardi B on instagram shortly before the big insta-delete.
Yesterday, Rapper/Radio-host Nya Lee released screenshots of a DM argument she had gotten into with Cardi B that started over Cardi catching wind of Nya critiquing her delivery.
The argument escalates to threats with each claiming they’re going to “find” one another but what really caught my interest was when Nya calls out Cardi’s alleged use of ghostwriters saying quote:
“I supported you more or so cause of your grind, never your “skills” now all this ghost writing shit coming out? Damn gina.” Which Cardi seems to address but never deny by saying “How many songs you sold that you wrote tho? How far did the songs you wrote got you?” — now I apologize for how dumb those quotes sounded coming out of my mouth but theres a difference between cleaning up a quote’s errors for grammar’s sake and literally re-writing the entire thing, so I opted to just leave them as close to the original as possible.
Anyway, I’m not going to speculate as to what Nya’s intentions are for releasing these screenshots right after the Azalea diss and instagram delete, but what I really want to know is…
Cardi… girl… why are you paying either of these girls any mind?
I adore Azealia Banks, but if I were Cardi, these two would be the least of my worries. Similar to the situation with the autograph heckler getting beaten up the other day by Cardi and Offset’s bodyguard. Liiiiike, why are you involving yourself in petty small-time problems.
If anything, Azealia Banks should be the perfect example of what NOT to do to when it comes to involving oneself in petty dramatics as ones career is blossoming.
But moving on, Cardi’s not the only person Azealia dissed in that interview.
I’m not sure if you all remember, but Azealia Banks caught a lot of heat for previously announcing her support for Donald Trump.
In early February of 2016 Azealia Tweeted from her old twitter account, “Ok so I think I’m ready to admit that I’m going to vote for Donald Trump. – I think Trump is the only one who truly has the balls to bust up big business. Hilary is too tied in with them and Bernie has no clout.”
She does, in that same stream of tweets, go on to rant that she thinks Trump is evil and America is Evil so Trump is what America deserves blah blah bullshit.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/azealia-banks-donald-trump_us_56af97d5e4b057d7d7c79252
But it appears that after he became president, she’s now changed her tune, she says:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r17fqELkv7g
29:00-30:00
I don’t want to try to break down what her political beliefs are but I will say that it’s nice to hear that she realizes now that it was a mistake to support such an awful human being and I absolutely live for the comparison to Eric Cartman!
The last person on Azealia’s warpath was RZA. If you remember, they were working on a movie together and while at a party at Russel Crowes house there was some sort of altercation that resulted in Russel Crowe allegedly calling her the n-word, choking her, spitting on her and physically throwing her out of his house.
This incident put a strain on Azealia and RZA’s relationship which ended up causing them not to do any press on their movie Love Beat Rhymes and it ended up flopping pretty hard. I actually watched it earlier today to see what it was about and no lie, it was an absolute shit movie.
Almost every scene had been done a hundred times in movies before. It was just trope after trope, which I was half-expecting from a movie with such a poor release, but I at least expected the music to be better.
I mean, the songs were good, but I felt like the audio quality didn’t do the few moments they appeared much justice. If I weren’t a fan of Azealia Banks and giving it a chance just for that sake, I would’ve never made it through the end of the movie.
If YOU want to watch the movie, however, as of this podcast being uploaded, you can currently find it streaming on Netflix.
I digress. So after the movie flopping, Azealia naturally had some feelings about it and then alleges that RZA is a big ol’ coke fiend:
41:00-42:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r17fqELkv7g
The only response I could find from RZA was a cryptic “rap-tweet?” On twitter. Pardon me while I skewer the hell out of this but he says:
“Silly Rabbit I don’t do cocaine you have no shame reframe from lying on my name before my 7 and a half ounce brain stem send a wave to my lyrical sword that’ll leave your plain jane irrelevant disdained stained dame verbally slain”
yeah. That. I can’t even attempt to interpret that for you, so I’ll I’m not going to try.
But let me tell you why I absolutely love Azealia Banks. It’s not just her outspoken, I don’t give a fuck personality. Those are definitely things that I like, but listen to this.
35:54-36:21
So really pay attention to what that interaction was.
There wasn’t an ounce of pandering in her voice.
I love Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, all of our advocates and I thank them for being advocates. But Azealia’s nonchalance is that genuine advocacy that doesn’t need to also be her tactic to make money off of a demographic.
She answers first that yeah she makes music for gay people and then clarifies that she’s really making music for herself. That’s because not only is she a true artist but she actually is one of us, which is why it infuriates me when I hear some stupid silly no-nothing faggot disparaging her whole skillset and character because she makes some off the cuff remark about Cardi B being “uncouth” in her eyes.
If it’s such an issue for you that she says something negative about another artist’s work, then it’s impossible for you to make a comment about her without being a total hypocrite. Because we all do it just nobody follows you on twitter.
And just to sprinkle a little RuPaul’s Drag Race onto this, topic, here’s a clip of Katya and Trixie Mattel briefly discussing Azealia and giving her a quick comparison to Betsy Devos
29:26-30:08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxjUwanS650
Hahaha
On the topic of Drag Race. Sadly our girl The Vixen is gone.
I don’t know if I can say sadly, because from my social media feed, it sounded like so many people were ready to see her go.
We already talked about the concept of “angry black woman” on Episode 3, so I don’t feel the need to rehash any of that.
It’s like, we get it, she explodes. It’s immature and it seems she’s pretty aware that it’s a defense mechanism.
I’m just annoyed that all of the exciting guaranteed conflict for the season is gone. I was so sure she was making it to top 3. I think I just wanted to believe it though.
But what I realllllllly want to get into is this particular thing The Vixen has repeatedly talked about both on the show and in interviews. First in episode 7.
(audio)
Then in episode 8.
(audio)
and again in Whatcha Packin with Michelle Visage.
(audio)
This topic actually repeatedly comes up in interviews with the Vixen even before she appeared on drag race.
I actually personally remember when this incident happened because I know both Vixen and the bartender in question and remember it unfolding online. I actually briefly spoke about this on Episode 3 of my podcast when discussing the Aquaria/Vixen argument when Monet told her “South Side doesn’t need to be here right now.” (8:00 min mark on episode 3)
Anyway, let me explain the full origin of this story. In now-deleted facebook posts, a bartender posted on Facebook some comments after pride that are, from my experience, very common in the neighborhood and especially common among the nightlife staff in Boystown, Chicago.
The Vixen screenshot and uploaded the bartenders the posts onto her facebook that read:
“South side trash ruins pride again. How gross.” And another post that said “Straight women ruin pride. You have no power here lil princess. This is not your weekend. Don’t try me with your fuckery and be upset if I teach you some manners.”
Vixen included a caption with those saying:
“Newsflash. Pride is not just for white gay men. Chicago’s pride is definitely not limited to white gays. We are a melting pot of beautiful diversity. “South side trash” is not a safe way to say (the n-word). You’d think in light of recent events we’d be a little more inclusive this year. Your (blank) profile pic doesn’t apply to white gays. It’s a rainbow made of many colors. Literally!”
She makes another follow up post that reads:
“And news flash. Historically the people who show up out of nowhere to take what’s not their’s and “ruin” something have always been white. Nobody says shit when Wrigley turns into Riots and St. Patrick’s day is a shit show. But let Black people be present at gay pride and that’s when you see true colors. Funny how someone from -blank*northern*- Illinois is saying that south siders don’t belong at Chicago pride. Stupid stupid stupid. The nerve of these hoes.”
And then in Vixen’s last post about the situation she says:
“Let’s be clear, and I’m gonna be done with this. The term “south side trash” is racially charged and unacceptable. South siders don’t ruin pride. Lesbians don’t ruin pride, straight people don’t [ruin] pride, drunk people don’t even ruin pride. Prejudice ruins Pride. End of story.”
But apparently, it was just the the beginning of Vixen’s story because she’s talked about it every chance she’s gotten since with it even influencing a large portion of her drag.
I actually agree with just about every single thing that The Vixen has said except the fervor in which she describes the target of her statements as being racist.
The bartender’s comments were inappropriate and did border on racist and sexist, however, the person is definitely not racist and sexist themselve.
I offered them the opportunity to comment on this topic but they declined which I fully understood.
The thing is, the sentiments about straight women objectifying gay men as being here for their entertainment and pleasure are very real things that gay people experience and many staff in Boystown are those of which that experience it the most.
This is not at all to say that every straight woman does this, but it is definitely a point of contention in the community and has caused much debate.
A simple google search of “gay bar bans bachelorette parties” will yield a ton of opinionated results, including places from Boystown, Chicago to LA.
The South Side trash comments on the other hand are a bit uglier.
The Vixen is right when she says, “how do you know someone is from the Southside by looking at them?” And yeah, Boystown is a very white north-side neighborhood and Chicago’s south-side is a bit more diverse, so it’s easy to assume that when someone is describing a person as “South Side” without knowing for sure, that they’re probably basing it on the color of their skin.
And I’m not intending to make excuses for the bartender’s statements or anything, but I’d like to give a little bit of context for those who may not be from the area, the nightlife industry, or for those that are just curious.
Over the past, I would say, at least 7 years… violence in Boystown has become a significant problem.
There are many in the Lakeview/Boystown community that place blame a lot of this blame on an apathetic police force along with blaming the building of the Center On Halsted which opened in 2007.
The Center provides services to many poor and disenfranchised youth, many of which are homeless or just come from a place where it is generally not safe to be gay. (Side note, keep in mind that I use the word gay to include every person outside of the heteronormative spectrum).
Anyway, anecdotally, it is assumed that a large amount of kids using services at the Center on Halsted come from the South Side of Chicago.
The vibe I’ve gotten is that people believe that since the building of the Center On Halsted, there has been an uptick of young violent offenders beating and robbing people in the Boystown area.
Many think that this is caused by the Center on Halsted drawing the youth up from the Southside and then when they’re closed at night, leaving the children to their own devices to roam the streets at night with some of them taking advantage of drunk individuals or bar staff walking home along with cash in their pockets.
Anybody who’s been to Boystown over the last 7 years during the summer has at least seen many under-21 youths sitting on stoops on Halsted as a group just hanging out. I want to say loitering but I really don’t want to add to negative connotations on either side, rather I just want to paint a picture for you as to why a frustrated bartender may make an off the cuff remark like this, without thinking of how it may come off as being a solely racist comment from a racist person.
Many residents in lakeview/boystown became members of a year 2011-2012 facebook group called “Take Back Boystown” in an effort to organize a better way to keep the community safe but they have also been accused of being racist.
In all honesty, both sides passions resembles a lot like how republican’s feel about minorities entering the United States today.
I also, however, remember frequently walking home from work worried thinking “is today the day?” Because there was definitely a time where it didn’t feel like an “if” situation, but a “when.” Also, when I didn’t walk it sucked wasting money on cabs when I only lived a 10 minute walk away.
Another thing, when clients of the Center on Halsted do commit crimes, they infrequently and possibly NEVER aid officers in investigating the crime or helping the victims gain justice. If I’m wrong about that, someone please direct me to the correct information and I would be happy to update, but I can at least site sources where it’s claimed that the Center does not cooperate with law enforcement.
My whole point in all of this is that, The Vixen truly doing an amazing thing advocating for the rights of minorities. I love her zeal even if at time’s it’s overzealous. I just think maybe she should move on from dwelling on this particular incident because I think there’s broader context to be considered before bashing a single person, but I do think it’s courteous that even with her view, she has since not mentioned that person by name.
I want to shout her out though for bringing back her Black Girl Magic show to Chicago with the opening performance on Tuesday, June 26th at Metro featuring fellow drag racers including Herself, Monique Heart, Shea Coulee, Monet XChange, Dida Ritz, Asia Ohara and some local talent as well!
And that wraps up our main stories for the day. Some other things you may want to know:
A new gay bar in Andersonville, Chicago is opening up soon called the Meeting House Tavern from the guys that brought you the Sofo Tap.
It’s very large, taking over the old Cantina 1910 space nearby, will have about 10-12 beers on tap and according to edgevillebuzz.com will offer free bar games including darts, pool tables, skee-ball, shuffleboard and arcade games.
Uh oh! Watch out replay andersonville! This may be a new hotspot because not only will they be offering a large variety of games to their customers, it looks like Hutch Restaurant is opening it’s third locations in the back half of the building and will be offering it’s menu inside the Meeting House tavern.
I can’t wait to see how this plays out. So many people are competitive about gay bars and constantly root for places to close, but I am personally of the perspective that the more the merrier. I wish every bar were a gay bar.
Also, if you weren’t aware, IML is coming up and there are an abundance of great parties to go to including two that I’ll be helping out with.
1st, Sunday, May 27th from 4pm-9pm is the IML edition of the filthiest daytime tea dance you’ve ever experienced: CUNTea thrown by Organized Grime takes over Evil Olive in Wicker Park featuring DJ Dan Darlington of the famous BRuT (broot) parties, Dom Brown from the award winning Porn and Chicken parties, and Karsten Sollors who has a resume too long to even try to list.
Also, catch a glimpse of some of the hottest pornstars, Lorenzo Flexx, Aleks Buldocek and my personal favorite, Jonah Fontana who will be there mingling with the crowd in all their muscled glory.
Well, that’s all I have for you today. I’ll be uploading the full transcript of this podcast to my website www.badgaypodcast.com with links to just about everything referenced as well as the first exclusive shots of Vixen’s “South Side Trash” facebook confrontation, so check it out.
Don’t forget to follow the Bad Gay Podcast instagram and facebook page as well as rate and subscribe to make sure you get all of the latest episodes from Bad Gay as soon as they come out!!
Thanks for joining me. I’ll talk to you soon on the next episode of, the Bad Gay podcast.
Leave a Reply