RAP BEEF TIMELINE · 2012–present
Azealia Banks vs. Lady Gaga
ARTPOP’s scrapped tracks and the “Mermaid Ball” argument
A potential ARTPOP collaboration gives way to Azealia Banks’s claim that Lady Gaga borrowed concepts and then wrote her off as difficult. The public argument lives mostly in leaked-audio reporting and Banks’s posts, never becoming a conventional diss-record war.
THE RECORD
The moments
Music industry
ARTPOP sessions promise a collaboration
Lady Gaga invites Azealia Banks into ARTPOP-era recording sessions for songs including “Red Flame” and “Ratchet.” The tracks do not make the final project.
Read the receipt ↗Social media · disputed account
The “Mermaid Ball” accusation arrives
After Gaga’s VMAs styling, Banks posts that Gaga has borrowed her mermaid concepts. The assertion is Banks’s creative-influence claim.
“Sounds a lot like Azealia Banks' mermaid balls.”Azealia Banks, public post
Read the receipt ↗Disputed account · disputed account
Leaked-audio reporting adds a final jab
A clip reported from a Good Morning America set captures Gaga describing Banks as having a bad attitude. Banks answers online; the relationship then falls quiet without a public resolution.
▶ Watch the ARTPOP fallout recap
THE RECEIPTS
Sources and listening
Azealia Banks × Lady Gaga — ARTPOP fallout ↗ARTIST LENSES