Azealia Banks felt “like a caged animal” while signed to her former record label.
The singer rose to fame after releasing the single 212 in 2011. The success led to her joining Universal/Interscope Records but despite getting to travel the world, the 23-year-old soon began to feel like her creativity was being stifled.
“I felt like a caged animal," she told Billboard. "I'm this twentysomething who just became a millionaire, and I'm just like, 'F**K-, where's my album?' Things started to blend together, and I was driving myself past certain points of insanity."
Azealia parted ways with the label in July last year and released her debut album Broke with Expensive Taste on iTunes in November. Throughout it all the star used social media to air her views and grievances.
“I often go on there as a way to distract myself from being a person," she explained. “[But] I don't turn to anyone for advice. I do what I want."
She takes the same approach to writing her songs. She revealed to the publication that she writes standing up, pinning paper to the wall and setting an egg timer at hour intervals.
“I drink, I smoke weed, I don't really bathe," she continued regarding her work routine. "I might go off and m********e and talk to myself in the mirror for hours. It's a sort of psychosis. I work during witching hours, 3 a.m., 4 a.m., when the dead writers, the failed writers and the failed musicians who are dead are roaming around."
