Iggy Azalea is gearing up to release her debut album The New Classic and the Australia native’s adventurous road to release had made her this month’s MTV Artist to Watch.
In the year since she signed with T.I.’s Grand Hustle label and later added a deal with Island Def Jam to the fold, the 23-year-old admits that she’s had time to discover herself as an artist and hone in on the music she really wants to make.
It’s clear, even from the visuals that have accompanied her recent singles “Work” and “Bounce” that she’s doing things on her own terms. For the Bollywood-themed “Bounce” video, Iggy hoped to have her boss and mentor T.I. make a cameo, but getting him all the way to India proved to be an issue.
“I shot my new video in India and I did invite him but he couldn’t make it because it takes a really long time to actually obtain a visa [for] India,” she told MTV News. “I invited him a week before. I didn’t realize it takes so long, so he couldn’t come with me when I shot my video in India.”
“Bounce” followed the video for “Work,” which Iggy based on one of her favorite Australian film’s “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” (in addition to a little influence from OutKast and Quentin Tarantino).
“I really liked this film as a kid and always identified with it because it’s [about] drag queens and they have to keep stopping in small rural towns and they’re not accepted,” she explained to MTV News. “I always kinda felt that way with rap — trying to break into it, I wasn’t accepted and I was out of my element, so I really love that movie, and it being Australian, I really wanted to draw reference from it. So there’s little nods to that in the desert scene.”
In the clip, Iggy was also brave enough to reenact the infamous lap dance scene from Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof” horror film. Even more reason why she’s currently MTV’s Artist to Watch.
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