Iggy Azalea’s “The New Classic” Isn’t Really

Album cover of Iggy Azaleas The New Classic

Album cover of Iggy Azalea’s “The New Classic”

April 22, 2014, a date that will go down in hip-hop history — at least, if Iggy Azalea has anything to do with it. That is when the Australian-born emcee unleashed her debut album, The New Classic.

The New Classic currently sits at number one on iTunes in the United States, ahead of the Frozen soundtrack, and looks set to make a big splash on the official album chart in the US, the Billboard 200 this week. She’s had four top 20 singles in the UK, but in Australiaher latest single, ‘Fancy’, has managed the same feat and cracked the top 20.

Popular pre-release singles “Impossible Is Nothing,” “Bounce,” “Work,” “Change Your Life” and “Fancy,” the latter three of which have official visual accompaniments, are just five of 12 originaljams that appear on the set. The deluxe version features an additional three previously-unreleased cuts: “Bounce,” “Rolex” and “Just Askin’.”

Something you’ll notice is that some of Iggy’s attention grabbing pre-singles, such as the bass-rattling “Murda Bizness” and high-energy “Bounce”, are nowhere to be found on the soundtrack, the latter only appearing as a bonus track on the Deluxe Version. Present and correct, however, are some of the other official singles, such as “Work”, “Change Your Life” and “Fancy,” which comes complete with a killer hook provided by indie princess Charli XCX.

Elsewhere, we’ve got “Goddess”, a fierce and vaguely sinister sounding power song for females, taking the vibe of Beyonce’s “Bow Down.” “Lady Patra” is full-on reggae, based on a beat of looped chants, video-game sound effects and Iggy’s breathless, almost break-less vocals. “100” is the oddest track on the album, with warped, chopped and screwed guitars and a guest slot filled by trapstep trio Watch The Duck, and to bring the album to a close, there’s the self-empowering”F**k Love”. The closest thing you’ll get to a mix of both “Murda Bizness” and “Bounce”, it’s got the former’s profanity and ego, and the latter’s overwhelmingly busy (in a good way) production.

The issue here is that with all these mish-mash of styles, Iggy doesn’t really present a personality of her own. The New Classic sounds like a hip-hop version of a Britney Spears album, a sense that a series of singles were selected, and put into the same album that could’ve been rap-sung by literally anyone.

By trying to retain hip-hop cred AND have some Top 40 hits, Iggy is going to be left with an audience who’ll remember her songs, but forget who sang them.