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One by one, Azealia Banks has been winning over the ears of many after hitting the scene with her single “212” and it looks like the New York Times has finally got their hands on her as well.

DETAILS: Azealia Banks Working With M.I.A. On New Project

The femcee chatted with the newspaper to dish on her life growing up in Harlem, New York and admits it actually wasn’t that bad. She says:

“We lived in Harlem just, like, at the beginning of its gentrification . . . but my mom had our apartment since she was 18, she worked a retail job, but she worked on commission, so she made like, maybe, 75 or $80,000 a year, but our rent was so cheap since it was, like, rent-controlled, so our rent was, like, $300 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, so we always had extra money. I grew up very spoiled . . . like I had everything: I had computers, I had video games, I had dress-up clothes, I had lipstick, I had heels — not like, actual heels, play heels — I had dolls, I had birds, I had hamsters — my mom did a really good job of keeping me stimulated.”

Banks goes on to say she had a very balanced lifestyle being exposed to different things outside of her five block radius. The 212 rapper says:

“I’ve come from the ghetto and it’s really hard’ thing? Well, I came from the ghetto but it wasn’t hard for us, y’know what I mean? Because I lived on the block with kids who were, like, crack babies. I had other aunts and uncles who lived in other parts of Harlem, and I’d go with my cousins and we’d be out on the street, y’know . . . I had a healthy juxtaposition of, like, good and bad.”

Sounds as though Azealia is well rounded girl with an eventful life, having left Harlem to start her rap career off in the U.K.

We’re excited to listen to her rap more of her life stories and see what she does next!

SOURCE: NYT