THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

461-Azealia Banks featuring Lazy Jay-212.

2012-Number 12 single.

Best Bit-At 2.17. Warning! Do not listen to this song if you are easily offended. Also, do not listen, even if you only get slightly offended.

Azealia Amanda Banks was born on May 31st, 1991, in New York City, United States, she made her first recordings online in 2008 using the stage name ‘Miss Banks$.’ She sent the two songs to the record producer ‘Diplo,’ (see also best songs 915 and 210) which led to her first recording contract with ‘XL Recordings,’ but due to musical differences she only remained with the label for a short period.

After leaving ‘XL Recordings’ she dropped the ‘Miss Banks$’ moniker in favour of her birth name Azealia Banks. To date she has released one studio Album called ‘Broke With Expensive Taste’ in 2014, there have also been three Mixtapes, and two EP’s. She has released 13 singles between 2011-2021, and has yet to reach the Billboard Hot 100, while in the UK this song is her only top 40 single.

‘212’ was the debut single from Azealia Banks, and heavily samples the House Music track ‘Float My Boat’ by the Belgium producer Jef Martins, who along with Banks who wrote the songs lyrics, receives co-songwriting credit, he is also the songs producer, and is credited as featured artist using the name ‘Lazy Jay.’ Using another moniker, this time ‘Basto,’ he also found success when producing the 2012 UK Number 1 ‘Scream & Shout,’ recorded by Will.i.am and Britney Spears.’212′ is named after the area code 212 which covers the area of Harlem a neighbourhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City where Banks grew up. Banks has said,’It’s about the journey to fame and stardom, hey I can be the answer, she’s real ambitious, I can do this.’ The track was recorded at a time when Banks was struggling financially, which probably explains why the songs video cost just $30 to make, and was shot entirely in black and white, to date it has received over 200 million views.

‘Hey I can be the answer, I’m ready to dance when the vamp up, and when I hit that dip get your camera, you could see I been that bitch since the pamper.’