There were subsequent rows with Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu – deep breath – Lana Del Rey, One Directioner Zayn Malik, Rita Ora and Beyoncé. In 2016, Banks accused Gladiator actor Russell Crowe of choking and racially abusing her at a party; prosecutors in Los Angeles declined to press charges against Crowe.
Three years later, she caused a diplomatic crisis when she called all Irish women ugly. And in 2024, just as the internet was starting to forget about Banks, an online tussle with the 1975 frontman Matty Healy – which ended with Banks comparing the Manchester singer’s teeth to “white castle burger onions” – made her go viral all over again.
But it was her beef with the world’s richest man that threatened to derail her career. In 2018, before Elon Musk even became that divisive – when he was still focusing on Tesla’s electric cars and before we knew a whole lot about his obsession with test tube babies – Banks decided to go to war.
Having met Musk while recording music with his then-partner Grimes, Banks described the experience as “like a real life episode of Get Out” (referring to Jordan Peele’s 2017 horror film) and called him a “trash ass beta male pig” obsessed with posting on social media while high on acid. After some back and forth, in which Musk denied and then admitted to meeting Banks, she accused the businessman of tapping her phone and blackmailing her. Grimes, meanwhile, the singer with whom Musk shares three children, was described by Banks as smelling “like a roll of nickels”.
Though it is clear that Banks is capable of musical greatness – she was working at a strip club when she wrote 212 (later named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time) in order to make ends meet – her insane rants online that often wander into racist and homophobic insults are becoming harder to ignore. In the words of Lana Del Rey, who famously fought with Banks in 2018, “You could have been the greatest female rapper alive but u blew it.”
While I strongly believe we should separate the art from the artist, and more generally that we don’t all have to share the same beliefs, it’s becoming harder to justify treating Banks as an artist and not just another crackpot on the internet. Banks has had one hit – two at a push – yet has somehow dominated the cultural conversation for nearly two decades, mostly because it’s hard to ignore someone acting crazy.
It could be time to let Banks, who wasted her shot at being the greatest female rapper alive, fade into oblivion. Or, if Starmer does wind up being booted out of office, perhaps she could find her true calling in Westminster.