Iggy Azalea Work To [Extra Quality]

"Work" is a snap and trap song which incorporates elements of EDM.[17][18] Nina Long of Respect. describes it as the "polar opposite" of Azalea's previous material.[19] The track opens with Azalea challenging "Walk a mile in these Louboutins", upon a sweeping keyboard introduction and balladic beat.[20][21] It then leads into a similarly sad, string-laden first verse segment containing plaintive melodies.[18][20][22] According to Gregory Adams of Exclaim!, the song "starts off smooth and ballady, with Azalea running through lines about her background, but soon drops into club-minded claps and screeching synths".[23] A prominent synth, bass and drum-heavy production drop formula then occurs at the song's refrain, in which Azalea repeats the hook, "I been work work work work, workin' on my shit".[18][24][25][26] The production drop casts Azalea's rapping against a combination of a Roland TR-808-heavy, minimal trap beat and EDM clapping effects.[18] Using divisive Southern American English pronunciation, Azalea employs a defiant and rattling, staccato delivery in double-time.[21][27][28] Her rapping pace varies from fast, intricate rhymes to slow, stretched-out singular words.[29] While in the verses, her delivery is expletively riddled.[30]

Iggy Azalea Work To

The lyrics are autobiographical and portray Azalea's fame-seeking relocation from Mullumbimby to Miami at the age of 16, and deal with subjects of work ethic and dedication to craft.[22][31] It specifically accounts for the events of Azalea growing up in Mullumbimby, juggling multiple occupations to save an income to independently start anew in Miami.[32] The lyrics also serve as a celebration of Azalea's progression from being a struggling rapper as a rags to riches story and an underdog anthem.[28][33][34] The line "Who don't know shit 'bout where I was made / Or how many floors that I had to scrub," was suggested to be directed at her "haters".[35] While the couplet, "Two feet in the red dirt, school skirt, sugar cane, back lanes" is eloquent for Azalea's origin.[36]

According to Jessie Schiewe of Respect., the lyrics also imply that Azalea "was swindled and take advantage of in her first record deal", and that it provides insight into events that have toughened Azalea up.[15] While Cristina Jaleru of The Associated Press deduced that the lyrics "First deal changed me, robbed blind, basically raped me / Studied the Carters till a deal was offered, slept cold on the floor recording," are rapped "not as a complaint but as a badge of honor".[37] Nick Aveling of Time Out writes that Azalea is depicted as a "hustler" and a "woman with immense ambition" in the song.[8] In a NPR publication, Ann Powers viewed the lyrics to be of "unremitting toil", as well as detailing a story of Azalea "staying up night after night to master her flow".[38] John Lucas of The Georgia Straight compared the lyrical content to that of Drake's "Started from the Bottom" (2013).[39] According to Matt Jost of RapReviews.com, "Work" is similar to the works of 2 Live Crew and is a "nod to Miami's music history".[40]

Slant Magazine's Joe Sweeney felt that "Work" was the album's standout track and believed that it portrayed a real sense of Azalea's potential as a storyteller, and commended her delivery, "You can hear every inch of how far she's come".[21] Sweeney's view was shared by Andy Gill from The Independent who also named "Work" the highlight on The New Classic, and said Azalea's double-time delivery was best-employed on the song.[32] HipHopDX's Marcus Dowling wrote that "Work" was "an extraordinarily well-rounded listen" and the "honest and intriguing greatness" of The New Classic.[18] Dowling commented that the line, "No money, no family, 16 in the middle of Miami", provided an "ocean of depth [...] that makes the rest of the album feel like swimming in a kiddie pool".[18] Matt Jost of RapReviews.com concurred, and called the song "the sure winner" and "lyrically most ambitious offering" of the album.[40] Jost opined that the track was "memorable" and its production "cleverly subverts expectations", and explained, "It's when she keeps it simple and relies on her indeed present swagger that the Iggy Azalea character works best".[40] Similarly, Alex Scordelis of Paper described the track as "the cornerstone" of the album and complimented its "insanely catchy chorus".[58] Scordelis believed it marked a heightened evolution in Azalea's growth as a rapper, and stated, "['Work' is] a song you can easily imagine Azalea performing for years to come".[58]

Controversy arose during the music video's development when Azalea intended to wear a red, high-waisted leotard encrusted in rhinestone flames, to emulate the showgirl fashion featured in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The leotard, however, was deemed "too-vaginary" by one of the workers at the label Azalea was signed to, ultimately leading to the worker being dismissed from the project and the leotard being scrapped altogether.[93] Azalea's final wardrobe consisted of creations by Christian Louboutin, Jeremy Scott and the 2013 Spring/Summer Collection by Dolce & Gabbana.[43][98] Her stylist, Alejandra Hernandez incorporated several pairs of Louboutins into the music video because of their significance to Azalea when she was a struggling rapper who achieved her first sense of accomplishment after buying her first pair.[43]

Upon release, the music video was tagged with the warning "not suitable for work".[43] It received praise from critics and was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist at the 2013 ceremony, but lost to Austin Mahone's "What About Love".[104] The visual also received three nominations at the 2013 UK Music Video Awards, in the categories for Best Styling in a Video, Vevo Best New Artist and Best Urban Video.[105] Slant Magazine ranked the video at number 21 in their list of The 25 Best Music Videos of 2013; writer Sal Cinquemani stated that Azalea's swing set conjured that of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" (1989) and George Michael's "Freedom! '90".[106]

Shardae Jobson of The Source deemed Azalea's fashion "stylish" and "rustic".[107] A writer for MuchMusic described the clip as "a total and complete visual trip jam-packed with Iggy's rad dance moves".[98] Natasha Stagg of V called it a "desert dream" and appreciated Azalea's "killer outfit options".[99] British magazine Fact wrote that the visual was "flashy" and "trailer park elegance", and compared it to M.I.A.'s "Bad Girls" (2012).[17] Julian Rifkin of Oyster viewed it as "a high class production" and felt it emulated the song's lyric "Valley girls giving blow jobs for Louboutins".[92] He likened the clip's dancing to that of Beyoncé, and Grimes' "Genesis" (2012). Rifkin considered the production's Mid West theme to recall Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die" (2011).[92] Contactmusic.com said the music video told an inspiring story of Azalea working her way up from the bottom.[108] Jessie Peterson of MTV News called Azalea's wardrobe "subtly savvy".[101] Eric Diep of XXL stated that the clip was worth the wait, and described Azalea's "sexy poses and lap dances" as "just the tip of the iceberg".[109] Diep praised Azalea's story interpretation, and mentioned, "Pledge allegiance to the struggle, this girl knows how to work it".[109] Jessie Schiewe of Respect. complimented the video for revolving around Azalea and paying homage to the song's lyrical story, and praised the rapper's lap dancing scene.[15] Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly felt the video evoked the 1991 film Thelma & Louise and commended Azalea's "full run of frame-grab-worthy outfits".[110] The music video has received over 280 million views on YouTube as of November 2017.[111]

This song is about iggys life as a child and how her parents weren't supporting and how she had to do lots of hard jobs to move to Miami when she was only 16. She had no money so she slept on the floor trying to make it to her dream of becoming a rapper.

This song is about Iggy's way to fame. She had to work hard for everything she got. She worked several jobs for years to buy the plane ticket from Australia to Miami. She was sixteen when she moved and she went alone. Also there she had to keep workin; recordng songs until four in the morning etc.

Iggy saved up money by working several jobs to "visit" America, but she ended up staying there with "no money, no family, 16 in the middle of Miami". She was 16 when she started living in Miami by herself to follow her rap career. The whole song is about her working her hardest to follow her dream, to get where she is now.

To say "work it" is also to reference two cultures at the heart of popular music: the LGBTQ community, where it still signifies style as a source of power, and R&B and hip-hop, where it's become a signifier for sexual bravado and all-around self-confidence. Usually, that's where the idea of work stays in pop. But at music's always-active intersection of appropriation and race, different possibilities of what work can mean are causing trouble for three artists right now.

Idealized and martyred in countless films, television shows and hip-hop verses, the drug dealer is the imaginary African-American worker in tragic mode. The role offers provisional power but almost always leads to defeat. For a white female artist to claim space within this story is puzzling, but also telling: Instead of stopping at the point where the black male represents hardness, Ferreira tries to connect with his vulnerability.

Asking whether Ferreria has a right to tell this story leads to a "yes or no" conversation. The story gets more interesting when we consider how tenacious these fantasies remain. Playing with the imagery and rhetoric of working-class or underclass black men doesn't seem to fit with the inspirational or sexually inviting messages most female pop stars produce. Yet even though black men are horrifically underemployed in America, with little opportunity for advancement, fantasies of their strength and prowess still capture the mass imagination. 041b061a72