Grimes / Azealia Banks Feud

Overview

Grimes / Azealia Banks Feud refers to the ongoing animosity between musicians Grimes, real name Claire Boucher, and Azealia Banks after a weekend in August of 2018 in which Banks was invited to one of Grimes' boyfriend Elon Musk's properties to collaborate on music, but the visit was allegedly derailed by Musk's 'Funding Secured' Tweet that got Musk in trouble with the SEC. Banks posted about the saga on her Instagram story and spoke about it to the media, painting a damaging image of Grimes and Musk. The feud was exacerbated by texts between Grimes and Banks in which the two insulted each other that Banks leaked, and later Grimes would write an alleged diss track about Banks.

Background

On July 30th, 2018, Grimes (Boucher) said on Twitter that she had plans to collaborate with Azealia Banks on some music.^[1] On August 7th, Elon Musk tweeted, "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." This caused Tesla's stock to soar but also got Musk in trouble with the SEC for potential market manipulation. Banks arrived at one of Musk's properties to collaborate with Boucher on August 10th, and she told Insider,^[1] "I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet," she said. "He was stressed and red in the face."

The same day Banks arrived at one of Musk's properties, Boucher and Musk left for a convention in Las Vegas for the weekend, leaving Banks in the house by herself. On August 12th, Banks took to her Instagram stories and alleged, "I waited around all weekend while grimes coddled her boyfriend." In another story, she wrote that "staying in Elon musks house has been like a real like episode of 'Get Out.'" Musk denied ever meeting Banks after Insider first reported on her story, but later admitted he did briefly see her on the property. Banks said Musk was lying. On August 13th, she again took to Instagram stories to say she only knew so much about what was going on with Elon because Boucher had filled her in, dishing out insults to Boucher in the process (shown below).

Developments

On August 18th, 2018, Banks claimed Musk was "tapping" her phone and leaked text messages between herself and Grimes prior to the meeting in which Grimes talked about numerous Musk-related things, including Grimes joking about Musk having an "accent that doesn't exist," a "giant penis," and talked about the two being protected against kidnapping. These were screenshot and tweeted by user @payjoeyy (shown below).^[2]

On August 20th, Banks alleged Musk had her phone and was "deleting the evidence" concerning his "funding secured" tweet. The following day, she showed a message from Grimes saying that Musk "got into weed" because of her and did the $420 tweet as "a laugh." Musk had previously denied "420" being a "weed reference" and said, "It seemed like better karma at $420 than at $419. But I was not on weed, to be clear. Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned.’ You just sit there like a stone on weed."

Text Exchange

In January of 2019, as Musk was under investigation by the SEC and facing a suit from his investors, Musk's lawyer attempted to discredit Banks' version of the story by calling her a "Twitter villain" and a "veteran of long and nonsensical beefs." This led to Banks leaking text messages exchanged by herself and Boucher in which the two fired off insults to each other, with Boucher calling Banks fat and Banks dishing out insults like "you have no bone marrow" and "you smell like a roll of nickels."^[3]

Grimes' Diss Track

The feud was relatively quiet for two and a half years until July 26th, 2021, when Grimes released a snippet of a new song she was working on called "100% Tragedy." She said on Discord that the song was about "having to defeat Azealia Banks when she tried to destroy my life."^[4]

Banks responded by posting Instagram stories that read, "Grimes def has some psychosexual obsession with me. I think it's bitterness cuz she doesn't have the musical capacity I have. Everything she does is out of pretentiousness and it comes out like that … while everything i do is out of natural swag & geniusness lmaoo."^[5]

On July 29th, Grimes tweeted,^[6] "Even if I did smell like a roll of nickels, is that bad?", referencing one of Banks' insults from the leaked text messages.

Search Interest

External References