Posted on Oct 11, 2013

6 Things To Know About Your New Favorite Rapper, Iggy Azalea

Twerk your way into the surprisingly endearing world of raunchy Aussie rap star, Iggy Azalea.

BuzzFeed Contributor

We've survived Vanilla Ice, Eminem, and Macklemore together — I think we can handle Iggy Azalea. The tall, platinum blonde high school dropout from Australia is an unlikely rap success, riding a viral tidal wave of YouTube hits from her breakout track "Pu$$y." A Tupac-obsessed teenage runaway, Iggy saved money from cleaning hotels and left her humble hometown of Mullumbimby (population: 3,129) for America, following a manifest destiny of rap through the circuits of Miami, Houston, and Atlanta to eventually find herself presenting with Lil' Kim at the Video Music Awards and collaborating on a major label debut with T.I. Her album The New Classic was slated to be released later this month (October) but has, tragically, been pushed back till March so Iggy could "walk a mile in her Louboutins" on tour with Beyoncé. While it's sad we'll have to wait so long, this gives us plenty of time to obsessively listen to every song, watch every video, and read every interview she's ever done. To get y'all started, here are six reasons to love Iggy:

I (foolishly) thought it was a forgone conclusion that Iggy Azalea's stage name paid homage to the great shirtless one, Iggy Pop. Nope. According to Iggy, she's nicknamed after her childhood dog, which is somehow even better than being named after the famous Stooge. Via Complex:

Before immigrating, she was born Amethyst Amelia Kelly, and she didn't get her nickname from the decadent Stooges punk rocker — it came from a four-legged childhood friend.

"When I was a kid, Iggy was my dog," she says. "But he'd always get in fights and come home covered in blood. One time, he got bitten by a snake. I thought for sure he was going to die, but he'd always make it. Iggy was the runt of the litter, but he always survived. I really loved that dog. He was a tough, cool, determined fighter. He had all the characteristics I admire in people. When he got put down, I got a nameplate necklace with his name. People started calling me that, too."

Precious!

Being as tall, stacked, and insanely glam as she is (seriously not fair), it's no surprise that Iggy Azalea signed a modeling contract and became the darling of every fashion magazine ever as soon as her music started blowing up. What is surprising are her excellent and unconventional style inspirations. Via The Pop Manifesto:

"As far as people whose style interests me I'd say Grace Kelly, Gwen, Spice Girls, Victoria Beckham, and that nanny called Fran."

She expands in Interview mag:

"I didn't have cable television growing up; there were only six channels you could watch then. The only really good channel was channel 10, and they would play The Nanny Called Fran every night for years. I've seen every episode 100 times. I would get my Grandma to make me leopard skin dresses on her sewing machine. I would go with her to the fabric store, pick out the patterns out of the little bins, pick out the leopard skin fabric, and be like "Please, can you make me this?" [laughs] She would and I'd wear it around the house."

If you've started to tire of Miley's twerking habit, you're not the only one. Via Paper Mag:

"I've been doing that onstage for two-and-a-half years," Azalea says of Cyrus' recent forays into the ass-grinding dance craze. "She probably fucking watched my videos online and decided to try it."

Speaking of twerking, rumors continue to swirl that Iggy is, like Kim K and Nicki Minaj before her, rocking a jumbo set of butt implants. In a radio interview with Sway, Iggy insists, "Everything's my own. Of course it's my own. I've heard it's not a real butt. I've heard it's a number of things. I've heard sometimes it's my underpants (that are padded). I've heard I had implants, I've heard all kinds of crazy stuff. But it's my flesh, it's my butt. I also heard recently I got cheek implants. I was like, 'Oh man, I got so many implants. Where do I have the time to do this?'"

You be the judge:

Iggy Azalea performs “Cheeks” at New York City's Bowery Ballroom.

Back when Iggy was in the throes of love with A$AP Rocky, she made a major relationship rookie mistake: tattooing that pretty motherfucker's name on her fingers. When things went south, she pulled a Johnny Depp and only crossed out the name of Rocky's crew. Speaking with Complex, she stated:

"I've never regretted it. I fucking loved him. I know he loved me, too… I would sacrifice a quarter of a pinky for those memories. That's why I didn't cross it out all the way, because if I'd covered it up all the way, that says I'm embarrassed. You shouldn't be ashamed of the trials of becoming an adult. I wanted people to know I'm free for more possible love interests, but also not ashamed."

During this year's VMAs, Iggy inadvertently photobombed a shot of Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, and Rita Ora while shoving her face with delicious Barclays Center food. Rather than hang her head in shame, she took the embarrassing photo as opportunity to hit on the second cutest member of One Direction (Zayn 4eva), captioning it "Me and Harry" on Instagram.

Finally, whether she's spoofing Toddlers and Tiaras with T.I. in "Murda Bizness" or riding Elephants in "Bounce," Iggy's music videos never disappoint: