Last winter, Azealia Banks released “212” — a bubbly, infectious, and hard rap track — alongside a video in which she paraded around in pigtails, short shorts, and a Mickey Mouse sweater. Promptly, the countdown to her superstardom began. And since, things have gotten a bit bumpy.

First, there were release date pushbacks and ugly label problems; according to Banks, she left the esteemed XL Recordings because, after she decided not to use head honcho Richard Russell’s beats for her album, “it got real sour. He wound up calling me 'amateur' and shit, and the XL interns started talking shit about me. It just got real fucking funny.” Later, there would be shots taken at most of the contemporary female rap landscape: Kreayshawn was a “a dumb bitch,” Nicki Minaj was “talented enough to sustain a very fruitful career without the ugly wigs and ugly costumes,” Iggy Azalea was a closet racist.