"Where is the money?" Azealia Banks in pay dispute with Australian promoter

“You’re trying to use a character assassination as a means to not pay someone for work that they did," says the US rapper. 

“The lack of care she shows to her team, the people she works with, and her fans was truly disappointing to see.”

Azealia Banks has doubled down on her claims that the promoter and touring agent behind her Australian tour haven't paid her in full.

On Tuesday, Bizarro, the promoter behind two of the US rapper's shows on her Australian tour, released a three-page statement sledging Banks' "disgraceful" and "disrespectful" behaviour. Writing that the tour has been its most "physically and mentally draining" ever, and that Banks tried to "burn down every show on the run" 

Banks' first Australian tour has been plagued by last-minute cancellations, via issues, set cuts short, and social media outbursts. All of which culminated in her vowing that this "will be my very last time touring Australia." 

“This place makes me utterly miserable," she wrote. 

Despite both Bizarro and touring agency Point Blank Group's claims that they paid the rapper, Banks, in a final spray on Instagram stories, said she had flown "all the way across the world to go home empty-handed."

She said that the Bizarro statement was "an attempt to assassinate my character" and that there was "no mention of my mother f--king money.

"In this statement, in all this hooting and hollering, there's no mention of my money. Where is the money, bitch?," she said. 

“You’re trying to use a character assassination as a means to not pay someone for work that they did, just say you’re broke and f--king go.”

Following Azealia's claims, Bizarro shared a screenshot of a series of bank transfers made to the Point Blank Group, spanning back to May 2022.

Her first scheduled Australian show, on December 10 in Melbourne, was postponed mere hours before doors were set to open, with promoters citing “visa issues.”

Soon after, Banks wrote in an Instagram story that there would be no rescheduled Melbourne date. 

In a statement, Bizarro wrote that after a negotiation, Banks was “willing” to play a rescheduled Melbourne show the following weekend. Where she performed at Chasers in Prahan for a reported 37-minutes. 

“She arrived over 2 hours late for her performance at Chasers and refused to get on stage unless the promoter paid her additional money in cash,” Bizarro alleges.

Banks also sacked her Brisbane show in the hours leading up to the gig, with the rapper citing her previous experience in the city as the reason behind the cancellation. 

“I’m so sorry you guys – actually I’m not sorry – but listen: last time I was in Brisbane and y’all threw shit on the stage and damn near almost f..king hit me in the face with a fucking bottle of soda or whatever that shit was,” Banks said in an Instagram video. 

“That was the most racist, most demoralising experience of my fucking life and right now I’m on a really good track.”

“I am a beautiful black woman and I am not going to get in front of some audience of white people for them to be throwing shit at me. I am so not sorry. I am not sorry at all. Brisbane, y’all are just going to have to take the L and smoke it.”

In 2015, Banks said that playing at Splendour In The Grass was a “waste of my f..king time” tweeting that Australians are “terrible crowds to play for.” 

“You’re violent and belligerent and I simply will not put my safety at risk. I would’ve walked off stage had someone thrown something,” she said at the time.

During a 2013 performance at Listen Out Festival, Banks’ was forced to cut her set short at 90-seconds, after an audience member threw a full beer can at her head. 

In a series of posts to her Instagram stories on Tuesday, Banks accused her Australian touring agents - Bizarro and Point Productions - of being “scams”, alleging that they were trying to get out of paying her. 

“Both promoters got paid off of my hard work and are now trying to cite all these stupid things as reasons not to pay me a dime,' she alleged.

“I flew all the way across the world to go home empty-handed. Sweet. I will not be back.”  

Via Azealia Banks' Instagram stories

In response, Bizarro wrote that Banks’ "slanderous claims made against us as scammers are entirely false."

“Whilst we have paid our fees to Azealia’s touring agent, we have also been led to believe that the majority of her tour has been paid to her personally in full, despite her willingness to burn down every show of the run,” the statement said.

Via Azaelia Banks' Instagram stories

The promoters added that they “were not naive to Azealia’s reputation” but “were excited by her as an artist and felt confident that these were over sensationalised by the media and that she meant well.”

“The lack of care she shows to her team, the people she works with, and her fans was truly disappointing to see.”