00:02:38.420I think there is this attitude amongst, I lovingly call these people like normies,
00:02:43.660like people who are not listening to this podcast.
00:02:45.880If you're listening to this podcast, you are not a normie.
00:02:47.920Like people who are not super online that think that Elon Musk is this brilliant guy, this brilliant businessman who has started companies that are super successful and that it would actually be a good thing for the country if he brought all that genius business acumen, true decision making and sound judgment to the country.
00:03:09.660Like when I go home and visit family, a lot of times I think they have a very surface level, casual understanding of who Elon Musk is. And I think that that really allows them to feed into this narrative that he is this smart, sound, solid guy.
00:03:28.940I do think that attitude is starting to break a little bit. I think that we're starting to see people, even Trump supporters, be like, well, I love Trump, but I hate that Elon Musk. So I do think some of this attitude is starting to break and where people are starting to globally see him for who he really is.
00:03:45.340But when somebody has that opinion about Elon Musk, that he's this like smart guy, that just tells me that that person has really not been following Elon Musk's absolute historic record of dog shit decision making, like truly L after L after L.0.91
00:04:02.620Because if they were, there is no way that they would think this is a sound mind that we want in the White House.0.91
00:04:08.680They would be saying this is somebody that I would not be putting in charge of anything.
00:04:12.280my personal favorite is uh i just watched this like hour-long youtube video about him lying
00:04:19.920about being good at video games it just really stuck with me he's like the richest man in the
00:04:24.380world and he invested so much time and money in creating this false narrative that he's good
00:04:33.380at video games like for what he just seems like an unwell dude mike that is a great example it's
00:04:40.300these elaborate lies that remind me of that kid that we all knew in like elementary school
00:04:47.860who would lie just to lie and then like build out a whole fantasy world to maintain a self-aggrandizing
00:04:56.180lie. If you were a billionaire, why would you feel the need to construct an alternate reality
00:05:01.300where you're good at a specific video game? That is not something a well-adjusted, dare I say,
00:05:07.020shrewd mind spends time doing and so when i hear like normie people who clearly have not been
00:05:14.080following every aspect of elon's career of lies scams and losses say like oh he's a smart guy i
00:05:21.480just know they're not they're there they don't know him like we know him because the kind of
00:05:25.200person who creates a fiction about them being good at a video game is not the kind of person
00:05:29.940that we would then want to empower in the white house yeah i i get the sense that he's like trump
00:05:36.580like truly his genius level at like something like holding people's
00:05:41.840attentions and like believing his own lies.
00:05:45.080I think I don't know exactly what it is,
00:05:47.380but like clearly these guys are good at something,
00:05:49.360but like rational decision-making doesn't seem to be it.
00:05:54.000So I will give Trump something like I am loathe to give this man any kind of
00:05:59.020He from all from people who have talked to him,
00:06:02.280he does seem like somebody who has like a certain kind of charisma,
00:06:06.580a certain kind of like quality that makes people want to listen to him engage with him watch what
00:06:13.280he has to say I think a lot of that comes from being somebody who who became empowered on reality
00:06:18.640television where it doesn't really matter what you're selling as much as like how you sell it
00:06:23.440Elon Musk doesn't have any of that I think that like Elon Musk doesn't know how to talk to people
00:06:27.640doesn't know wouldn't know charisma that bit him on the butt like he's just not like the things
00:06:33.960that make trump good at being a fascist leader i do not think that elon musk has and i think0.90
00:06:40.960we see that in the hundred different examples from his career that really demonstrate this
00:06:47.160but i would argue maybe none demonstrate it quite as well as what happened between him and azalea0.86
00:06:54.740banks which by the way i watched this shit go down live like i lived it i was like0.57
00:07:01.700like every story that banks dropped i was screenshotting like i was there and i guess0.90
00:07:10.500it's one of those things that like you truly had to be there and if you're thinking bridget what
00:07:14.720are you talking about listen up because if you weren't there i'm about to fill y'all in okay
00:07:19.660Bridget, I wasn't there. What are you talking about? Well, we got to start with who is Azalea
00:07:25.160Banks. I kind of like can't imagine somebody would be an avid listener to this podcast and not know
00:07:31.200about Azalea Banks. But that top level, she is a musician from Harlem. She had to come up in this0.97
00:07:38.940very interesting moment in pop culture. She got big initially on MySpace in 2008 before being
00:07:45.480hooked up with a recording deal thanks to diplo when she was age 18 don't worry that's going to
00:07:51.140be the only diplo mention of this episode we don't have to get into a fight about diplo well
00:07:57.320people listening are probably like oh because diplo is like this a problematic character in
00:08:02.160his own right but you and i had that big fight about diplo we don't need to we don't need to
00:08:06.000relitigate relitigate it now but we don't need to relitigate diplo gate so azalea banks was doing
00:08:11.300super interesting stuff that really highlighted this nexus of culture at the time like honestly
00:08:17.220had things happen differently i can see myself making an episode about how azalea banks was one
00:08:23.880of these people who really successfully and in an early at an early time saw the power of internet0.87
00:08:30.220culture very early in her career but alas so azalea banks was like doing things like she used
00:08:36.380youtube to share her demo tracks including a cover of do you know that band interpol they kind
00:08:42.280of like an indie band where the vocalist has kind of a nasally voice like all of his singing is sort
00:08:47.500of like it's not too late like it's like a very specific you know i'm talking about yeah i was
00:08:53.140like really into interpol in the aughts okay well did you know that she released a cover of their
00:08:58.780song slow hands on youtube uh way back in the day i have to admit i did not know that she was
00:09:06.120someone who was, for me, like a very important figure in early internet culture and really used
00:09:12.000that culture for her own come up. In 2011, she starts writing the song 212, which would go on
00:09:19.200to be her opus. And she starts writing it a month before getting evicted from her apartment on
00:09:25.140Dykeman Street in Harlem. So she is like, really a Harlem girl, like about that Harlem life.
00:09:30.420I actually didn't know this. I found that I learned this from doing the research for this
00:09:33.740episode she initially released 212 just as a free download on her website in 2011 and people loved
00:09:40.620it so much like it became like a song that was being used in big fashion shows and on television
00:09:46.740and so it was not until the following year that she actually included it on her first debut album
00:09:51.800called 1991 but when she first released that song 212 she had not even had an album yet she was still
00:09:57.920like kind of an unknown in the music world but like we really have to take a little bit of a
00:10:02.320detour here because when I say that Azalea Banks' 212 changed culture, I really mean it. I can make
00:10:09.680an entire episode about that song. I won't, but I could, but I won't. But I would argue that it was
00:10:16.800not only the best song of 2012, but probably the most culturally relevant. Like if I was thinking
00:10:22.900about the, like not just 2012, if I was thinking about like the aughts, the 2010s in general,
00:10:27.900If there was a song I had to pick to represent that particular era, it would be 212. No other song sums up that particular moment in music, fashion, and culture. Billboard magazine agrees with me. Billboard recognized 212 as one of the songs that defined the decade.
00:10:45.420And then also just like her story being really like of an era, this relatively unknown, super online broke girl from Harlem releasing music just on her website that gets blown up by like big music blogs and goes on to become a global smash sensation.
00:11:03.380Like, that is really a story that is of an era. If you've seen that movie Bling Ring about those young people in L.A. who were, like, robbing Paris Hilton, that Azalea Banks' 212 is used in the trailer. And I'll say that movie was directed by Sofia Coppola. Nobody knows how to pick music that defines an era like Sofia Coppola.
00:11:25.040I was listening to this podcast called This Had Oscar Buzz about how the song 212 in that trailer is really meant to sum up the 2010s and that it easily could have been in that trailer a song by a band like the Ting Tings, which also had a lot of buzz in the 2010s, but that how when you rewatch the trailer in 2025, it's clear that the Ting Ting somehow is the wrong choice.
00:11:48.900and azalea banks's 212 is like the correct choice to represent the decade but like in the 2010s we
00:11:54.860maybe didn't realize how era defining that song was and and like looking back today it really had
00:12:01.940a staying power culturally yeah even i know that song it's it's an awesome song still you still
00:12:08.180hear it like a lot oh absolutely like that song is the culture um there's this really funny video
00:13:04.480I'm not even sure if problematic is the right word to describe her.
00:13:07.300Like, we would be here all day if I did a complete accounting of all of her, like, problems and missteps, which, honestly, I would actually love to do in another episode or another podcast.
00:13:18.940So, like, I don't even know how to describe or put into words her brand of exactly whatever is going on with her.
00:13:27.380I looked at her wiki to see how it's framed there, and it says, quote, Banks's social media presence and outspoken views, especially on U.S. politics and race, as well as disputes with other artists, have attracted significant controversy.
00:13:41.380And I'm thinking, like, yeah, that's kind of putting it mildly.
00:13:45.560Also, side note, her Wikipedia has a section that's just called disputes and controversies.
00:13:56.380if i become famous and somebody makes a wikipedia page for me i want there to be a section that's
00:14:00.760just disputes grievances grievances i need i need a grievances section okay so the real like og
00:14:10.020azalea followers probably remember that she would get on instagram live and just really do some0.97
00:14:17.980stuff like one time she was sacrificing live chickens as part of a religious ceremony in
00:14:25.300her closet in her apartment so like she she was she did a lot of stuff out there like she was like
00:14:31.700you never really knew what you were going to get when you went to her instagram live i'll put it
00:14:35.640that way and i did i did not see that coming okay well yeah chick live chicken sacrifice is part of
00:14:42.520this so yeah so this is actually one of the reasons why i'm so fascinated by azalea banks
00:14:48.340and also like we'll kind of always have i guess a soft spot for her like she's kind of one of my
00:14:54.240problematic faves despite all the things that she has said and done because I feel like I like I
00:15:00.080really get the sense that she was someone who was in the exact right place in the exact right
00:15:04.800time and culture to really explode and she's like very talented and I do think that she's someone
00:15:11.960who could have been huge like I this might be controversial but like she could have been
00:15:17.320dochi right like she really was someone who was right time right place had the talent but i think
00:15:24.300that she burned a lot of her own bridges and got in her own way and her career really never took
00:15:30.960off the way that i think it should have and you know not only is that a shame because of like i
00:15:35.340would love to see a world where like she's thriving and like we're all getting to hear really cool
00:15:40.200music but a lot of the reasons why her career has stalled the way it has just seemed like it's like
00:15:45.760her own fault right because she does just say and do the wildest stuff stuff that like i really am
00:15:54.420not cool with like just to give you a sense a lot of the stuff that she says and does is homophobic
00:15:59.180and transphobic and racist like back in 2015 she compared the lgbtq community to quote the white0.89
00:16:06.300gay kkk's she was filmed hurling homophobic slurs at a flight attendant like stuff like that uh in0.96
00:16:13.9602020 and 2021, she made a series of transphobic content about trans women, specifically when it0.96
00:16:19.420came to gender-affirming healthcare and surgeries. She just recently, within the last few weeks,
00:16:25.900got booted from Amsterdam's Electronic Queer Inclusive Milkshake Festival. She was dropped
00:16:31.680from their lineup for its 2025 festival. So I will say she did seem to sort of backtrack some
00:16:40.080of this stuff in February she called out Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling who was like known
00:16:46.000transphobe for her transphobic comments saying I love you down sis but trans women are not a threat
00:16:52.460to your femininity you really are too rich and legendary to keep spewing the same kind of stuff
00:16:56.940over and over um but I will say about Azalea Banks is like there seems to be no real clear0.98
00:17:03.660through line like she spoke out in favor of Kamala Harris only to later say that she voted
00:17:09.980for Trump like she is someone that I would not expect consistency from I'll put it that way
00:17:14.560but something that I would do is listen to a true crime style podcast about the night that
00:17:22.900she got into a huge feud with the RZA from Wu-Tang Clan wherein the RZA says he brought
00:17:29.880her to a party at Russell Crowe that actor I think he's Australian is he Australian
00:17:34.960him? Sure, maybe. I think so. Well, fact check that. That RZA brought Azalea Banks to a party
00:17:42.720at Russell Crowe's hotel room that turned into some sort of a dispute or altercation that got1.00
00:17:50.100physical. The story goes that Crowe had a party at this hotel. Azalea is RZA's guest. There was
00:17:57.420some kind of altercation. I have read that Azalea Banks allegedly objected to the music that Crowe1.00
00:18:03.000was playing at the party which is which if that is true you gotta that's like pretty funny
00:18:08.360so azalea says that russell crow spat on her and used the in slur at her now at first the rizza
00:18:21.200disputed all of this and he was like totally on russell crow's side and said that azalea just
00:18:26.120went nuts and she started threatening to cut people with a broken bottle and that like he
00:18:30.440was so horrified because, you know, she was his guest and that Russell Crowe handled it really
00:18:36.500well, blah, blah, blah. Like, at first, he was like, totally taking Russell Crowe's side. But
00:18:41.760literally years later, the RZA finally did admit like, yeah, Azalea Banks was telling the truth
00:18:48.280and Russell Crowe spat on her. So this is a good example of why I find Azalea Banks so fascinating.
00:18:55.900And part of the reason why I want to talk about her today is because absolutely Sis says and does awful things, things that I am not ideologically aligned with at all, things that I am not down with.
00:19:09.500But she reads to me kind of like somebody who is a bit like a broken clock, right?
00:19:35.240Oh, that's a very funny and insightful critique of a contemporary pop star.
00:19:38.940That too. Actually, no, I don't think that race of people are descended from rats. Like that is the experience of being exposed to Azealia Banks' opinions. You're like, oh, good take. Oh, great take. Oh, wait, actually, really, really not good take. Like opposite of good take. I am not aligned with that take.0.92
00:20:01.540Yikes. Okay. Going back one. I Googled Russell Crowe is from New Zealand.
00:20:06.420Oh, New Zealand. Sorry to all my Australians out there. Got y'all confused with New Zealand.1.00
00:20:11.320Yeah, and I guess he doesn't come off as looking too good in that story.
00:20:15.020So despite all of her behavior, I don't automatically discount the things that she
00:20:20.020says outright. A lot of people are like, oh, she's an unreliable narrator. Can't trust her.
00:20:25.820She'll just say whatever. And I get that. But I actually don't outright discount the things that
00:20:30.840she says. Which brings me to Elon Musk, because Azealia Banks has essentially accused Elon Musk
00:20:37.100of holding her hostage in his home in what she describes as a get out style situation. And she
00:20:44.840basically live tweeted the entire thing, and it turned into a literal SEC investigation.0.96
00:20:57.280OK, so I got to ask, why was Azalea Banks in Elon Musk's house in the first place?
00:21:04.640So the reason why Azalea is at Elon Musk's house in the first place involves another musician, Grimes.
00:21:11.040Honestly, Grimes's downfall via Elon Musk could be studied.
00:21:15.000Like, I would love to make another episode all about that.
00:21:17.700But there was a time where we mostly knew Grimes as this, like, respected electronic musician who talked a lot about, like, anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism.
00:21:26.280She had a ton of indie street cred. But in 2018, she lost a lot of that street cred when she debuted her relationship with Elon Musk at the Met Gala.
00:21:38.020So Grimes now needs a way to revive her indie bona fides, and Azalea Banks needs a musical collaborator on her album.
00:21:46.360So Grimes and Banks were meant to be collaborating on Banks' notoriously troubled second album, and they both separately confirmed this back in June.
00:21:56.280According to Banks, Grimes invited her to fly out to L.A. to stay at Musk's place to finish putting the finishing touches on their album, which Banks did.
00:22:08.360So according to Azalea, she goes to Elon Musk's house and Grimes doesn't show.0.94
00:22:12.820So Azalea Banks is like, oh, I must have got the date wrong and just heads home and continues living her life.0.59
00:22:17.160Oh, wait, no, just kidding. Because she's Azalea freaking Banks, she decides to essentially stay and live post her entire weird ass stay at Elon Musk's house, saying that she had been alone in his house waiting for Grimes to show up for days.0.99
00:22:31.560so here's where i should say up front and come for me if you must but everything that azalea says
00:22:39.200she saw go down at elon musk's house i believe her like she is someone who is unreliable and0.52
00:22:46.760says and does wild shit i will own that up front but like something about the way that she describes0.70
00:22:53.460this stuff just really does sound like elon behavior to me like i know a lot about elon0.98
00:22:59.680Musk. I've been following his career for a really long time. And from everything that we know about
00:23:04.520Musk, his erratic behavior, his poor leadership, impulsive decision-making, and drug use, everything
00:23:09.740that Banks says sounds like something he would do. Everything that she says that she saw sounds
00:23:17.120like the person that we currently have making decisions in the White House. So when people
00:23:21.780talk about this feud, they tend to frame it as like, oh, Azalea Banks is this unreliable narrator.
00:23:27.340But I don't think that she's more or less unreliable or like crazy than Musk. Like the entire laundry list of reasons why Azealia Banks is an unreliable narrator, I feel like that list is just as long, if not longer, for Elon Musk.
00:23:41.920And I don't like that people just dismiss what Banks has to say about what she saw and what that says about Elon's ability to run things, given that he's essentially running our country.
00:23:52.120Like she might be out of pocket nine out of 10 times, but I still think that we should hear her out about what she says happened and use that to draw some conclusions about the stability of the leadership we currently have in the White House.
00:24:05.020stability is not a word that i would use to describe elon musk or what's happening in the
00:24:11.920white house or governing america's foreign policy or how our entire society or economy
00:24:19.260feel at the moment so yeah at this point i'm willing to believe a lot of things yeah this is
00:24:26.580the self-appointed arbiter of efficiency right like like let that sink in like he has decided
00:24:34.320But, oh, no, I know all about efficiency.
00:24:37.160I'm the one who should be driving efficiency for the United States.
00:27:46.320Musk starts tweeting some classic Musk-eradic shit.0.76
00:27:50.560Shout out to the website High Snobriety because a lot of this has since been deleted, but they kept a very clear record of what went down, and I'll link that in the comments, or I'll link that in the show notes.0.97
00:28:01.100So Elon tweets that he's, quote, considering taking Tesla private at $420, funding secure.
00:28:09.080So, Mike, are you a genius enough to understand the joke there, like why he would say that he's taking it private at $420?
00:28:16.080Do you get it? Is it too sophisticated for you?
00:28:17.760i believe that's a reference to what the kids call marijuana yeah it's a it's a marijuana joke
00:28:24.420a weed joke i know elon's jokes are always they're just like
00:28:27.880they're not good it's not a good joke like it makes me think of like the movie how high0.95
00:28:35.400or something right like i thought that shit was hilarious when i was like 16 and high0.97
00:28:41.360how dare you how hot don't don't do method man like that like their their humor is a lot is it0.99
00:28:48.540may not be the most sophisticated out there but it's not just 420 lol like you're right you're
00:28:53.960right i'm thinking of different shows that is a good good movie so musk's 420 announcement made
00:28:59.900tesla shares skyrocket closing the market at an 11 rise with stocks at 379 and 57 cents a piece
00:29:07.760This rise brought Musk's personal net worth up to $25.8 billion, earning him $1.4 billion that single day.
00:29:17.880It kind of becomes a meme being like, oh, I'm going public at $4.20.
00:29:22.140But you kind of can't just do that, according to the SEC.
00:29:27.260Because on August 8th, the Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC had opened an inquiry into Musk's announcements about taking Tesla private on Twitter.
00:29:34.980If his claim was to prove untrue, Musk's tweet may have violated U.S. securities law. So not great. Like he could be committing financial crimes publicly on Twitter with Azalea Banks in his house, live streaming the entire thing.
00:29:52.580And if you believe Azalea Banks, she was essentially a witness to all of this. And not only that, she's providing like play-by-play commentary of everything that he's doing. So if the SEC is kind of low-key accusing him of a crime, you got Azalea Banks in your house at the same time giving a public blow-by-blow of those alleged crimes.
00:30:14.200So this is what I mean when I say that we should really think about what this incident means and, like, the fact that he is now in charge of so much of how our country is run. Like, this is not a smart person. It's not a savvy person. This is not an efficient person.
00:30:29.260Azealia said, I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs, scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet, she told Business Insider. He was stressed and red in the face. He's not cute at all in person, she added.0.99
00:30:41.840not cute at all what an insult this is something else you're going to learn about azalea is that1.00
00:30:49.040she really good at a turn of phrase like no matter what you think about her she really1.00
00:30:53.800is a good talk we'll talk more about it in a minute but she really is a very good insulter
00:30:59.080like nobody nobody can insult like her she really is good at it so banks says that elon tweeted all
00:31:06.920of this, all of this stuff about taking Tesla public while he was allegedly on acid, a claim
00:31:13.620that I absolutely 100% believe. She wrote that she waited around all weekend while Grimes coddled
00:31:20.000her boyfriend for being too stupid to know not to go on Twitter while on acid. So according to1.00
00:31:25.640if you believe Azalea Banks, this entire thing was like a manifestation of a bad acid trip or
00:31:30.920something. And also going on Twitter while on acid does seem like a very bad idea. Terrible idea.
00:31:36.360Again, somebody who thinks it's a good idea to take acid, go on Twitter and start maybe kind of allegedly low key tweeting about your business's crimes.
00:31:47.420Is that the kind of mind that we want a hair away from the executive?
00:31:56.620You know, another businessman, though, might have had like a whole communications team in place to manage his communications, and they wouldn't have tweeted a bunch of lies while on acid, but his way is much more efficient.
00:32:21.200Once reporters start asking questions, he was like, oh, that never happened.
00:32:25.080And speaking with Gizmodo for an article published on August 13th, Musk says that, quote, he never even met Azalea Banks or communicated with her in any way.
00:32:33.980At this point, Grimes announces that she's heading to Vegas to meet Elon to go to a hacker conference.
00:32:39.100So she's not coming back to his house at all to do this collaboration.
00:32:44.520Meanwhile, Banks goes off on Grimes and Musk in a series of Instagram stories, accusing Grimes of actually being the one who is leaking the information about what Elon is doing.
00:32:58.280This is me reading Azalea Banks' words, just so we're all clear.0.54
00:33:01.960She writes, LOL, Elon Musk is better off hiring an escort.0.92
00:33:07.620At least an escort would have kept her mouth shut about his business.0.98
00:33:11.000He's got some dirty sneaker inbred out the woods,1.00
00:33:13.820pap smear pussy meth head junkie running around town1.00
00:33:17.600telling everyone everything about him,1.00
00:33:20.340all because she needed a date to the Met Gala1.00
00:33:22.440to hide his shrinking dick from Amber Heard.1.00
00:33:25.080lol uh elon musk was once in a relationship with amber heard a fucking rebound a beta male who took1.00
00:33:31.120steroids and got hair plugs to convince himself he was alpha there's no reason that in this collab0.99
00:33:36.640with grimes i know so much about elon musk grimes really is an idiot and elon musk really is part of0.99
00:33:43.220the problem when you talk about white male privilege and colonialism his family's wealth1.00
00:33:47.760is rooted in emeralds and ore mines in southern africa during apartheid this trash ass beta male1.00
00:33:53.420pig was given his start in life because his disgusting racist parents took advantage of1.00
00:33:58.260thousands of black people ask elon musk what the fuck he has done for africa nothing he ignores it1.00
00:34:03.780these fake ass libertarian shitbags damn oh okay i mean like that's an insult do you see what i'm1.00
00:34:12.440saying because quote trash ass beta male pig that is an it like that is a turd like there's like1.00
00:34:18.700layers and levels to that as an insult dirty sneaker inbred out of the woods paps beer pussy1.00
00:34:25.300meth head junkie i hate to laugh but that's strong language they're fighting words from0.96
00:34:36.080words and what's also interesting about this is she's writing this in 2018 this like it was
00:34:43.580It's definitely part of the public understanding of Elon Musk that the reason why he got wealthy is because of his family's connections in South Africa, particularly their like emerald mine. But that was not something that like your casual observer of Elon Musk was talking about. Right. Like if you knew that, you knew that. And it was it was out there. It was a no. Like I knew that in 2018. But I think like Elon Musk, even back in 2018, occupied a different space in our political and social and cultural imagination.
00:35:12.320And I would argue that Azalea Banks was kind of one of the one of the early people who took that from like something that people who are pretty read in on these tech spaces knew and kind of pushed it forward to more popular, accessible imagination.
00:35:28.140Does that make sense? It does. And I guess the other way to say that would be getting mixed up with Azalea Banks was the beginning of Elon Musk's downfall from tech genius golden boy to half the country engaging in active protests about how terrible he is.
00:35:46.060I would say in a lot of ways, yes. Like, even if you look at the reporting from tech reporters that I like and trust, like, I think in 2018, Kara Swisher was still talking about Elon Musk, like he was like, a sound genius that we should be looking to for like, innovation and stuff.
00:36:02.180I do think that Azealia Banks, say what you will about her, was on the early side of this kind of turn in our popular understanding of Elon Musk. Again, just to be really clear, lots of people have been telling the truth about who Elon Musk is for a long time, and I don't want to discount that.
00:36:22.340but a lot of people were not and i think that azalea banks was somebody who really paved the0.98
00:36:29.000way of our under our current understanding of who elon musk is fake ass libertarian shit bang yes0.95
00:36:36.420so remember how elon musk told gizmodo i have never met azalea banks not even once uh and he0.98
00:36:46.200was like very specific and definitive about it so he was lying he walked that back and was like okay
00:36:51.640it. Maybe I did meet her once. On August 16th, the New York Times confirmed that Musk and Banks
00:36:56.680did meet briefly. Musk told the paper, quote, I saw her on Friday morning for two seconds at about
00:37:03.600a 30-foot distance as she was leaving the house. He continued, I just finished working out. She was
00:37:09.920not within hearing range. I didn't even realize who it was. That's literally the only time I've
00:37:14.620ever laid eyes on her. Again, that just sounds like a lie to me. The fact that he threw in the
00:37:19.620like i had just left my bench presses at the gym it's like okay all right like yeah it just sounds
00:37:27.620like a lie like it just sounds like a lie like like i saw her from 30 feet away i didn't even
00:37:34.700recognize her but it was her and again like i'm sure that he has some like i mean i live in a
00:37:39.920one-bedroom apartment so like if i saw somebody in my apartment from 30 feet away i'd have some
00:37:43.980questions but i just can't imagine that he's like oh who's so i'm sure that he has like a huge
00:37:49.240compound mansion whatever but i still can't imagine that you would see somebody in your
00:37:53.560house from 30 feet away and not be like who is this person in my house like i like i feel i feel
00:37:57.740like you would have a follow-up yeah why is this person leaving my house and who are they and what
00:38:02.840are they doing in my house so we're to believe that he saw her from 30 feet away and like was
00:38:07.420just like like 30 feet is not that long like and he just like like there was no words exchanged
00:38:12.100yeah it's a it defies credibility a little bit i'm not buying it i'm not buying it at all
00:38:19.160meanwhile azalea banks is still in his house on august 20th banks tagged elon musk in her
00:38:27.420instagram story writing you need to contact me asap i need my phone back now she said that musk0.92
00:38:34.060had involved an attorney in all of this writing quote they came up with all these threats of
00:38:39.300blackmail they paid my attorney off to take my phone and delete evidence and then in an instagram0.99
00:38:44.500story bank said that she wanted to go home and quote none of this shit has anything to fucking0.93
00:38:49.920do with me so it sounds like at this point stuff is like actually getting quite messy and like0.88
00:38:55.000maybe she's like i don't want to be involved in this anymore shortly after this musk deleted his0.88
00:39:00.860instagram altogether wait so the timeline here she tweeted all that shit and then continued to live0.95
00:39:07.320in his house yeah so she's she's live tweeting according to her like from his house yikes okay0.99
00:39:14.540so azalea banks then starts releasing screenshots of texts that she had with grimes which only
00:39:21.640recently as in like a few months ago grimes actually confirmed were real so i was gonna
00:39:27.080have to say like allegedly texts with her and grimes because who knows maybe they're doctored
00:39:31.100who knows. Grimes, we have it from Grimes. These are real texts. In the texts, Azalea and Grimes
00:39:37.460get into Elon's SEC allegations. Grimes says, quote, he just got into weed because of me and
00:39:44.160he's super entertained by 420. So when he decided to take the stock private, he calculated that it
00:39:49.240was worth $419. So he rounded up to 420 for a laugh. And now the SEC is investigating him for
00:39:55.380fraud these texts are very revealing but they're also like very funny to me because banks is just0.56
00:40:02.240so fucking mean to grimes in these texts and grimes just sort of comes off as like kind of0.50
00:40:08.320clueless like lol we're besties like at one point grimes is like telling azalea banks that she should0.98
00:40:14.300find a boyfriend so we can be pregnant at the same time it'll be so fun and banks replies yeah girl
00:40:20.400as soon as you sober up mean it's mean it's so mean so the new york times asks musk like what
00:40:30.260the hell is going on in an interview with the times musk said that he was not high when he
00:40:35.740sent the 420 funding secured tweet he said it seems like better karma at 420 than 419 but i
00:40:42.580was not on weed to be clear weed is not helpful for productivity there's a reason for the word
00:40:47.640stoned you just sit there like a stone on weed also side note by this time there was plenty of
00:40:53.160like public footage of him smoking joints on joe rogan's podcast so i don't know why he's trying
00:40:57.120to pretend like i am too productive to have ever smoked weed and then it's like well there's videos
00:41:02.320of you smoking weed so i don't i don't know what this is and also i thought the claim was that he
00:41:06.480was on acid not on weed very perceptive right because she never mentioned weed she said acid
00:41:12.420specifically. Pretty different substances. Correct. I think at this point, Banks was like,
00:41:18.980yeah, this is too much heat, even for my wild ass. So she kind of apologizes to Elon Musk via0.90
00:41:25.540a letter that she posted on social media after she had left his house. She says in it, she says
00:41:30.120that during the time that she was in his home, quote, she was welcomed to a lot of information
00:41:34.860about Musk that made her feel awkward or uncomfortable, but that she never had any
00:41:38.660intentions of using that information against him mind you in her apology she never says she was
00:41:44.320lying about anything or that she made anything up he just says i inadvertently got a lot of
00:41:49.660information about you and it wasn't i didn't mean to like tell the world that information and i
00:41:53.240wasn't trying to use it against you it's it's telling to me that she doesn't say she made it
00:41:56.320up yeah i mean there's there's just a lot going on here the fact that she's posting all of this
00:42:01.380to a variety of social platforms is something i don't know what it is but it's something
00:42:06.520Well, right after her apology that she posted on social media to Musk, she then posted a screenshot of a Washington Post story about Tesla remaining public and captioned it, quote,
00:42:19.280If it ain't broke, don't let your druggie art school girlfriend convince you to break it.0.79
00:42:23.980And then in a later Instagram story, she writes, quote,0.80
00:42:27.300wow so so she like hates grimes at this point i'm not even sure if i would say that she does
00:42:47.780but i just think that grimes is someone that she just like cannot help insulting like she just
00:42:53.020like really does not respect Grimes at all that she wants to make that clear like two Grimes of
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00:43:47.420844-844-IHEART to get started. That's 844-844-IHEART. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and
00:43:55.880held captive for nine months. I survived and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive
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00:44:58.300This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.
00:45:10.780I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having.
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00:50:42.580A reference to Musk growing up in South Africa during the era of apartheid and his father, Errol Musk, owning a 50 percent share in an emerald mine in Zambia.
00:50:51.100On that day, several users on X Twitter posted about banks calling him apartheid glide.
00:50:56.520So she really like, you know, that's even today in 2025, that is become the language of like how just everyday brokies on the Internet like me try to take digs at Elon Musk.
00:51:09.280it is amazing that he can have such an enormous profile and seemingly like not have a history
00:51:15.980like you really have to look for it to learn about his history his parents history his
00:51:23.240grandparents history uh and it's there but you have to look for it yeah it is there like i've
00:51:30.500listened to some like very disturbing podcasts about his father there is compelling evidence
00:51:36.420like and his relationship with his mom is super weird like his mom is like gorgeous she's a model
00:51:43.060but um she is just like someone who is really trying hard to shield her son from any type of
00:51:51.280criticism in this way that's like well okay you don't get to do that when he's like you know a
00:51:55.260special employee of the white house right like people are allowed to criticize your role in
00:52:00.540shaping our democracy and our life lady uh so yeah his his his family situation is pretty dark
00:52:08.620and pretty weird and like out there publicly and so it's interesting to me how for so long
00:52:15.700he was just this like rich guy who made cars like even though all that information was out there
00:52:22.680I think it really is. It says something about the ease of myth making in the United States that you could sort of like build this mythos about yourself where you're this, you know, genius upstart who knows everything about everything, who, you know, succeeds on his own independence, not because of anybody's diamond mind or emerald mind.
00:52:45.960And that can sort of be accepted until somebody like Azalea Banks comes along and like, you know, shatters that shatters that shatters that image like she is doing that old Apple commercial of the woman like running up and like throwing a hammer at the glass like that is Azalea Banks penetrating Elon Musk's the glass that is this like fictionalized world that he has built for himself.
00:53:10.920Yeah, that's a nice way to describe it there with that 1984 ad imagery.
00:53:18.580I know. People are like, what are you talking about?
00:53:21.020Like, look it up, kids. It was a commercial on TV for Apple computers.
00:53:26.260All right, let's bring this back. Let's bring it back.
00:53:28.420OK, so where do you want to go next, Bridget?
00:53:30.900So even though it sounds like they kind of smoothed over their feud today,
00:53:34.720Azealia Banks is imagining a world without Elon Musk.
00:53:38.180According to a piece in Dazed, Banks has announced the release of an upcoming track that appears to imagine Musk's, quote, public execution in a now-deleted Instagram post.
00:53:48.220She shared the details of one of two songs that were filtered out of her 30-minute release called Young Rapunzel Part 2.
00:53:55.020Set in 3030, 96 Corolla, parentheses, Motor Man, tells the story of Elon Dust, a wealthy technocrat who devises the perfect scheme to entice poor people into allowing their brains to be used as an interface.
00:54:11.020Coincidentally, the venture is called Neuralink, the name of Musk's company that is actually working on mind reading software.
00:54:18.180In Banks' song, Alon Dust's, quote, neural activity is eventually cut off by the AI overlord, played by Azalea Banks herself, rendering him a vegetable and erasing him as a threat to humanity.
00:54:41.220So, first of all, I just find this to be such an interesting moment where my two favorite things, pop culture and tech, kind of intersect.
00:54:50.340So it's like one of the reasons why I'm so obsessed with this story.
00:54:52.600But I guess the bottom line is, and why I wanted to share this today, was that I think today in 2025, most people, definitely people listening to this podcast,
00:55:02.560do not have the popular cultural misconception that Elon Musk is this like stable, efficient,
00:55:10.300good leader, right? But Elon Musk thought it was a good idea to let Azalea Banks' wild ass into his0.99
00:55:17.020life, into his home, around his partner, around his businesses. And this is the man whose decision0.98
00:55:24.000making acumen we are being told is solid and stable enough to be leading our country. And I'll
00:55:30.980i say we are in danger i'll just leave it there we are in danger yeah my god uh do me a favor
00:55:38.520let's not have her on the show azalea banks i'm sure it would be entertaining but like are you1.00
00:55:43.900out of your mind the way if she ever wanted to she has a it would be like she can come on the1.00
00:55:50.480show anytime she wants i mean then again what if she's in our in my house like she won't leave and1.00
00:55:55.240She's live tweeting everything she sees.
00:55:58.300Yeah, it just seems like playing with fire.
00:56:01.960On the podcast Who Weekly, Bobby Finger once joked that
00:56:05.700Azalea Banks, an iPhone, and a Wi-Fi connection0.85
00:56:08.660could take down the whole Trump administration.
00:56:10.600And this was before Elon was in the administration.