Azealia Banks is a female American rapper and singer. In 2011 she came to attention when she topped the NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 "Cool List" for the year.

Childhood

Banks was raised by her mother after her father died when she was two years old. She has two older sisters.

Career

Banks is currently unsigned, but has been working with British producer Paul Epworth

Paul Epworth

Paul Epworth is an award-winning British music producer, musician, and songwriter. His production credits include Adele, Cee Lo Green, Florence and the Machine, Plan B, Friendly Fires, Bloc Party, Primal Scream, The Rapture, Jack Peñate, Kate Nash and Maxïmo Park.-Lomax:From 2002-2004 Paul provided...

 on an album. She released her song "'212" as a free download in September 2011. "212" was recently ranked as the highest-ever rated song on The Singles Jukebox. The single was also featured on B Michael Tumblr. In September 2011, the song was chosen as the 'Record of the week' by Nick Grimshaw on the UK's BBC Radio 1.