Coachella 2012: Azealia Banks, star of the afternoon

Seraphina Lotkhamnga on
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Who: Azealia Banks in the Gobi tent.
In 3 or Fewer Words: She’ll make bank.
Memorable Because: The look on Azealia Banks’ face when she walked out on to stage showed both pride and shock. After dealing with issues at her former record label XL, the young rapper/singer/lyricist formerly known as Miss Bank$ had finally made it to her first U.S. official live debut – and it was a big deal. Spilling out of the tent, hip-hop fans crammed themselves in to catch the hottest young thing to have made it on her own terms. Unlike Donald Glover, she didn’t need a TV show to mainstream her fans, and she also didn’t need big industry names to write hits like the wildly popular “212.” Things quickly got rowdy inside for Banks as she played up to all the ladies in the audience (“Ladies, if you know this one. Sing along, please.”), touted back-up dancers and threw some playfulness back to her hype man, DJ Cosmo. And when she introduced “1991,” the title track off her EP that drops next week, her new devoted fans hit her right back with thunderous approval.
What I’d Tell My Friends Who Were at Childish Gambino: You chose caricature over genuine.
– S.L. (Concert photography by Scott Dudelson)