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Friday, May 13, 2016

Twitter Suspends Azealia Banks Over Zayn Rant

Twitter has suspended US rapper Azealia Banks after she directed racially charged tweets at former One Direction star Zayn Malik.

The account of @AzealiaBanks returned a message saying that it was suspended, with a link to the website's conditions on "abusive tweets and behaviour".

On Tuesday, the 24-year-old New York rapper posted tweets accusing Malik of copying her style on his latest music video.

She used epithets related to Muslims in the messages, which she has since deleted, targeting the 23-year-old.

"When your entire extended family has been obliterated by good ol the U.S of A will you still be trying to act like a white boy pretending to be black?" Banks said in one tweet.

Malik declined to take the bait.

"My @'s too good for you," tweeted the singer, who is partially of Pakistani origin and was brought up in Bradford, England.

Malik, who has chosen to go by his first name as a solo artist, has taken on an R&B sound since leaving One Direction with his songs featuring lyrics about sex and relationships.

In a fresh tweet on Wednesday, Banks reiterated her accusations about Malik's music and cast her remarks about Muslims as a gesture of solidarity.

"He felt as if he was too good to acknowledge me yet not too good to copy my creativity," she wrote.

"I had to remind him that we're both in the same boat in this industry and people of colour."

Banks won wide acclaim for her single 212 but has become better known for her Twitter outbursts, with her pledge in March to quit the platform proving short-lived.

She notably engaged in a long-running feud with the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, whom she accused of exploiting black culture.

Banks also provoked outrage in December 2014 when she appeared to cast doubt on Bill Cosby's sex assault accusers.

The rapper tweeted: "them b****** frontin' like they wasn't trying to get some of that pudding pop!!!!"

Even non-famous Twitter users have not escaped Banks' ire.

"One day your hemmroids (sic) are going to burst and you'll bleed to death b****," she responded to one person who accused her of homophobia.

A London music festival, Rinse/Born & Bred Festival, has also removed Banks from its line-up next month.

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