【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Iggy Azalea 2019年专辑《In My Defense》

搬运自：微信公众号【评论搬一堆】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）

翻译：Will Lin

审译：WhitneyL

排版：Ryan-Chopin

The Australian rapper returns with her first album in five years, sounding not just unrepentant but also tediously uninterested in any kind of growth whatsoever.

这位澳大利亚说唱歌手自首专后暌违5年回归，歌曲不仅固步自守，还枯燥乏味，没有任何形式的长进。

Iggy Azalea wants you to know she’s not sorry. She mentions this on every track of her new album, braiding it into brags about her money and her body until they snarl together in a petty wreath. It’s an odd package for a record with high stakes: This is her first album in five years, after her planned 2016 release Digital Distortion was shelved, and the first she’s released on her independent label. In those years, she has cemented a reputation built on appropriation and controversy. Name a major artist—Halsey, Snoop Dogg, the cartoon character Peppa Pig—and Iggy has entangled herself in some sort of feud with them. On an album with the unsubtle title In My Defense, she attempts to cast herself as a victim while further distorting and dismissing the cultures she takes from. Less than three minutes into the album, she raps, “Because I talk like this and my ass fat/They be saying Iggy tryna act black.” A few tracks later, she drops the record’s thesis: “I started to say sorry, but fuck that shit.”

Iggy Azalea 想让你知道她并不感到愧疚。她在新专每首歌中提及了这点，她不停地吹嘘自己的钱和身材，直到这些特征仿佛成为绑在她身上的标签后才罢休。这种包装专辑的方式很奇怪，风险很大。这是她原计划于2016释出的专辑 《Digital Distortion（数字扭曲）》 遭到搁置后暌违5年的首张专辑，也是她在独立厂牌释出的首张专辑。她曾遭受白人涉足黑人说唱圈的文化侵夺争议，但是，这些年来，她的名誉变好了。在这里我们不妨列一些重要歌手—Halsey, Snoop Dogg, 卡通人物小猪佩奇—Iggy 与这些人产生过不同的恩怨。在一张直接以 《In My Defense》命名的专辑中，她试图扮演受害者，同时进一步扭曲和抛弃她“夺走”的文化。专辑开始未过3分钟，她唱道，“因为老娘出言不逊 拥有翘臀/她们就说一鸡想要把自己包装成黑人。”（歌词源于网易云）几首歌后，她唱出了专辑的主题：“我开始感到抱歉，但这感觉真不好受。”

Didn’t we cancel Iggy Azalea? Maybe because of the nature of the internet, or because of the privilege that Iggy both willfully ignores and has worn as a shield throughout her career, she’s somewhat positioned for a comeback; media outlets have been hinting at her potential victorious return for years. This album could have been an opportunity to show an ounce of contrition, to own up to her mistakes and demonstrate that she has learned. Iggy is talented: a four-time Grammy nominee with the vocal toolkit and dancefloor command that allowed her to jump on and invigorate hits. (On “Fancy,” she handily eclipsed Charli XCX, a feat that few of Charli’s collaborators have managed.) But talent isn’t an excuse, and on this album, it’s almost irrelevant.

我们为什么不封杀Iggy Azalea? 可能是因为互联网的本质，或者是因为Iggy 故意忽视保护其职业生涯的特权，她有点复出的意思。媒体多年来一直在暗示她可能会顺利回归。这张专辑本可以显示一点点懊悔，承认她自己的错误并表达自己所学到的。Iggy 天赋异禀：凭借演唱水准和舞台掌控力四次获得格莱美提名，这使得她迅速蹿红。在“Fancy（奢华）”中，她的风头轻易地盖过了Charli XCX，Charli的合作者中几乎没有人能够做到。但是天赋不是理由，在这张专辑中，这几乎没有什么关系。

“I just knew I wanted to go to America and be a rapper and have a ponytail and a leopard-skin jacket that went down to my feet, and like, 20 white, fluffy dogs on one leash,” she told Dazed and Confused in 2012. The album is stacked with cartoonish approximations of what she thinks a rap song should sound like: shivers of bass, the occasional “skrrrt,” Mad Libs of designer brands and bodily fluids. Many sound like direct imitations of the rappers she admires. “Sally Walker,” the best song on the album, features sparkling piano chords similar to Cardi B’s “Money” (J. White produced both songs). The exhausting, Juicy J-featuring “Freak of the Week” sounds like a rejected track by Megan Thee Stallion, whose debut album features her own song with the Memphis rapper. She hisses “lil’ bitch” in a way that sounds like Rico Nasty.

“我只知道我想去美国，成为一名说唱歌手，扎个马尾辫，穿着长及脚的豹纹夹克，就像用一条皮带拴着的20只毛茸茸的白狗，”她在2012年向Dazed and Confused说道。在这张专辑中，全是她认为的说唱歌曲应该带给人的感觉，并不是大众所普遍认同的感觉，这其实带着些卡通感：贝斯的哆嗦感，偶尔几句 “skrrrt,” 关于时尚品牌以及体液的文字游戏。许多歌曲听起来像直接模仿她仰慕的歌手做成的。这张专辑中最好的歌 “Sally Walker（莎莉沃克）” 运用钢琴和弦，与Cardi B的 “Money（钱）” 相似（J. White制作了这两首歌）。Juicy J合作的 “Freak of the Week（一周怪物）” 听起来筋疲力竭，像一首被Megan Thee Stallion拒绝的歌曲，后者在其出道专自己的歌中与孟菲斯的说唱歌手合作。她向 “小婊砸” 喝倒彩的方式听起来像是Rico Nasty。

It’s possible Iggy sees herself as a pioneer who paved the way for female rappers. Her album starts with “Thanks I Get,” a paltry diatribe about the “little mes” she claims to see. Women have been rapping as well as men for as long as rap has existed, but it’s only now, years after Iggy came on the scene, that they seem to be inching towards getting equal attention. Iggy Azalea is not the only current rapper who fills songs with dreary, monotonous references to sex and money, but many find creative, amusing, and even raw ways to write and spit about both. Instead, Iggy crams her songs with one-liners that sound like branded Instagram captions: “I waste my wine before I ever waste my time”; “Catch flights not feelings.” Even worse are the banal repetitions: “I just wanna nut,” she whispers over a bastardized “Push It” sample, subjecting us to the word “nut” 15 times in under three minutes. Mixed metaphors wilt over predictable beats. I found myself bobbing along automatically to the slumped synths and handclaps, then wanting to hit “next” after 30 seconds of each song.

Iggy 可能把自己当做为女性说唱歌手开路的先锋。她的专辑以歌曲 “Thanks I Get” 开始，这是她承诺过对 “little mes” 的一个微不足道的攻击。自说唱乐存在以来，女性和男性一样一直在参与说唱乐。但直到如今，在Iggy大火几年后，女性似乎才朝着获得平等关注的方向前进。Iggy Azalea 不是目前唯一一位歌曲充满枯燥乏味的性和金钱的说唱歌手，但许多说唱歌手能够用有创造力的、有趣的甚至质朴的方式写出并抨击含有以上两种元素的歌曲。相反，Iggy 在她的歌中塞满俏皮话，听起来像著名的Instagram上图片的说明文字：“在我浪费时间之前我浪费了我的酒”；“我更愿意去其他城市旅行而不是理解某人。” 更糟的是平淡的重复：“我想要你那个，” 她耳语低等的 “Push It” 歌词，3分钟以内的歌中出现了15次 “nut” 这个单词。矛盾的隐喻在可预测的节奏中失去了功效。我发现自己在低迷的合成器和鼓掌声中自然地上下摆动，但在每首歌播放30秒后想要切到“下一首”。

For an album so concerned about “haters,” the worst we see comes from Iggy herself. “They call me racist/Only thing I like is green and blue faces,” she sneers, managing to corrode and embarrass herself in one line. Rather than penitence, she offers only a garish caricature. Her only defense is to further offend.

对于一张如此关心“讨厌者”的专辑，我们所见最糟的地方来自Iggy她自己。“他们称我为种族主义者/我唯一喜欢的是绿脸和蓝脸，” 她嘲讽地唱道，成功地令自己在一段歌词中尴尬。她没有悔过之心，反而带来了花哨的讽刺。她唯一的防卫，就是进一步冒犯。