Azealia Banks compares Birmingham fish stall that made her ill to Wuhan wet market

Azealia Banks has claimed that a fish market in Birmingham has made her ill, comparing it to a “Wuhan wet market”.

The rapper made the comments on X on Thursday (September 26), six days after playing at the city’s O2 Institute as part of her ‘Back To The Union Jack’ tour.

It would appear that shortly after the show, she paid a visit to the fish stalls at the Bull Ring Indoor Market, and it did not go well.

“The city officials in birmingham, UK, need to do something about the fish market at the bullring market,” she wrote. “Its giving putrid pathogen Wuhan wet market tease and just being in there I caught some shit.”

Sidebar. The city officials in birmingham, UK, need to do something about the fish market at the bullring market. Its giving putrid pathogen Wuhan wet market tease and just being in there I caught some shit. Just spent the last two days bathing , massaging, drinking tea sweating…

— Azealia Banks (@azealiaskuntrag) September 26, 2024

“Just spent the last two days bathing, massaging, drinking tea sweating that shit out,” she added. “That’s not cool b”.

By comparing the market to Wuhan, she is invoking the speculation that a market in the Chinese region is where the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Banks went on to clarify what she was doing in a fish market to begin with: “I was looking for some falsely advertised beauty supply shop I saw on Yelp, and it was this little stand inside a outdoor building with this rank ass fish market boofin up the whole space. I wasn’t like, on tour trying to buy raw fish lmao,“ she wrote.

I wasn’t even. I was looking for some falsely advertised beauty supply shop I saw on yelp and it was this little stand inside a outdoor building with this rank ass fish market boofin up the whole space. I wasn’t like, on tour trying to buy raw fish lmao https://t.co/3j5e6vYI3b

— Azealia Banks (@azealiaskuntrag) September 26, 2024

Banks is no stranger to ruffling feathers online. Earlier this month, she suggested Taylor Swift should sue Elon Musk over his comments about her, which Banks described as “harassment”.

After Swift announced she was publicly endorsing Kamala Harris, Musk responded on X, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”

“Nah this is actual sexual harassment,” Banks replied on X. “Taylor should flex on his ass and sue him for loads of cash n level up to be the most undefeatable richest woman in the history of music. Take his fucking money taylorrrrrrr!!!!

“Put his ass in a hole sis. Lmao the pop girlies would all be so crumb. I love this,” she added in a subsequent tweet.

Back in March, Banks was also openly critical of Beyoncé’s new country direction on ‘Cowboy Carter’, describing it as “white women cosplay” and stating that she feels the singer is “setting herself up to be ridiculed”.

Those comments led to an unlikely online friendship being forged between Banks and KT Tunstall, after the former bemoaned the latter’s absence from the album.

Banks also reignited a years-old feud with Lily Allen this summer, also in connection with ‘Cowboy Carter’. After Allen gave her own criticisms of the album, Banks accused her of past racist comments and told her to “sit this one out”.