Azealia Banks defends skin bleaching

Azealia Banks has defended bleaching her skin.

The ‘212’ rapper, who called Zayn Malik a "curry scented bitch" and slammed Iggy Azalea after she criticised Beyoncé for supposedly poking fun at "stereotypical white names" like Becky on her album ‘Lemonade’, has admitted she’s now started to bleach her own skin.

And the 25-year-old musician doesn’t seem to think there is a "difference" between changing the colour of her skin and having plastic surgery and wearing hair extensions.

In a video for Facebook live, she said: "What’s the difference between getting a nose job and changing your skin colour?"

"Nobody was upset when I was wearing 30-inch weaves and tearing out my edges and doing all that type of sh*t like that. You guys loved it."

Shortly after the outspoken singer’s video was posted online several fans called Azealia a hypocrite after the comments she’d made about "cultural appropriation" in the past.

Azealia went on to say how she didn’t think it was "important" to discuss why bleaching your skin is a "necessity" for African-American people.

She added: "I don’t really think it’s important to discuss the cultural importance of skin bleaching anymore because just as African-American people in this world, you assimilate. There are things that you accept not out of necessity, but things that become the norm because it’s just happening all of the time."

The ‘Big Big Beat’ star had her Twitter account suspended after she launched a vile racist and homophobic rant on Zayn Malik and she admitted she felt "shoved into a corner and punished" for her actions.

She previously said: "I feel really sad and uninspired. I’m having trouble mustering up enough smiles and enthusiasm to finish ‘Fantasea 2’.

"I feel deeply misunderstood. I feel cheated, I feel stolen from. I feel though as I’ve made and am making such huge contributions to the times, as far as music and the national conversation go, only to be shoved into a corner and punished while I watch my ideas and insight get paraphrased and repackaged by everyone."