When you listen to Iggy Azalea, you go into it accepting that you’re getting an artificial product, in that the Australian MC adopts a fake southern accent to deliver her rhymes. So the authenticity/appropriation divide becomes moot, since she is openly inauthentic-sounding — and that’s part of her appeal. Perhaps because it’s so overtly a musical “shtick” she’s actually given more flexibility than someone trying to stay “authentic,” allowing her to delight in straight-up hip-hop, and glimmering pop, and patois and whatever else. Maybe I’m overthinking it. Or maybe I’m underthinking it, I dunno. She’s a strange case, and it gets stranger with her new bhangra-centric song “Million Dollar Dream.”
The track is from Disney’s Jon Hamm-starring Million Dollar Arm, based on the true story of two men in India who won a baseball reality show to become professional pitchers in the US. Over an “Indian punjabish” beat composed by A.R. Rahman, Iggy spits some aspirational bars about achieving your dreams — fitting for the movie’s story and hers. That’s Bollywood singer Sukhwinder Singh on the hook.
Listen to the cultural track over on Idolator
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