In one of the more unlikely crossover success stories, blonde Australian beauty Iggy Azalea segued from a high-profile modeling career to become a hip-hop star. She moved to the States in 2006 at age 16, stating that she was drawn to the birthplace of rap. Moving from Miami to Houston to Atlanta, she absorbed the Southern-style drawl of her surroundings and released a trap-inspired mixtape titled Ignorant Art in 2011. A video for her song “Pu$$y” became a YouTube favorite due to its explicit nature. In 2012, she signed to Wilhelmina Models International, landing a job as the “New Face of Levi’s Jeans.” Later that year, her musical stock skyrocketed when XXL Magazine put her on the cover of their annual Top Ten Freshman issue. Azalea’s debut studio album The New Classic topped the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums making Azalea the first non-American female rapper to reach that summit. The album was preceded by her debut single “Work”, and generated the chart-topping single “Fancy”, which made Azalea the fourth female rapper in history to reach number one for seven consecutive weeks. Azalea joined The Beatles as the only acts to rank at numbers one and two simultaneously with their first two Hot 100 entries. She also went on to achieve three top ten hits simultaneously with the aforementioned songs along with,”Black Widow”, later that year. Azalea’s second studio album Digital Distortion was released in 2017.
