Azealia Banks to pose nude in Playboy magazine

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/12/azealia-banks-to-pose-nude-in-playboy-magazine

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Azealia Banks looks set to appear in the pages of Playboy magazine. The opinionated rapper took to social media site Instagram to announce her upcoming editorial and interview in Playboy’s April 2015 music issue.

“Now I can finally tell you, I’ll be on the COVER of @Playboy’s April Music Issue!!,” Banks wrote on Twitter, before posting an image in which she appears to be strapped into a cat mask of sorts, crouching behind a leopard-print throw.

Playboy’s website has referred to Banks’ shoot as a “nude pictorial” and a “frisky pictorial that’s sure to break the internet” – no doubt, a reference to Kim Kardashian West’s greased-up nude photo shoot by Jean-Paul Goude, for Paper magazine’s winter issue last year.

The photography spread was shot by veteran Austrian fashion photographer and director Ellen von Unwerth, according to Playboy. Von Unwerth has shot a multitude of models and celebrities, from Kate Moss and actor Jennifer Lawrence to pop stars Rihanna and FKA twigs.

The issue is due to hit US newsstands on 20 March, and will feature an interview written by Rob Tannenbaum, music journalist and co-author of MTV oral history, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution.

Last year, Banks surprise-released long-awaited album Broke with Expensive Taste on iTunes, after a series of disagreements with her record label and former management team.