Iggy Azalea went to a 'mental retreat' to deal with her anger
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea has revealed how her friends and management staged an intervention and forced her into a retreat for anger and mental health issues.
The Fancy star, who alongside her platinum-selling career became famous for her Twitter spats with celebs, despite initially being "pissed" about having to be sent away somewhere, confessed she is glad she got the help she needed.
The rapper admitted, "I’m glad that I went."
Speaking to Billboard, the 27-year-old hitmaker detailed how she recently teamed up with Demi Lovato‘s management team, who – along with her friends – asked her to attend a meeting in Arizona before suggesting that she spend two weeks working with mental health professionals.
"I’ve never really sat down and had an honest conversation with professional people. It was good to say something to somebody who could give me the tools and information on how to make my life manageable when I’m feeling those things. So it was really useful."
Iggy Azalea is set to release her second album ‘Surviving The Summer’ later this year. It will be the follow-up to 2014 debut ‘The New Classic’. Azalea’s previously planned ‘Digital Distortion’ was long delayed and eventually scrapped.
Ready to return, Azalea said the mental health professionals spent time analyzing her turbulent childhood, while her camp have described the stay as a “mental retreat” that included “intensive therapy”.
“I thought I was coming in to speak about something else,” Azalea said. “Then they were like, ‘We think you need to go away to this place.”
“They were like, ‘We think you’re really talented and you can go to the studio and make hits all day, but we don’t know if, you know, someone says something about you and you have a reaction it could ruin a branding deal. We need you to go and speak to these people and make sure that you’re mentally prepared to come out with new music.’ I didn’t want to go there — I didn’t like the idea of being sent away somewhere. I was pissed.”
Rapper Iggy Azalea attends Republic Records Celebrates the GRAMMY Awards in Partnership with Cadillac, Ciroc and Barclays Center at Cadillac House on January 26, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Republic Records)
Azalea said she finally agreed to the plan and found it useful. Azalea shared a new song, ‘Savior’ back in February. The track features a guest appearance from Migos‘ Quavo.
"If I’m being honest, the only people who have been there for me are Quavo, Kesha and Demi," she said, "Everyone else has pretty much acted like I don’t exist." Although Iggy is set for the rebirth of her music career, she has wishes that more management teams would offer the same support to their artists. She added: "I really wish there was more of an infrastructure within the music industry to make sure that the artists have people they can go to. Like physical therapists in sports."