At the outset of her chart-topping single “Fancy,” Australian rapper Iggy Azalea declares, “First things first, I’m the realest.” But could that in fact be nothing but an utter mondegreen? Might Azalea in fact be declaring her loyalty to the “realist” camp in foreign policy thought?
Before you dismiss that question outright, consider this: Azalea has described herself as something of a fan of Francis Fukuyama. Seriously.
In an interview with Paper, Azalea reveals that she’s wading her way through Fukuyama’s recent doorstopper, The Origins of Political Order.
“I like to read,” she told Paper. “I’m currently reading The Origins of Political Order. It starts at the beginning of time and goes up to the French Revolution. It’s about how religion turned into politics and politics turned into religion. Actually, it’s really informed how I look at the music industry.”
What might Azalea have learned from this book to gain insight into the music business? For most of his career, Fukuyama was an avowed neoconservative, but the Iraq war changed all that, leading Fukuyama to repudiate his views and fall back on a line of thinking still concerned with the spread of liberty but less willing to use American military force to promote it.
