What happened to Iggy Azalea? Fancy hitmaker's shocking career move after quitting music and OnlyFans
At one point Iggy Azalea was the biggest name in hip-hop... but now, she's on a very different career path.
She exploded onto the charts in 2014 with her breakthrough hit Fancy, which held the top spot on the Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks.
Billboard eventually crowned the song - which featured a then little-known Charli XCX - as the biggest hit by a female rapper in music history.
Collaborations with Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and Ariana Grande soon followed, but her success as a pop-rap superstar seemed to fizzle out as quickly as it had started.
She joined OnlyFans in 2023, making millions in her first year on the site, and then she officially retired from music for good in 2024.
These days, Iggy is making a living as a cryptocurrency entrepreneur.
While a lot has been said about her controversial 'memecoin' $Mother, few people outside of the crypto community know that Iggy now runs her own online casino.
Titled Motherland, the crypto-powered gambling destination features scantily-clad streamers hosting games like blackjack and poker.
Punters can gamble using Iggy's memecoin, and the star herself occasionally hosts streams to drive engagement to the platform.
Some streams include strippers twerking, pole dancing, and rubbing cake on each other.
Other clips feature women shaking their derrieres in next to nothing in front of green-screened slot machines.
Going all-in on cryptocurrency has earned Iggy a new fanbase in the crypto community, but longtime fans of her music have complained about her career change.
'My biggest wish for 2025: Iggy Azalea to go back to her real passion which is music,' one fan wrote on social media recently.
'I really wish some people understood there's more to life than money. She's stuck on Crypto now because her music career ended as a dud,' added another.
Outside of the Motherland casino, Iggy has also ventured into telecommunications.
She took over Unreal Mobile, relaunching the company and serving as co-founder and chief branding officer, with plans to incorporate her $Mother memecoin into the service.
Discussing her leap from music to crypto last year, Iggy told Rapid Response that music and touring had become 'monotonous' for her.
'It was a bit creatively limiting to me,' she explained.
'I had already started angel investing and taking some smaller creative roles in companies and I just felt so much more fulfillment and excitement in that,' she continued.
'I don't have an active record contract, I didn't have an active publishing contract. I had sold all of my masters - I don't even own them.'
Going all-in on cryptocurrency has earned Iggy a new fanbase in the crypto community, but longtime fans of her music have complained about her career change
Iggy finally sold the rights to her music to Domain Capital for an eight-figure sum.
This included her signature hit Fancy, along with songs like Black Widow, Kream and her Ariana Grande collab Problem.
After getting backlash from fans on social media for the sale, Iggy clapped back: 'I sold a portion of my catalogue to who I wanted, for an amount that means I don't have to work another day in my life.
'I love y'all down but the masters conversation is a little beyond most of your understanding of business.'
She added: 'It means that a portion of songs I sold to a company who now owns them. In exchange, they paid me what they would have earned in my lifetime, upfront in one lump sum.'
WHAT ARE BITCOINS, CRYPTO, AND MEMECOINS?
What are Bitcoins?
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency – an online type of money which is created using computer code.
It was invented in 2009 by someone calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto – a mysterious computer coder who has never been found or identified themselves.
Bitcoins are created without using middlemen – which means no banks take a fee when they are exchanged.
They are stored in what are called virtual wallets known as blockchains which keep track of your money.
One of the selling points is that it can be used to buy things anonymously.
However, this has left the currency open to criticism and calls for tighter regulation as terrorists and criminals have used to it traffic drugs and guns.
How are they created?
Bitcoins are created through a process known as 'mining' which involves computers solving difficult maths problems with a 64-digit solution.
Every time a new maths problem is solved a fresh Bitcoin is produced.
Some people create powerful computers for the sole purpose of creating Bitcoins.
But the number which can be produced are limited – meaning the currency should maintain a certain level of value.
Why are they popular?
Some people value Bitcoin because it is a form of currency which cuts out banking middlemen and the Government – a form of peer to peer currency exchange.
And all transactions are recorded publicly so it is very hard to counterfeit.
What are memecoins?
Memecoins are types of cryptocurrency inspired by viral internet memes.
They originally started out as a joke and were used for entertainment purposes, but have now ballooned in value in recent years.
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