212 is the lead single from Azealia Banks’ highly anticipated debut album, Broke With Expensive Taste. The song has already racked up six and a half million hits on YouTube, and Kanye West has branded her ‘the new face of rap’.

Banks, who was recently signed to Universal Music, released 212 early December here in the United Kingdom and the track has recently just cracked the UK top 40 debuting at #24, with an EP scheduled for release on the 25th March. With fierce yet vulgar lyrics like “B**** the end of your lives are near, this s*** been mine, mine!” bouncing off Lazy Jay’s track ‘Float My Boat’ probably explains why this track has become an infectious dance floor filler. Miss Banks’ ripe vocals fit perfectly in slot with the uptempo beat which is the main reason why I fell in love with this song after my first hearing. I have played this song over and over for four months straight, yet I’m still not fed up of it.

212 has received overall highly impressive and positive reviews and has racked up impressive airplay here in the UK (it would not suprise me if it won an award for most bleeps to appear in one song). NME also carefully slotted 212 at #18 on their 50 best tracks of 2011 which is eyebrow raising for a debut single released at the end of the year, and lets be honest, if you can win over NME, you can win over anyone.

In my opinion, 212 is a breath of fresh air and it gives me hope for the future of rap music. I pray Azealia sticks to her edgy care free style and continues to make a name for herself in the game. I think we have found the missing piece to our music industry puzzle.