Work by Iggy Azalea

Album: The New Classic (2013)

Charted: 17 54

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Before conquering America with her #1 hit "Fancy" in the summer of 2014, Iggy Azalea released some singles in the UK, starting with "Work" in 2013. Signed to Mercury Records, she was a tricky artist to promote: a hip-hop performer who is female, white and from Australia. "Work" did well, going to #17. After "Fancy" took off in America, "Work" was issued there as well, this time going to #54.
"Work" was premiered on BBC Radio 1Xtra on February 11, 2013. "I think every time you listen to it you get something new, whether it's in the lyrics or it's part of the beat," Azalea told MTV News. "I love listening to music like that, when you can hear something and every time it feels like you get a new thing from it. That to me is what good music is."
Azalea felt the dynamic song deserved a proper visual treatment, so she hired the French directing duo Jonas & François (Madonna's 4 Minutes," Muse's "Undisclosed Desires") to helm the clip. The rapper took some inspiration from Outkast's "Bombs Over Baghdad (B.O.B.)" video, the infamous lap dance scene in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof horror film, and a classic Australian musical for the clip. Regarding the latter, she told MTV News: "I really love Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which is an Australian film about some drag queens that go from Sydney in this bus called 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert' up to the Northern Territory, and it's about this adventure they have," she revealed.

"I really liked this film as a kid and always identified with it because it's [about] drag queens and they have to keep stopping in small rural towns and they're not accepted," she continued. "I always kinda felt that way with rap - trying to break into it, I wasn't accepted and I was out of my element, so I really love that movie, and it being Australian, I really wanted to draw reference from it. So there's little nods to that in the desert scene."
Azalea reworked the song for the US single, adding a guest verse from rapper Wale.
The song tells Iggy Azalea's story, asking us to walk a mile in her designer shoes to see how she got there. We hear about how she moved to Miami at 16 with no money or family in the area and succeeded against the odds thanks to her talent and determination.

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