A few months ago, most people hadn't heard of the woman who is now the most-searched-for musician on Google.
But in the past several months, 24-year-old Iggy Azalea — real name Amethyst Amelia Kelly — has risen to global fame with her hit "Fancy," which has been called the song of the summer.
Some of the buzz surrounding Iggy has to do with her being a white female rapper with a unique background.
She grew up in Australia but moved to the U.S. in 2007 when she was 16 years old. According to a Billboard profile, Iggy told her mom that she was going to Miami on vacation with a friend, when really she came to the U.S. by herself to try to make it in music.
After arriving in America, Iggy spent time perfecting her craft in Miami, Atlanta, Houston, and LA, where she recorded her mixtape "Ignorant Art" and made a music video for her song kitten that went viral and helped launch her career, according toa 2012 Gawker profile.
She used the last of her savings to shoot the video and hoped it would pay off. As Gawker noted: "She and her girls licked at ice pops in such a way that one does not generally lick at ice pops in public, and there was also an adorable young boy doing the Dougie. It went viral soon after."
Iggy's name is as unusual as her style — once she decided to get into the music business, she created her rap personaby combining the name of her childhood pet (Iggy) with the name of the street her mother lives on (Azalea).
Atlanta rapper T.I. has been a mentor to Iggy from the start, and she had a management deal with his label Grand Hustle Entertainmentin 2012. But that fell through, delaying the release of her debut album, and she signed with Island Def Jam in 2013.
So far, her album " The New Classic," released in April, has brought her considerable commercial success.
Her hit single "Fancy" was the most-played song on U.S. radio earlier this summer, and the videohas amassed more than 160 million views on YouTube. It riffs off the popular 1995 movie "Clueless," withIggy dressing as the movie's main character, CherAs Iggy has risen to fame, she's faced a lot of criticism. She's a white female in a business dominated by black men, and she raps with a southern twang even though she speaks with an Australian accent.

she is the person dat is going to bring nicki minajs fame to the end

#teamIGGYAZALEA #blackWindow # fancy

philo3: she is the person dat is going to bring nicki minajs fame to the end

and I fink I lik her

Her rap dey give me joy. No b all dis anaconda and python wey dey reign now.

anoda bastard naked artiste as emerge

Her boobs are so "missing" navy seal can't even locate it.

philo3: she is the person dat is going to bring nicki minajs fame to the end

She will try but I don't see her toppling Nicki.

Iggy Is a better rapper than Minaj is. Minaj just tryna stay relevant by lewd vids. UOENO Minaj's career is dead

Nicki is wack!! Iggy?? She's wack too! Why?? Cos TI and asap rocky confessed to be her ghost writers