That the richly-talented rapper Azealia Banks has for the umpteenth time lashed out on Twitter is nothing new and hardly noteworthy. (This time Lupe Fiasco, the defender of her nemesis Iggy Azalea, was in the firing line). What's different is that Banks has slurred an entire nation: ours.

Banks implied* Australia was only interested in Lupe Fiasco (who had a No.1 hit, Battle Scars, here with Guy Sebastian in 2012, which only made No.71 in the United States) because we are fascinated by black people, whether talented or not.

Azealia Banks appears not to love Australia.

Her comment was just one in an ongoing and widening debate sparked by alleged racist policing in the wake of the acquittal of the policeman who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson. That spiralled into a series of social media spats about where various hip-hop musicians stand on racism and cultural appropriation. Azalea has become a touchstone, attacked by many American musicians and fans but also hugely popular with the public and defended by the likes of Fiasco and Kendrick Lamar.

Banks' comment seems to have passed largely unnoticed here, except by a handful of fans and Melbourne rock band Closure in Moscow, which called Banks a "dumb c---t" on Twitter.