Whelan’s, Dublin

Friend of Kanye West, shout-outs from Missy Elliott, performing at designer Karl Lagerfeld’s house in Paris,

Elle

magazine photoshoots by Nicola Formichetti? Mouth almighty (and dirty with it) Azealia Banks, a 20-year-old rapper and former coffee-house worker from Harlem, New York, is the American hip-hop/pop/crossover act du jour, and she wears the spurious title well.

Banks’s Facebook description is “lyricist, bitch, comedian and cutie pie”, and throughout her hot-ticket debut Irish gig – which, at a generous push, lasted 30 minutes – she dipped into each classification with no small amount of sass and style.

Banks is, of course, what we in the constructive-criticism business call a work in progress. So, while her major-label record company Universal is busy behind the scenes working on marketing strategies and making sure Banks’s forthcoming debut album (on which she will be assisted by, among others, Adele producer/co-songwriter Paul Epworth) will be worth the wait, Banks herself is just getting on with it.

In short, with a DJ providing the beats and arm-waving, she’s pulling out the stops, popping the corks and yelping out amusing, hard-assed lyrics such as “F**k the drama, I’m too pretty for a fist fight . . .” (from

The Chill$)

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Other tunes, including snappy bangers such as Barbie Shit, 212 and L8R, are slam-dunked from stage to floor, each one a resounding, bouncing hit. It’s great fun and very instructive to watch such a force of nature erupting in such a small venue (she won’t be back here again, that’s for certain), but you’d have to ponder on how Banks will negotiate the jump from feted ingénue to full-blown star.

Less than half an hour in, her boisterous company might give you tantalising clues, but at this point the full picture remains safely out of view. Under, no doubt, lock and key.