"Fantasea II: The Second Wave" is the long-awaited studio album by Azealia Banks, serving as the sequel to the 2012 mixtape, Fantasea. Azealia first announced the project on February 21st, 2018, in a Facebook post alongside a track-list.[1][2]
On July 31st, 2018, Azealia announced on her Instagram that the album would be released through her own record label, Chaos & Glory. After a temporary cancellation following her appearance on the television show, Wild N' Out, Azealia confirmed that the album will still be released in the future.
Background[]
2018[]
On February 21th, 2018, Azealia shared a post in Facebook with the following text:
"Guys I’m sooooooo excited to bring you Fantasea Two : The Second Wave! I didn’t think I could beat Broke With Expensive Taste, but this new album is actually way more incredible. I went about curating it very diligently for the last four years ... sometimes saving songs for years after their creation because I needed all the pieces of the puzzle to fit right. FTSW will be the only thing being talked about in Music when it drops this summer. It spans many genres (as per usual) and there is 100% something for EVERY type of music lover on the record. It’s Coming as a double-disc with FTSW as disc one and a re-mixed and re-mastered Fantasea one mixtape as Disc Two! This album will be like finding a lost Treasure Chest on the Ocean Floor, That is - if you can swim down deep enough to grab it!! I’ve yet to choose an official release date but you can expect it to be available by June 2018. Again I want to thank my fans and supporters for having given me the strength to renew and rebuild myself. This album is indicative of all the endless love you’ve given me over the years and I can’t wait for you to hear and see what that love sounds like flowing through me and how beautiful that love makes me look.
I love you guys forever and always.💙
- Azealia Sidebar : “Azealia” is such a great mermaid name ! My mother chose the right one !!! 😜💙"[3]
Despite releasing multiple singles and promoting the album she suddenly decided in mid-2018, that the project was cancelled, but that work on the album will be continued. In August, it was announced that the album would still be released someday. Banks would later separate from eOne Music in late 2018.
However yet again, in June 2019, Azealia took to her Instagram to say she allegedly would never release a full body of work as she felt the world was not deserving her music, but a few days later she posted pictures working in a studio with Russian producers. In the same month, she shared a snippet of "Icy Pisces", and she was looking for a singer to feature on it, thus proving the album would still in development.
On August 13, 2019, Banks hinted through her Instagram a possibility of the album to be changed again, as she introduced a concept titled "Seapunk". It is unclear if the album has been renamed or if it is a project apart. Also, Azealia said she would "drop the cheesy mermaid doodles" from the concept of the album, which may reinforce the theory that Fantasea II has been scrapped in favour of Seapunk. No more information has been given since. But it is likely that she refers to her own conception of Seapunk that would be illustrated in Fantasea II, she has already reiterated in interviews that Seapunk was a world where she could explore and connect with herself.
2021[]
In early 2021, Azealia moved to Miami and began re-recording the tracks and creating new songs for the album.[4] Azealia did a livestream on Instagram (April 16, 2021) and has told fans that the album will be released in the summer of 2021. She also played a still unreleased cover called "Surfer Boy" by The Supremes.[5]
The last time Azealia posted anything related to the album recording process was on June 27, 2021, when she shared a photo on Instagram.[6] That same day, Azealia said through her Instagram stories that "Paradiso II" and "Treasure Island" were produced by Dr. Luke and that she did not intend to rule out their art for a controversy.
2024[]
On July 9th, 2024, Azealia teased her fans sharing a video of an oyster giving birth to a pearl with her initials.[7] This is speculated to be referential of the lyrics from the Fantasea 2 track "Icy Pisces".
Music and composition[]
Azealia describing the creative process through her Instagram account on August 14, 2019:
"One of the hardest parts about creating a cohesive project is agreeing with yourself on what that experience entails. While it’s entirely more modern for an artists output to be incentivized by data-grabbing and create their universes that way (like , releasing music and albums just to satiate the public’s insatiable appetite for new content {tbh; a bit of that wouldn’t hurt me 🌚}) I’ve felt for years that the second installation to The original Fantasea Mixtape needed to be Monumental. In hindsight, my early interpretations of “Seapunk,” were far more complex than anything the mind of some ironic tumblr jokester could produce. Seapunk resonated deeply with me as a child of Yemaya; the mother of all fishes. I was very early in my spiritual and musical studies at the time (2012) and heavily reliant on messages that came from her to guide The experience , the attitude, and the messages which (unbeknownst to me at the time) drew direct parallels to prophecies left behind by other sea children, a group named Drexciya. That’s when I knew that Seapunk was real and Yemaya was the Source of it All. Re-imagining Seapunk 1.0 has not been an easy task. Breathing new life into a latent cyber-era in this hyper-social-media era as an independent artist is ambitious but I didn’t come this far just to come this far lol. There can be no fantasea two without seapunk 2.0.
Alas, Seapunk 2.0 is finally starting to fucking conceptualize . *passes out in piles of unreleased songs and mermaid wigs* Spiritual exhaustion but the good hot yoga kind lol."[8]
Artwork[]
Azealia revealed that there would be a different version for the physical and digital album cover art.[9] The digital version of the cover was revealed on July 8th, 2018, in an Instagram post. It features a drawing made by Christina Lu in similar artstyle as the 2012 Fantasea mixtape, featuring Azealia as a blue mermaid getting out of the water by a wave.[10] While the physical version, revealed two days prior, features a similar artstyle but Azealia is smiling and the design of the sea waves are different.[11]
Singles[]
- The lead single, "Anna Wintour", was released on April 6th, 2018 with the music video released on May 24th, 2018.
- The second single, "Treasure Island", was released on July 6th, 2018.
Promotional Singles[]
- The first promotional single, "Count Contessa", was released on September 16th, 2013, and the music video was released on December 6th, 2015. The song was officially re-released on all platforms on December 14th, 2019.
- The second promotional single, "Escapades", was released on September 1th, 2017. The music video was released on October 30th, 2017.
- The third promotional single, "Movin' On Up (Coco's Song, Love Beats Rhymes)", was released on March 9th, 2018.
Tracklist[]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Lorelei" (feat. Jamie Hince) | Azealia Banks • Jamie Hince | Jamie Hince | TBA |
| 2 | "Icy Pisces" | Banks | O/W/W/W/L/S | TBA |
| 3 | "Chaos and Glory" (feat. Luciana Caparaso) | Banks • Luciana Caparaso | O/W/W/W/L/S | TBA |
| 4 | "Along The Coast" 🅴 | Banks • Jack Fuller • KAYTRANADA | KAYTRANADA | 3:13 |
| 5 | "N*ggas Gon' Learn" (feat. Connie Diamond) 🅴 | Banks • Connie Diamond | KAYTRANADA | TBA |
| 6 | "Taste's State" (feat. Busta Rhymes) 🅴 | Banks • Machinedrum • Kevin Hussein • Busta Rhymes | Machinedrum | 3:31 |
| 7 | "Paradiso II" | Banks | Cirkut • Dr. Luke | TBA |
| 8 | "Treasure Island" 🅴 | Banks • Dr. Luke • Kevin Hussein • Cirkut | Cirkut • Dr. Luke | 3:21 |
| 9 | "Anna Wintour" 🅴 | Banks • Dorian Strickland • Hussein • Junior Sanchez • Shug | Junior Sanchez | 4:34 |
| 10 | "Count Contessa (Redux)" 🅴 | Banks | Lone | TBA |
| 11 | "Escapades" 🅴 | Banks | O/W/W/W/L/S | 4:04 |
| 12 | "Venus" | Banks • Paul Oakenfold | Oakenfold | 3:22 |
| 13 | "Movin' On Up" 🅴 | Banks | NEWBODY • An Expresso | 3:52 |
| 14 | "Desert Beat" | Banks | TBA | |
| 15 | "Blossom" | Banks | O/W/W/W/L/S | 3:31 |
| 16 | "In Excelsis" | Banks | NEWBODY | 2:20 |
Cut songs[]
Main article: List of unreleased songs
Key[]
- Bold typing indicates that the song, snippets of the song or lyrics have been leaked/posted/performed at some point.
- Italic typing indicates that the song remains unleaked.
- Underlined typing indicates that the full studio version has been leaked.
Strikethroughtyping indicates that the song was not recorded.- D indicates that the song's demo or snippets of the demo have been leaked/posted/performed at some point.
- R indicates that the song's rework or snippets of the rework have been leaked/posted/performed at some point.
- "Big Bank"
- "Bruce Lee"
- "El Remolino"
- "Fuck Him All Night"
- "La Corona De Mi Madre"
- "Let You In" (It has been rumored that this song is still being worked on but the song's fate is currently unknown)
- "Playhouse" (This was a contender for the album and planned to be released on streaming services, but it is still unknown if the song is even able to be finalized with Lone losing the studio session)
- "Pegasus"
- "Pocket Full of Posey" (feat. Ian Isiah)
- "Surf"
- "Tarantula"
- "The World Falls Apart" (feat. Ian Isiah)
- "Wings of a Butterfly"
- "Wut U Do" (This was a contender for the album, but an alternate version was released under NEWBODY; it's unknown if the original version of the song intended for Fantasea II will ever see the light of day on streaming services
Gallery[]
Promotional Pictures[]
Trivia[]
- Fantasea II: The Second Wave is one of three projects Banks is planning to release in the future, the other two being Business & Pleasure and a remastered version of YUNG RAPUNXEL PT. II.
- As of July 2024, thirteen songs from the album have been released or leaked: "Along the Coast", "Treasure Island", "Anna Wintour", "Count Contessa", "Pyrex Princess", "Taste's State", "Escapades", "Venus", "Movin' on Up", "Playhouse", "Blossom", "In Excelsis", and "Chi Chi".
- "Anna Wintour" was originally intended to feature Mel B, and ultimately, Nicki Minaj, but due to scheduling conflicts it was changed to a solo song.
- "Pyrex Princess" was also meant to have a feature. It's unknown who, since it was released as a solo track in 2018.
- Azealia told fans to guess who would be featured in certain songs. Someone guessed that Jhene Aiko would be featured in "Icy Pisces", and Azealia responded "🤔 " reinforcing the theory that either the fan was correct or Banks plans a Jhene Aiko collaboration in the future.
- "Along the Coast" was previously released in 2016, in Azealia's mixtape Slay-Z.
- This version does not include a featured artist.
- All three "Chi Chi", "Pyrex Princess" and "Ain't Know" are planned to be released in Business & Pleasure, which might indicate these three have been cut off the track listing for Fantasea II: The Second Wave.
- "Taste's State" was released in Banks' official SoundCloud account. In the description she posted that she "wanted a proper release but busta said it sounded it dated (i disagree)" (sic), but she uploaded the track because it "deserves to be heard tho" (sic).
- Possibly, the song has been scrapped off the project.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1428512680586743&id=113818888722802
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1428554760582535&id=113818888722802
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1428512680586743&id=113818888722802
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/COT7LbHgjLb/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGvmr9rcQ40
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CQoRVAHgjSR/
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/C9MogMzx2Uj/z
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Hi3GYA-57/
- ↑ https://x.com/AzealiaNews/status/1015057832469843968
- ↑ https://x.com/AzealiaBanksFRA/status/1016034378244345856/
- ↑ https://x.com/AzealiaNews/status/1015053993729503232