It’s been quite the whirlwind couple of weeks for Elon Musk. First, he stirred up some shit with his investors and board of directors by tweeting that he could take the company private. Then Azealia Banks came to the party with claims that he was high when he sent out that tweet.
And it only got messier from there.
Now the musician has taken to Instagram *again* to apologise to the Tesla founder.
Let’s indulge in a quick recap of the events to date.
Banks claimed that she had spent a weekend at Elon Musk’s house alone waiting to collaborate with fellow musician Grimes, who was a no-show.
She also said that while there she heard Musk on the phone “scrounging for investors to cover his arse.”
This was in reference to his tweet about taking Tesla private for $420 a share.
Azealia Banks exposing Elon Musk for tweeting while on Acid.. while she was waiting for Grimes at her home … whewwww lord ???? pic.twitter.com/i9BXWWrLAD
— sadhoeflo (@sadhoeflo) August 13, 2018
Gizmodo reached out to Musk via Twitter DM, who denied knowing Banks or having communicated with her.
Not long after Musk publicly claimed that he had secured investors to take Tesla private, Banks took to her Instagram stories again to call Grimes an inbred junkie and accuse Musk’s family of taking advantage of black South Africans during Apartheid, amongst other things.
She kept going. pic.twitter.com/YF8PX56dm3
— Jeremy C. Owens (@jowens510) August 13, 2018
Banks then shared some messages allegedly between herself and Grimes, saying that Musk has a fake accent, that the Russians want him dead and that he has a massive Model D.
Oh, and apparently he was also tapping her phone.
Azealia Banks posting conversations with Grimes about Elon Musk and claims he’s tapping her phone pic.twitter.com/XLaWCjUTUN
— ™ (@908hoe) August 18, 2018
One day later Grimes and Musk’s relationship was brought into question when people started to notice that he had unfollowed her on Twitter. The pair then unfollowed each other on Instagram.
Yet another day passed and Musk deletes his Instagram altogether. He went on to tell Gizmodo “I didn’t like it.”
On the same, day Banks posted an Instagram story that was then deleted, that asked Elon to return her phone. She went onto claim that his attorneys had her phone and were deleting evidence from it.
Musk denied these allegations, and when Business Insider reached out to Banks over Inatagram DM she alleghedly said that “It’s a f—ing mess I want my phone and I want to go home.”
She also added “I’m like in tears right now” and “This has nothing to do with me.”
And then came the attorney talk.
You up?
Latest from Ms. Banks pic.twitter.com/PA92P8h512
— Hope King (@lisahopeking) August 21, 2018
It’s worth noting here that only the last screenshot shows the name ‘Grimes’ at the top. The previous two don’t show who Banks was allegedly speaking with, and mentions “damages that Claire caused.” Claire Boucher is Grimes’ real name.
Less than a week later, and right after Musk announced that he won’t be taking Tesla private, Banks has suddenly posted a really bloody odd apology on her Instagram stories.
In it, the rapper refers to herself as a contributor to Musk’s problems and says that she never meant to use the private information against him.
She goes on to say that she heard that he is a fan of her music and that “somewhere in another dimensions or on another plane, this interaction happened harmoniously and resulted in posiitve outcomes for the both of us.”
She also says that she would like to meet in person so the pair can be formally introduced.
There’s so much to unpack here, but I do have a few initial thoughts.
It’s interesting that the rapper is refering to herself as a contributor, rather than an instigator here. While we don’t know what really happened behind closed doors between herself, Musk and Grimes, she has published what may be real private correspondence and made some pretty wild accusations publicly.
It also strikes me as odd that she refers to all of this drama between the two as pop culture fan-fiction. She probably just used incorrect terminology here and isn’t implying that it was fiction.
Asking to meet properly brings into question her claim that she heard Musk on the phone in his house. It seems unlikely that if she was close enough to be privy to such a conversation in his own home that they hadn’t even met.
The whole thing is just so weird, so the entrance of this apology shouldn’t be a surprise at this point. Again, we don’t know what is actually happening outside of what Banks is sharing, but my bet is that this letter may be the fruit of ligitgation.
We’ll let you know if any more bananas chapters unfold.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2018/08/tesla-staying-public-after-investors-beg-please-dont-do-this/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/elon-musk-smug-410×231.jpg” title=”Tesla Staying Public After Investors Beg ‘Please Don’t Do This’ [Updated]” excerpt=”Elon Musk gave us all a bit of a shock earlier this month when he announced on Twitter that he was thinking about making the company private, with a share price of US$420. It didn’t last long though. Earlier today he issued a statement saying that it’s not actually going to happen.”]