- The rapper Azealia Banks claimed that she spent the weekend at Elon Musk’s house, setting social media ablaze.
- Banks told Business Insider she saw the Tesla CEO at home “scrounging for investors” after tweeting last week about plans to take Tesla private.
- Banks also said that she was not trying to eavesdrop but that she “could hear that he was scrambling because he in fact didn’t have any funding secured.”
- Musk’s representative told Business Insider he could not comment on funding. Tesla declined to comment.
Azealia Banks lit up the internet after saying in her Instagram Stories that she was at Elon Musk’s house for the weekend.
On Sunday, the rapper posted on Instagram: “I waited around all weekend while grimes coddled her boyfriend.” In another story, she wrote that “staying in Elon musks house has been like a real like episode of ‘Get Out.'”
Grimes, the singer and songwriter whose real name is Claire Boucher, has been dating Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla, since earlier this year.
When Business Insider reached out to Banks via Instagram direct message, Banks shared further details. She said she arrived at one of Musk’s homes in Los Angeles early on Friday and left on Sunday night. An independent secondary source confirmed that Banks was at one of Musk’s properties over the weekend.
Over the course of the weekend, Banks said, the couple essentially went into hiding as Musk - who had tweeted earlier in the week about plans to take Tesla private and said funding was "secured" - sought funding. But Banks said the couple kept stringing her along with the promise of collaborating on music.
"They bring me out there on the premise that we would hang and make music," Banks said in a DM. "But his dumbass kept tweeting and tucked his dick in between his ass cheeks once shit hit the fan."
Banks said Musk seemed distracted over the weekend.
"I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet," she said. "He was stressed and red in the face."
Banks added: "He's not cute at all in person."
A spokesperson for Musk told Business Insider in an email that "Elon has never even met Ms. Banks or communicated with her in any way," but did not deny that Banks had stayed at one of Musk's properties over the weekend.
Tesla declined to comment on Banks' claims about Musk looking for investors.
Banks also said that she was not trying to eavesdrop but that Musk seemed to be scrambling.
On Monday, Musk said in a statement on Tesla's website that he used the phrase "funding secured" to indicate that he believes there was "no question" that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund would provide funding to convert Tesla into a private company.
A representative for Musk referred questions about Tesla's funding to the company, which declined to comment. Boucher also did not respond to a request for comment, and neither Musk nor Boucher responded to Banks' claims on social media.
Banks' Instagram posts also caused a stir because she alluded to drug use and Twitter. Musk's representative said such claims were "utter nonsense."
Banks has a history of making bold and sometimes unverified claims. In 2016, she slammed Beyoncé on Twitter and accused her of stealing from other artists.
Banks' Twitter account was deactivated in June after she graphically insulted Monet X Change, a competitor on the most recent season of "RuPaul's Drag Race." Earlier this year, Banks started a GoFundMe asking for help to fund a lawsuit against the actor Russell Crowe, who she claimed spit on her, choked her, and called her the N-word at a party in 2016. (The producer RZA later confirmed that Crowe spit on Banks.)
"I could run Tesla better than he does," Banks told Business Insider of Musk.
"They're so pitiful," she added. "And it's honestly stupid of them to think another performative 'angry/crazy black girl hit piece' will do anything to bring me down."
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