Born in Sydney and grew up in Mullumbimby, New South Wales, Australia. Amethyst Amelia Kelly known professionally as Iggy Azalea is an Australian rapper, songwriter, and model who started rapping when she was 14. She dropped out of high school, feeling like an outcast and constantly being bullied due to her homemade outfits. Instead, she joined her mother to clean hotel rooms and holiday houses. From her work, she eventually saved up some money and used it to go to the United States. She initially told her family she went on a vacation with her friends before she called later to tell them she was not coming back. When she first arrived in the United States in 2006, she stayed in Miami, Florida, and afterward lived briefly in Houston, Texas. Azalea settled for a few years in Atlanta, Georgia, working with a member of the rap collective Dungeon Family named Backbone. During that period, she met future collaborators FKi and Natalie Sims. Meanwhile, she had met someone from Interscope Records who encouraged her move to Los Angeles during the summer of 2010. Interscope would eventually go on to manage her for a brief period of time. It was during this time that she adopted her stage name, which she created from the name of her childhood dog, Iggy, and the street she grew up on, Azalea Street.
For years, Iggy Azalea had to leave the country every three months to renew her visa waiver. While pursuing her passion in music, she worked as a model and once served as a face of Levi Jeans. She eventually gained recognition from her viral music video on YouTube before releasing her first mixtape in 2011. Her career continued to flourish. In 2012, she was featured on the cover issue of XXL magazine's annual Top 10 Freshman, becoming the first female and non-American rapper to reach such feat. Her debut EP, "Glory", soon followed, and it was executive produced by none other than T.I.. She was lined up with Tyga and Rita Ora for some MTV-sponsored tours, and took part in a number of coveted events including the annual VH1 Divas concert. On top of that, she opened for Beyonce Knowles for the singer's Australian leg of Mrs. Carter World Tour. Iggy Azalea's debut studio album, The New Classic (2014), peaked among the top five on several charts worldwide, but received mixed reviews from within the industry. The album eventually topped the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, making Azalea the first non-American female rapper to reach the top of the chart.
After her debut album, Iggy Azalea released a slew of singles to build anticipation for her intended second album, Digital Distortion. However, a series of conflicts with her label, as well as personal conflicts, resulted in the project being cancelled. Consequently, Iggy Azalea switched labels, releasing the EP Survive the Summer (2018) under Island Records. Further disagreements led to Iggy Azalea becoming an independent artist and creating her own label, Bad Dreams, through a distribution deal with Empire. Her second album, In My Defense, was released in 2019, followed by another EP, Wicked Lips, that same year, and a third studio album, The End of an Era. Throughout her career, Iggy Azalea has released three studio albums, five extended plays (EPs), two mixtapes and seventeen singles (including four as a featured artist).