[Shaun]

-glares at Smithy-

New York upstart Azealia Banks has kept busy as of late, issuing a string of Best New Tracks and collaborating with the likes of Machinedrum and Lady Gaga stylist Nicola Formichetti. And now the rapper/singer is signed to the biggest label on the planet, Universal, as she announced today on Twitter.

"God dealt me a really ****ed up hand at birth," she wrote. "Half the **** I've been through & successfully gotten through would blow some of your minds. God just dealt me a new hand today."

Discussing the possibility of signing to a major in a recent Pitchfork interview, she said, "I want to do this thing-- and I don't even really know what the **** 'this thing' is yet-- but considering how ambitious my ideas are musically, I definitely need a label that will really get it out there. I'm not really scared of major labels. I just want to work where I'm allowed to make mistakes and do my own thing rather than get into a situation where someone else has their own agenda of what they want me to be."