Azealia Banks asks Elon Musk for her phone back in Instagram posts

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and
rapper Azealia Banks.
AP/Getty/Business Insider

• US rapper Azealia Banks is demanding Elon Musk return
  her phone in a series of cryptic Instagram post.
• In one now-deleted Instagram Story, Banks claimed
  Musk’s attorney was in possession of her phone and is deleting
  evidence following an encounter at the Tesla CEO’s home earlier
  this month.
• Banks declined to elaborate on the incident involving
  her phone during a correspondence with Business Insider over
  direct messages on Instagram.
• Instead, she pointed BI to the fact that Musk has
  apparently deleted his Instagram account.
  

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It’s the bizarre Tesla subplot that just won’t die.

Rapper Azealia Banks is posting cryptic messages about Tesla CEO
Elon Musk on her Instagram account, demanding in a series of
updates that the billionaire returns her phone. She also
threatened to call the police.

It’s a development on Banks’ claims last week that she spent a
weekend at Musk’s Los Angeles home earlier this month to
collaborate with his girlfriend, the musician Grimes. During
Banks’ stay, she says she overheard Musk on the phone “scrounging
for investors to cover his ass” for saying he had secured funding
to take Telsa private. Banks relayed the experience to
Business Insider’s Kate Taylor.

A representative for Musk initially said he had never met Banks.
But then he told
the New York Times that he did spot the rapper at his home
“as she was leaving.” He said Banks was not in “hearing range”
and he did not recognize her.

Banks’ cryptic messages about her phone

Now Banks is claiming that Musk has her phone.

Azealia Banks’ Instagram
messages.
Azealia
Banks/Instagram

The posts alone do not explain why Musk has her handset, but a
now-deleted update casts more light on her side of the story. The
message, screenshotted by Cheddar anchor Hope King below, claims
that Musk’s attorney has Banks’ phone and is deleting evidence.

Business Insider has contacted Tesla for comment. We asked Banks
over Instagram four times to explain why Musk might have her
phone. She responded, but did not elaborate on her now-deleted
Instagram post.

Azealia
Banks’ Instagram messages to Business Insider.
Azealia Banks/Instagram

Instead, Banks drew Business Insider’s attention to the fact that

Musk had apparently deleted his Instagram account. “I wonder
why he deleted his account,” she said. “Very strange.”

Banks also expressed her distaste for journalists. “I generally
think journalists are parasitic,” she said, adding that she could
“never imagine salivating the way you do” over stories. She then
went on to ask Business Insider to write about her cosmetics
range.