Iggy Azalea cancels her Great Escape tour - Los Angeles Times
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Iggy Azalea cancels her Great Escape tour

Rapper Iggy Azalea

Rapper Iggy Azalea

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Iggy Azalea’s great escape has turned into a nightmare.

The Grammy-nominated pop-rapper has shuttered her first arena tour months after postponing the planned trek.

An email was reportedly sent out to ticket holders on Friday informing them that the show would not go on.

“The Iggy Azalea Great Escape Tour scheduled for this fall has been canceled, and refunds are available at point of purchase,” the email reads. “There will be a new tour planned around Iggy’s new record to be released in 2016, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

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Ticketmaster has already pulled sales of the show and marked the previously listed dates as canceled. No further details were announced, and her label, Def Jam, has yet to comment.

Azalea’s tour has been troubled from the beginning.

In March, her label announced she needed to reschedule the trek “due to tour production delays,” but the announcement arrived after reports that the show was in jeopardy because of lack of promotion and conflict between Azalea and management, which her reps denied

“To accommodate for creative team availability and tour production plans, it was determined that the tour will not be ready this Spring,” the label said in a statement. “It is extremely important to Iggy that she delivers the show she envisaged to share with her fans, and that requires more time in development.”

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Azalea’s The Great Escape tour was supposed to launch in April, with a stop at Staples Center on April 21, before being moved to September.

Late last year, Azalea announced she would embark on the arena tour and had tapped pop comeback kid Nick Jonas, buzzy alt-R&B singer Tinashé and DJ Wizz Kid as support, with tickets going on sale soon after.

Azalea undoubtedly had a massive breakout last year. But as her profile rose with pop hits, including the inescapable anthem “Fancy” and “Black Widow,” controversy followed.

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Her debut album, “The New Classic,” wasn’t a hit critically or commercially, and rap fans have labeled her as “too pop” to be considered authentic.

Critics accused the Australian-born rapper of pilfering the nuances of her flow from Southern hip-hop stylings, and fans of the genre seethed at her Grammy nomination for rap album (though a multiple nominee, she went home empty-handed).

Azalea has been called out by J. Cole, admonished by Azealia Banks, ridiculed by Snoop Dogg, given a public history lesson on hip-hop by Q-Tip and been the center of countless think-pieces on white privilege and cultural appropriation.

“Pretty Girls,” her high-profile collaboration with Britney Spears, fell flat, and her appearance at the recent Billboard Music Awards, where the pair delivered a pre-taped, lip-synced performance -- was criticized.

When she originally pushed back the tour, her support acts quickly jumped ship. Jonas has since announced his own headlining club tour, and Tinashé was added to Nicki Minaj’s roster of supporting acts for her arena tour.

Before the tour was shuttered, a search for tickets through Ticketmaster yielded plum seats at nearly every stop of the planned trek, including Staples Center, where floor seats in a number of sections were still available.

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A source with knowledge of the production told The Times that ticket sales didn’t support an arena run.

For more music news follow me on Twitter: @gerrickkennedy

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