Controversial Rapper Azealia Banks Is Engaged — Meet Her Fiancé, Ryder Ripps
Fans have mixed reactions about the news.
Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock Azealia Banks is officially off the market.
The controversial rapper took to Instagram on Feb. 21 to reveal that her boyfriend, Ryder Ripps, popped the question, writing, “I just got engaged,” and “I’m crying.”
The 29-year-old “Chasing Time” singer also revealed that she’s converting to Judaism and showed off her engagement ring — which features a gold menorah — and some social media users aren’t too happy with how she responded to comments on her posts about “being Jewish now” (we’ll get to that later).
While music aficionados may be familiar with Banks, fans are interested in learning more about her new husband-to-be.
Who is Azealia Banks’s fiancé, Ryder Ripps?
Read on for everything to know about Banks’s beau.
He’s a creative director.
According to Ryder Ripps’s LinkedIn, he’s been the Creative Director at OKFocus since Sept. 2011.
From the looks of his professional Instagram portfolio, some of his past and current clients include Pop Smoke, Grimes, Marc Jacobs, and Gucci.
He made an engagement announcement of his own on his Instagram page.
Ripps, who has over 45,000 followers on Instagram, made his own announcement about his engagement to banks by simply posting a picture of her hand with her engagement ring in clear view.
“CONGRATS BUT DONT EVER HURT MY QUEEN,” one fan wrote in the comment section, while many other fans and friends offered a simple “Congrats!” in response to the surprise news.
He went to The New School.
Ripps attended The New School from 2004 - 2008 and got a Bachelor of Arts degree in Digital Communication and Media/Multimedia.
“What i do have are a very particular set of skills,” he wrote in an Instagram post in Aug. 2020. “Skills i have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.”
He loves memes.
One scroll through Ripps’s personal Instagram account will show you that he loves memes of all sorts.
He also uses his page to share his thoughts about the country’s current political climate. Recently, Ripps posted a picture of Joe Biden wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat with the caption, “Contrary to most people, I actually thought it was beautiful when President @joebiden wore the MAGA hat yesterday as a gesture and step towards the unification and healing of our country. What did you think?”
Unfortunately, the comments on that particular post were turned off, so it’s hard to tell how his followers reacted to the post.
Banks and Ripps’s engagement has caused quite a stir on social media.
While some fans wished the couple all the best, other social media users weren’t so quick to congratulate the pair on their sudden engagement — particularly because of Banks’s comments about “being Jewish now” in her engagement announcement post, and how shortly after, she went on a transphobic rant in the comment section.
“Azealia banks rly use any excuse to just start being transphobic,” one Twitter user wrote in response to Banks’s comments to an Instagram user, which you can view in the tweet above.
Another said, “I stand in solidarity with all trans people against this disgusting and insulting rant by @AZEALIA_2O20. Ignorance is not excuse.”
Olivia Jakiel is an editor and writer who covers celebrity and entertainment news. Follow her on Instagram and keep up with her zingers on Twitter.