“Do you know who used to live here?”
Spend enough time living in New York and you’ll inevitably hear that your block, building, or perhaps entire unit used to be the home of a celebrity. These stories become useful to impress out-of-towners (“Did you know Capote and the guy who made Grand Theft Auto lived in the same house?”) or to illustrate gentrification (Jay-Z’s stash spot from “Empire State of Mind” listed for $1.3m). But for Harris Ansari, discovering “what celeb used to live in my apartment” helped him answer another question: “Why does my closet smell like this?”
In May, newlyweds Harris and Avani moved into their 3-bed 2-bath on Pinehurst Ave in Washington Heights. There was plenty to love about the space: natural light, high ceilings, and ample space for their cat Chutney to explore. One small concern: the floor and baseboards of the guest bedroom closet were caked in a mysterious black substance.
“My wife made this interesting observation,” said Harris, pointing to the area in question. “She goes, ‘Why does it smell like a farm in here?’”
A born and raised New Yorker, Harris was never going to be scared off a good apartment on smell alone. On move-in day, the couple went to work steam-cleaning the apartment—only to find the heat was amplifying the smell.
“Chutney [the couple’s cat] was definitely curious,” said Harris. “But I was like, whatever. She’s a dumb cat. Orange.”
“I was trying not to think about it,” said Avani. “But then I found a feather.”
Unfortunately, signs were pointing to the apartment smelling like birds because it once had birds in it. “Maybe not even a full feather, but like… fluff. I just tried to imagine that someone had kept hamsters there or something.”
Days later, a building meet-up with their new neighbors removed “willful ignorance” as an option.
“A new neighbor mentioned, ‘Oh hey, did you know Azealia Banks used to live in the building?’” said Harris. Banks’s blend of ballroom culture, hip-hop, and house music created some of the most enduring mephedrone burp anthems of the 2010s: “212”, “Anna Wintour”, “Big Big Beat”. The revelation piqued Harris’ interest: for one, he was a fan. For another, he had found a promo sticker for Banks’s 2016 mixtape Slay-Z on the inside of his mailbox.
Whoever put it there had the mail key for his unit.
Music aside, Banks is equally known for having a social media presence that necessitates a dedicated Wikipedia section. Among her most memorable posts: a December 30, 2016 video in which she dons goggles and uses a sand-blaster to clean out a carrion-caked closet.
“Three years worth of Brujería,” says Banks in the video, referring to the umbrella term for witchcraft rooted in indigenous Latin American and Afro-Caribbean cultures. “You know I gotta scrape all this shit up.”
The video indicated that Banks had been using the closet for the sacrifice of live chickens. As an initiate of the African diasporic religion Palo Mayombe (overlapping with, but distinct from Brujería and Santería), the practice was of spiritual importance to Banks. By way of explanation, she tweeted that she made the sacrifices “to help my father (who is dead) out.”
At the time, the video set off an intense online debate. PETA stated that the practice constituted animal cruelty, while others noted that many religions incorporate ritual sacrifice (which is protected under the First Amendment).
Fast-forward nine years: Harris compared the background of the video (and other livestreams from Banks) to confirm that yes, he did indeed live in Azealia’s former “witch cave.” This may also explain why the iridescent tile in the bathroom matches the album art for Banks’s 2012 Fantasea mixtape. The smoking gun came weeks later: a letter in the mail addressed to Ms. Azealia Banks.
Initially, “it was unsettling to find it out,” said Avani. But a little research and open-mindedness helped them reach closure.
“We went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole,” said Avani, which yielded the info that Brujeria sacrifices are usually done for the benefit of someone in the afterlife. “When [Harris] said she did it for good fortune, I relaxed a bit. She wasn’t invoking anything evil here.”
The logistics of Banks’s rituals did draw some questions from Harris: “In my research, there’s nothing in Brujería that says you don’t have to clean up after your sacrifices, and to do it in one’s home as opposed to outdoors. That’s interesting.”
Harris was also quick to acknowledge that interpretations of his own faith (Islam) can involve elements of animal sacrifice. “Initially, when you hear the word ‘sacrifice’, people go to a place of satanic panic,” he said. “But I would never be the one to judge someone’s spiritual practice. If sacrificing chickens brings you closer to who or what you believe created us, power to you. People did hit me up on Instagram saying that I had to get my home blessed, but it’s not as if she was trying to summon something evil, right? I believe that whatever energy someone gives off, they take it with them. So there was no real concern from me.”
“In most New York City apartments, you have the luxury of not knowing what happened there,” Avani shrugged. “But in all likelihood, something you’d rather not know about did.”
“Probably won’t tell my mom,” added Harris.
Follow Eamon Levesque on Instagram @eamonomania
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