Azalea released " Work " , her commercial debut single on 17 March 2013 . The song , produced by 1st Down and The Invisible Men , serves as the album 's lead single . It was described as a subdued trap-meets-snap tune about Azalea 's peculiar coming-of-age as a model who came to America in her teens before trying her hand at rap ( " no money / no family / 16 in the middle of Miami " ) . Commercially the song performed well , charting within the top twenty in the UK charts and within the top three of the UK R&B charts , as well as managing to chart in Australia , Ireland and Scotland . The music video for the song was shot in the last week of February 2013 and premiered 13 March 2013 , on VEVO . Directed by Jonas & François , the video " is all trailer park elegance , dive bar lap dances , and a bit of ' Bad Girls ' - inspired ridin ' around and/or gettin ' it " . Azalea revealed the inspirations for the visuals included '' Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas '' , '' The Adventures of Priscilla , Queen of the Desert '' , Tarantino 's '' Death Proof '' and the music video for Outkast 's " B.O.B. " . On 17 July 2013 , MTV announced Azalea 's " Work " video had been nominated for the " Artist To Watch " category at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards . In 2014 , " Work " received a resurgence in popularity in the United States , following Azalea 's simultaneous success with '' The New Classic '' , " Fancy " and " Problem " . It re-entered '' Billboard '' Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles at a position of number three on 10 May 2014 , before entering the '' Billboard '' Hot 100 at number 88 , and re-entering at a new peak of number 24 on '' Billboard '' Hot R&B / Hip-Hop Songs the week after . " Work " also debuted at number 14 on '' Billboard '' Hot Rap Songs for the week ending 17 May 2014 , marking Azalea 's second top 20 hit on that chart
2013 MTV Video Music Awards
2013 MTV Video Music Awards
The New Classic