Iggy Azalea never thought she'd become achieve fame as a female rapper.

The 'Fancy' hitmaker, who has shot to stardom with her debut album 'The New Classic', pursued her dream of being a rap star by moving from her native Australia to America and didn't consider becoming famous.

She told radio.com: ''I don't know if I expected anything. I think other people expect things and I think to myself, 'Hey look, I do female rap'. That's what I am, I'm a female rapper. That's always a weird situation, you never know how it's going to be. It's [rap] not the most popular kind of thing in the world.''

The 23-year-old star was surprised to experience ''Katy Perry-level fame'' because she didn't think people would be that interested in her but still hoped she'd become a success.

Talking about her roots, she said: ''Its [music] escapism to me. I'm from the country and music videos and film, those were my escape to sparking my imagination.

''I didn't get to see really well dressed women in the street or expensive cars or people walking into a restaurant. I only got to see them in music videos.''