Lorde has defended Iggy Azalea after Complex magazine gave the Aussie rapper's debut album a negative review.

The publication featured Azalea on their October/November 2013 issue, along with the headline 'Iggy Azalea's ‘The New Classic’ Isn't Really" - which caused Lorde to hit back at the mag.

On her official Tumblr page, the Royals hitmaker wrote: "Bugs me how publications like complex will profile interesting artists in order to sell copies/get clicks and then shit on their records?

"It happens to me all the time - pitchfork and that ilk being like “can we interview you?” after totally taking the p*ss out of me in a review."

She added: "Have a stance on an artist and stick to it. don’t act like you respect them then throw them under the bus."

I agree @lordemusic media LOVE to flop about, But when you're completely spineless Im sure its hard to stick to even ur own opinion #GoGirl

— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) April 27, 2014

Iggy later took to Twitter to respond to Lorde's comments, writing: "I agree @lordemusic media LOVE to flop about, But when you're completely spineless Im sure its hard to stick to even ur own opinion #GoGirl.

The media will beg for free tickets to your show just so they can write about how much they hate it etc etc, I wish you could all see it.

— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) April 27, 2014

"The media will beg for free tickets to your show just so they can write about how much they hate it etc etc, I wish you could all see it. The whole things actually pretty funny."

The Fancy hitmaker continued: "They also love to have upbeat bubbly mid 20s women do the daily blog posts about you... But keep a stash of pseudo intellectual middle aged men in sandals at hand ready to review everyone's albums.

"Anyhow those guys don't shape culture, you guys do. People do. kids do! Remember that and I promise I will too. Love ya. Xo."

Complex have since hit back at Lorde, writing on their website: "Contrary to whatever Lorde may think, for Complex to give a cover to an artist like Iggy Azalea or current covergirlJhené Aiko(or even Lorde for that matter) it simply boils down to Complex thinking the artist is someone our audience is interested in.

"Giving someone a bad review basically boils down to thinking someone our audience is interested in didn’t make a very good record. We can’t speak for all publications, but we imagine it works about the same way for them."

They added: "Lorde declaring “have a stance on an artist and stick to it” is a bizarre notion for an organisation like Complex, which is to say bizarre for any media organisation that claims to have any journalistic integrity."

Both Lorde and Iggy are yet to respond.