After decades of living an infamously under-the-influence lifestyle, The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards has shared that he’s been relatively “straight” recently, enjoying his time without cigarettes, drugs, and the frequent drinks he once had. This may make it seem like Richards is turning into a new man, but fear not, his signature Brit grit is still as strong as ever, and some of his stubborn stances remain unchanged, like his unsavory opinion of rap music.
“I don’t really like to hear people yelling at me and telling me it’s music, aka rap,” Richards said in a new interview with The Telegraph, before driving his point home with a subtle “complain about my wife” jab. “I can get enough of that without leaving my house.”
With the quote, Richards — who also suggested in 2015 that hip-hop is only “a drum beat and somebody yelling” for “tone-deaf people” — manages to belittle an entire cross-generational, world-changing genre that has become the most popular in the world. But rap fans shouldn’t take it too personally: Elsewhere in the new interview, he also took the opportunity to shit on pop music.
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“I don’t want to start complaining about pop music,” he said, before proceeding to complain about pop music. “It’s always been rubbish. I mean, that’s the point of it. They make it as cheap and as easy as possible and therefore it always sounds the same; there’s very little feel in it. I like to hear music by people playing instruments. That is, I don’t like to hear plastic synthesized Muzak, as it used to be known, what you hear in elevators, which is now the par for the course.”
Continuing, Richards seemingly lamented The Rolling Stones’ decision to cut “Brown Sugar” from their setlist over the tune’s crass allusions to slavery: “I mean, there’s some things you can’t do any more, because people are frightened They’re frightened of saying the wrong thing. They’re frightened of upsetting anybody. Fear will do amazing things to people.”
The Rolling Stones’ new album, Hackney Diamonds, is due on October 20th, and while they’ve has hinted at a tour, no details have been announced yet. The band has, however, confirmed that Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Elton John, and more will appear on the album.
Meanwhile, last month marked the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Check out Consequence’s lists of the 50 best hip-hop songs and 50 best hip-hop albums to hear all the great music Richards is missing out on.
