Keith Richards doesn’t like rap: “I don’t like to hear people yelling at me and telling me it’s music”
He also says pop music has “always been rubbish” with “very little feel in it”.
Credit: Sven Hoogerhuis/BSR Agency/Getty Images
Keith Richards says he doesn’t like rap music because he doesn’t enjoy “people yelling at me”.
One of the most well-known guitarists in rock music – a genre that could also be argued to be defined by “people yelling” – Richards makes the revelation on his musical tastes in a new interview with The Telegraph.
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During the conversation, he reveals that, alongside rock music, he enjoys blues, jazz and classical music, but dislikes pop and rap music.
“I don’t want to start complaining about pop music,” he says [per NME]. “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.”
He adds: “I like to hear music by people playing instruments. That is, I don’t like to hear plastic synthesised muzak, as it used to be known, what you hear in elevators, which is now the par for the course.”
On the subject of rap music, he continues: “I don’t really like to hear people yelling at me and telling me it’s music, aka rap. I can get enough of that without leaving my house.”
The Rolling Stones are currently gearing up to release their new studio album, Hackney Diamonds, on 20 October. Notably, the LP features former member Bill Wyman on one track, as well as some tracks recorded with the late drummer Charlie Watts.
But despite the fact the record hasn’t even arrived yet, the band are reportedly already working on music for a followup.
In a recent interview, frontman Mick Jagger said he doesn’t think Hackney Diamonds will be “the last Rolling Stones album”, adding, “We’ve got almost three quarters through the next one.”
And in yet more news for Stones fans, there’s reportedly a documentary about the making of Hackney Diamonds in the works.
While no release date or further information is available yet, the doc will show the band making the 12 tracks featured on the album, providing an intimate picture of how they work together in the studio.