Keith Richards Dismisses All Rap Music

Keith Richards Dismisses All Rap Music

Keith Richards has been radiating dangerous levels of cool for a solid five decades now. But every once in a while, something comes along to remind you that, oh right, he’s 71 years old. Case in point: Richards recently expressed his opinions about the entire decades-old genre of rap music to the New York Daily News: “Rap — so many words, so little said. What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there. All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they’re happy. There’s an enormous market for people who can’t tell one note from another.” Damn, son.

Richards was also not especially kind to rock music in general: “It sounds like a dull thud to me. For most bands, getting the syncopation is beyond them. It’s endless thudding away, with no bounce, no lift, no syncopation.”

And don’t think he spared metal, either: “Millions are in love with Metallica and Black Sabbath. I just thought they were great jokes.” Well, at least he thought they were great jokes.

It’s not the first time Richards has dissed rap. In 1997 he told Entertainment Weekly:

I’m rapped out. I’m sick of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with a heavy-handed drum machine going. I wish those guys would all shoot themselves. They’re doing a good job of it. Carry on, boys, y’know.

He said that seven months after Biggie Smalls was killed.

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