In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, comedian Chris Rock makes waves with some pretty strong feelings about the current state of Hip Hop:
“Music kind of sucks. Nobody’s into being a musician. Everybody’s
getting their mogul on. You’ve been so infiltrated by this corporate
mentality that all the time you’d spend getting great songs together,
you’re busy doing nine other things that have nothing to do with art.
You know how shitty Stevie Wonder’s songs would have been if he had to
run a fuckin’ clothing company and a cologne line? … Rap sucks, for the
most part. Not all rap, but as an art form it’s just not at its best
moment. Sammy The Bull would have made a shitty album. And I don’t
really have a desire to hear [billionaire] Warren Buffett’s album – or the new CD by
Paul Allen. That’s what everybody’s aspiring to be.“
A lifelong fan of Hip Hop, Chris Rock most notably wrote and acted in CB4, a satire of the early ’90s gangsta rap movement. Rock has also enlisted the production of Prince Paul on his 1999 platinum album Bigger and Blacker.
In early October, at Vh1’s Hip Hop Honors, Chris Rock told HipHopDX the Hip Hop about the brand of Hip Hop he does support. “All the rappers influenced me. They are in the same community as me. A guy like KRS-One, my comedy is probably closer to his records than it is to a lot of comedians. I probably got as much from KRS-One and Ice Cube than I did from Eddie Murphy.”
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Later this month, the superstar actor and comedian confirmed his next venture, which combines Hip Hop and comedy. “I’m getting ready to go on tour, The Chris Rock: Respect the Kill Tour kicks off November 16 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, with special guests Whodini and Big Daddy Kane.”
Additional reporting by Jake Paine
