Carrie Brownstein on Hip-Hop
“To me, [hip-hop] is the most exciting kind of music—there’s a sense of humor, it’s topical, it’s relevant.”
Noisey recently did an interview with Sleater-Kinney founding member and ‘Portlandia’ star Carrie Brownstein (who also released a memoir this past month). In the interview, Carrie talks about hip-hop and the decline of rock and roll in culture:
“One thing that I think is so boring about rock and roll is that there’s something about a white guy with a guitar that has to be taken seriously because people think ‘Well this is going to be around forever, right?’ But who knows? What is forever? That’s such an entitled idea that you’re just automatically in the canon because you’re emulating this long tradition. I feel like with hip-hop, it has to be considered right now. And that’s how everything should be. What else is there but right now?”
She then continues to explain her love for the genre:
“I listen to a lot of hip-hop. Probably more than anything. Hip-hop doesn’t try to be separate or above anything. It’s in the fabric. It feels integrated with a rhythm, and I mean this in terms of the pace of our lives. It meshes together in a way that’s very seamless.”
Coming from someone who is often regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of our time, this is pretty interesting and quite profound actually!
As a music fan, I can definitely see where she is coming from. It’s also not difficult for me (and many from my generation I’m sure) to visualize a future where rock and roll ceases to exist in culture, or at least emerges in a different form.
This different form could be an evolved version of rap pioneered by the innovative artists of today, or a new genre altogether. With Kanye West previously declaring himself as the greatest rock star on the planet, maybe that future is not so far off?
You can read the interview here.