Features

All Categories

Foals Lead Singer Yannis Philippakis Thinks David Guetta Is Ruining Hip-Hop

Posted Jan 16th 2013 4:30PM by Caitlin White
Comments

The Foals David Guetta Ruining Hip Hop Getty Images

Another outcry against the death of hip-hop has been issued. This time not by a well-respected MC, but by a member of an indie rock band. And he thinks a French DJ is behind its demise. Wait, what?

"I don't like David Guetta and I don't like that style," Foals lead singer Yannis Philippakis tells Digital Spy. "What bothers me more really is that a lot of hip-hop is being played over those backing tracks, and I find that a shame because I like hip-hop a lot."

The music has gotten so bad that Philippakis says he can't stomach it anymore.

"I can't listen to current hip-hop because the MCing isn't the skill of it anymore," he explains. "It's more putting it over super-garish club tracks. If you compare it to what DJ Premier was doing in the early '90s and RZA with Wu-Tang, that's got real artistry and grit. When I don't hear that, it feels like hip-hop has lost something rather than progressed."

Don't fret, though! With all art you have to take the good with the bad.

"It's not even something that really makes my blood boil because it is just bulls--t," he says. "It is an abomination but there needs to be bad music around. You need Jilly Cooper novels and pulp, trashy culture."

Fair point. But the counter-argument is that hip-hop sounded pretty stale for while-- how many songs built on 808s and stock synthesizer sounds can we have?-- and guys like David Guetta have given it a sonic refresh. Not everything can sound like 1993. After all, it's 2013.

But what do you think-- is hip-hop in decline? Is David Guetta the reason?

Watch David Guetta's "Where Them Girls At" Video