If there is a genre of music that has blurred crossover lines, it’s Hip Hop. From those days of Run-DMC rocking the stage with Aerosmith on “Walk This Way” to current artists defining themselves as “Alternative Hip Hop” or “Afro Punk” (not to be confused with the publication), more artists are fusing Rock and Rap, but Denzel Curry wants people to stop asking him to jump into Punk feet first.
The Florida rapper is known for stepping outside of the box when it comes to his productions, and back in 2019, he covered a Rage Against The Machine favorite for Like a Version. During his NME cover feature interview, he was asked about whether or not he would make a punk album as some of his fans have requested.
“There are people who were super big rock-heads who said, ‘When I heard a rapper was going to cover this, I was very skeptical until I heard it. And you bodied it’,” he shared with NME. “Nobody’s ever bodied a Rage Against The Machine cover… I got a lot of praise for it and some people are even asking me to make a punk album, and I’m just not with that. Not now; hell no! A punk album? F*ck no!”
“If anything, I’m more so big on flexibility, because when you call me a ‘Pop-Punk prince’, that’s like you’re putting me in a box – that’s not what I want you to do. I make sure every album sounds different,” he said before mentioning his latest record, MELT MY EYEZ SEE YOUR FUTURE. “On this album, do you hear it sound like punk?”
“You might hear it on TA13OO, maybe even on Imperial – but Nostalgic 64 didn’t sound like Punk. You can’t call me that: I did one cover and now everyone thinks I’m punk!”
Check out a few stills from Curry’s NME feature below.
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