Just watching some music awards show hosted by LL Cool J and Tom Petty was called up to receive some kind of award for lifetime contribution to music.
And Tom says, “…We didn’t get into music to wear some kind of extreme jewellery, we just want to play…”
Why Tom? Why the slam? What are you trying to prove?
Easy. Because Tom is a musician, unlike 90% of the hip-hop artists out there. YMMV, obviously.
How… petty.
: d&r :
And going by the specific wording of his quote (assuming those are his real words) I see no reason to think that he’s dumping on Hip Hop as music, but rather the ethos of the current batch of artists. And probably he’s had a greater number of chances to meet and talk to them than we have–so he might be right.
Well Tom’s earner respect. No doubt there. I’m not out to defend Hip Hop or most performers of same… Still, I expected a bit more class.
And if we’re going to slam musicians for lack of tallent, there are plenty of Tom’s contemporaries who never shined in their time either.
I agree. 90% of the hip-hop artists out there bring a hell of a lot more to the table, to their fans and to their careers than just being musicians. Many branch off into discovering and producing other music acts, or doing television and movie acting, fashion, video gaming, product endorsements, sports, etc.
Now Tom might have this 'tude that hip-hop artists are sellouts, but everyone forgets that while they might be producing insipid commericial dreck, sellouts at least have legitimate jobs.
We’ll never know unless somebody asks him to elaborate, but he may not be making any distinction. Plenty of 55-year-old guys are contemptuous of hip-hop and don’t look deep enough to differentiate between types of artists. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s another one of them.
Who wants to bet that Tom Petty owns or has at least purchased a couple pieces of “extreme jewelry” his damn self? No disrespect to Mr. Petty but, c 'mon now! :dubious:
This would be my personal guess, but just to offer a devil’s advocate reasoning.
Hip Hop Sux Ballz!
[sub]Peace out[/sub]
Or he could be talking about punk rockers. Or even just the teeny boppers with their eyebrow or belly button piercings. Who knows? Them old fellers can be purty crotchety.
Sounds a lot more like a slam against the piercing-heavy modern alt crowd than hip-hop.
I mean, bling is tacky, but a Prince Albert is X-treem!, if you know what I mean. Plus I think, just from his music, which is all I know about him, Tom’s more likely to slam those in his own genre of Rock.
Hoists silenus upon Shakes shoulders!!
silenus is my new best friend!!
But it’s rappers who are known for not only wearing big, ostentatious jewelry, but also talking about it in their songs.
Not to digress, well okay to digress, but did anyone else think he look oddly like a bleached Roy Orbison?
And did anyone see Carrot Top in the audience, looks like he been lifting some weights.
He’s such an idiot, he had to just to keep from getting beat up every day.
Personally, I think that Petty was simply making a generational comment more than a knock. For his generation, that was why they got into music - to play it.
These days, many of the entertainers get into it for the bling and that is it. Music is a very small part of it. I think we can all agree that most hip hop artists and rappers are not musicians in the real sense. They cannot “play” music in the sense that Petty is discussing. That doesn’t make them any less entertainers by any means.
It’s a different time from Petty’s time. He probably remembers a time when MTV stood for Music TV.
You don’t want to get into a feud with Tom Petty. He won’t back down.
If you work in a convent, this might possibly be considered NSFW by someone there…
I didn’t see it but as the OP quotes it it should offend only those people who don’t want to play. Even if you wear lots of extreme jewellery but you are not just in for that but want to play as well you are still on Mr. Petty’s side.
No we can’t.
Petty has never been a guy to hold his tongue. His album Hard Promises was almost called $8.98 because his label wanted to sell it at $9.98. But to be honest, he’s also willing to be a jerk. His last album was one long complaint about everything that’s wrong with the music business - radio, labels, TV, everything. He may be right, but it’s not what you’d call a fun listen.