There's a very thin line between rock and funk. Funk is like a dirtier blues, and so is rock. They're close cousins.
I just love music. Every genre of music: country, rock. I originally first loved punk rock. Pop punk. I don't know, just rock in general. And getting to rap. And now K-pop. Different types of music. I love everything.
I'm the renegade of funk. I've made house, techno, rock, funk, reggae... That's why I've been on so many different labels.
Rap was an outlet for me to express myself. Nobody was trying to hear no R&B/Funk band from East Houston, so I guess I would rap.
I love rock, pop, and funk. I love being able to blend these three and create something unique for people.
We went through rock 'n' roll, which then became just rock, then punk rock, then the worst disease of all - rap music. It's an oxymoron, because rap is not music.
I'm a singer and a writer first. I started to rap by accident, being playful.
When I was a kid, you listened to a certain genre. Now it's like, "I love indie rock, I love hip-hop, jazz, funk." Also, we knew it couldn't be the same thing each year.
But, Eminem... No, I've loved rap for a long time, especially when it got out of its first period and became this gangsta rap, ya know this heavy rap thing? That's when I started to fall in love with it. I loved the lyrics. I loved the beat.
I grew up listening to a lot of emo music, a lot of rock music, a lot of rap music, a lot of trap music, funk, everything.
I love rap lyrics, I love hearing people rap, I love molding a thought or idea into the shape that fits on a rap beat.
The bottom line with a lot of bands that funk is being applied to is that they don't really listen to funk and aren't versed in funk. Like, you know, Gordon Lightfoot.
Rap is the new rock 'n' roll. We the real rock stars, and I'm the biggest of all of them. I'm the No. 1 rock star on the planet.
The justification for rap rock seems to be that if you take really bad rock and put really bad rap over it, the result is somehow good, provided the raps are barked by an overweight white guy with cropped hair and forearm tattoos.
'Uptown Funk' has all the ingredients of the funk that I love.
I love rap, and I love the angst of hardcore music and punk rock.