While many rejoiced at the news that superstar rapper Kendrick Lamar would be headlining next year’s Byron Bay Bluesfest, the announcement certainly had its share of detractors who felt the contemporary hip-hop star did not fit the ethos of the event.
The backlash even drew the attention of fellow Bluesfest performer Dallas Green, a.k.a. City & Colour, who was recently in the country to promote his fifth album, If I Should Go Before You, ahead of a full tour next March.
“Oh, he’s very blues. I think people have to realise that everything is the blues. Everything came from the blues. It’s just interpreted different ways,” Green told The Music when asked about claims that Lamar is a poor fit for Bluesfest.
“If you can’t see that Kendrick Lamar is a blues artist, who just happens to be rapping, then you don’t know what you’re talking about, so. That’s my opinion.” Green also took some time to comment on the state of modern music.
“Oh, I think it’s [the music on the radio is] garbage … I don’t know when the world shifted to people that are supposed to be singers, just stopped singing for real,” said the Alexisonfire vocalist and guitarist.
“I think that it’s inevitable in that world because a lot of people get into that because they want to be the biggest thing in the world, you know what I mean?”
“I hear Ed Sheeran talk about that where he says he wants to be the biggest thing, he wants to sell out stadiums, he wants to tell people he’s gonna sell four million records, and I’m like, great.”
“That will make you try and get all the super-producers. What you’re doing then is you’re trying to craft something to sell to people. And that’s fine. But that’s just not something I’m interested in.”
Green admits that he had his own shot at being a pop star, but intentionally let it pass him by, recounting the opportunities that sprung up after collaborating with one Alecia Moore, a.k.a. Pink, on a project the two dubbed you+me.
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“After I did that thing with Alecia, I was arguably at the peak of my popularity and I probably, if I was smart, I probably should’ve tried to go in and use that to ask a super-producer or hire a team of writers to write me some hits,” Green explained.
“But instead I went the other way and made a record with my band and produced it myself. That’s what I wanna do, I don’t have goals of global domination, I just wanna write a song and sing it for somebody.”
“The thing about Alecia to me is that as much as she is a pop star, I think she’s completely different than all of those other ones. First of all, she can actually sing and she does actually sing, which for some reason is not normal.”
