Why did former W.A.S.P. guitarist Chris Holmes sell his sweet ride and expatriate? In a new interview with Riff-Mag.com, the legendary axe slinger reveals his dramatic decision was for the exact reason any rational person would have assumed anyway: black people. Says Holmes:
“Well, unless you’re the opposite of me — a hip-hop artist or a rapper — you won’t sell in America anymore. There’s no rock magazines anymore. The black culture has really… The black culture has taken hip hop to white… The white culture and all the kids act like that; they wear their pants down. I think it’s… I’m not 100 percent sure, but I when they go to school and they listen to hard rock, it’s called ‘pussy music.’ [They are told] ‘You need to listen to gangster rap.’ I think that’s what it is.”
Holmes’ assertions that “black culture” has usurped “white culture” and that hip-hop is the “opposite” of metal (wouldn’t that really be, like, muzak or some easy listening shit?) aren’t explicitly racist, but they’re certainly latently racist. It also demonstrates Holmes’ lack of intelligence — you can argue that rock music is a white person’s thing all you want, but it evolved from the blues, which, contrary to popular belief, did not originate on The Mayflower. (And that’s to say nothing of the fact that there would be no such thing as metal without Jimi Hendrix.) And you hafta wonder how Holmes would account for bands like Bad Brains, Living Colour, Fishbone, Body Count, and God Forbid, all of whom play rock music, all of whom have/had either entirely black or predominantly black line-ups.
The bottom line is, while it’s entirely true to assert that hip-hop took the place of rock n’ roll as the dominant mainstream musical expression of rebellion, the coolest white kid in the world wouldn’t be into Holmes’ music, and that’s because his music sucks. I guess it’s easier to scapegoat an entire race than it is to write better songs, though.
So as it turns out, Holmes used to be in a band called “W.A.S.P.” for a reason. Kinda makes you wonder why he moved to Europe and not Connecticut.
[via Metal Injection]
