John Mellencamp Ripped Into The Bill Maher Says:
John Mellencamp often speaks out against racial unfairness in the U.S., and he recently said why he doesn’t like rap songs.
In a radio conversation with Bill Maher that came out on Sunday, the rock singer said that he doesn’t like it when people use racial slurs, and he named the N-word in particular.
“That’s what I have against, well, not against, yet, you know, why I’m not a big fan of rap music. It’s like, you guys are dishing out what those people stood up and fought to protect, and you’re making money by selling it to white kids. on the Club Random Podcast, Mellencamp said.
John Mellencamp and Chuck D worked together on “Cuttin’ Heads,” a song that came out in 2001. In a new episode of Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, the singer-songwriter talked about some of the song’s more controversial lyrics. He also explained why he doesn’t think rappers, even black ones, shouldn’t use the N-word in their songs.
Mellencamp Talked About Working With The Leader Of Public Enemy:
“Chuck D and I did a song together 20 years ago,” Mellencamp said about the time he worked with the singer of the group Public Enemy. “We talked about using the N-word. We were talking regarding how people shouldn’t use it.
That’s what I don’t like about rap music, not why I don’t like it. You guys are selling what those individuals stood up and fought for, and you’re making cash off of it through selling it to white kids. It’s not good.”
He went on, “So Chuck D and me did a song together. I wrote the song, then he rapped within the middle of it, and all that he said was “Die, N-word, die.” “Yes, that’s right.”
Then, Mellencamp and Maher got into a pretty awkward argument regarding whether as well as how much life has gotten better for black people within the US over the past 30 years.
Mellencamp Stated That He Wrote A Song, Yet He Never Recorded It Because It Was Wrong:
“I penned a song that I never recorded due to thought it was incorrect,” Mellencamp said. “But the name of the song was ‘From the Fucking Cotton Fields to the Playing Fields.'” My point was that it doesn’t matter that things are better for black people now. We white people enjoy to be entertained by black people.”
Mellencamp told Maher that the racism he saw when he was a teenager and played in a band with black and white people is still going on. “Until I joined The Crape Soul, I didn’t know how cruel individuals were to black people,” he said.
The member of the band who is now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame started the group when he was 14 as well as the other members were in their early 20s. Mellencamp said that because bandmate Fred Booker was black, he quickly learned a lot regarding race in 1965 and 1966.
Mellencamp Also Said Only 1% Or 2% Of Black People Within The U.S. Have Greater Opportunities Than Most:
“There are 1% or 2% of black people across the globe with a better life,” Mellencamp said next. As proof, he told a story about a black friend of his kid who had been killed within Los Angeles.
“On stage, they loved us because half of the band was black and the other half was white. “On stage, they loved us,” he said.
But, “their attitude changed when we left the stage,” they said. Mellencamp said that he received a gravity knife for use against people, presumably in case of racism at a show.
Next month, Mellencamp will take the stage in Indiana with Neil Young, Willie Nelson, and numerous other artists for the 2023 Farm Aid benefit performance. Get tickets right here.
Mellencamp has a long history of speaking out against racial inequality and hate. For example, he took a knee on “The Late Show alongside Stephen Colbert” and apparently spoke out against racism during a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech for his longtime attorney a year ago.
Mellencamp Has Already Talked About How Being In The Crape Soul As A Teen Affected Him:
The artist from southern Indiana has talked before about how being in The Crape Soul as a teenager changed him. One of those times was when he gave a speech before singing “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” at the White House in 2010 when Barack Obama was president.
“The kid I sang with, Fred Booker, taught me how to dance, while he taught myself how to sing,” said Mellencamp. “And when we were on stage, people loved him. When we left the stage, they told us, “Guys, take that kid outside.”
He also said, “He’s only 16 years old. He never told me how it made him feel, yet I knew it did. And it had a big effect on John Mellencamp, who was 14 at the time.
Mellencamp’s Song List Includes A Number Of Songs That Talk About Race Relations:
In the mid-1960s, Booker’s family formed one of only a few black families within Seymour, Indiana. Mellencamp has written a number of songs about race relations, such as “Jena” and “Jim Crow” from 2007 and “Peaceful World” from 2001.
In the song “Easy Target,” from his 2017 album “Sad Clowns & Hillbillies,” he sings, “So, black lives matter/Who are we trying to kid/Here’s an easy target/Don’t matter, never did.”
