Keith Richards: Rap is people yelling at me. I get enough of that at home

A picture of Keith Richards performing with the Rolling Stones — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has revealed that he's not a fan of rap music.

In news that will surprise nobody, the 79-year-old says he isn't interested in people "yelling" at him and calling it music.

In an interview with The Telegraph, RIchards says: "I don’t really like to hear people yelling at me and telling me it’s music, aka rap. I can get enough of that without leaving my house."

Richards was promoting the Stones' upcoming 24th studio album, Hackney Diamonds.

He also took a swipe at pop music, saying: "I don’t want to start complaining about pop music. It’s always been rubbish. I mean, that’s the point of it. They make it as cheap and as easy as possible and therefore it always sounds the same; there’s very little feel in it.

"I like to hear music by people playing instruments. That is, I don’t like to hear plastic synthesised muzak, as it used to be known, what you hear in elevators, which is now the par for the course."

Hackney Diamonds is due on October 20 via Universal. It's the band's first album of original material since 2005's A Bigger Bang and was produced by Andrew Watt (Iggy Pop/Ozzy Osbourne/Miley Cyrus) and recorded in Henson Recording Studios, Los Angeles, Metropolis Studios, London, Sanctuary Studios in the Bahamas ands New York's legendary Electric Lady Studios and The Hit Factory/Germano Studios.

The 12-track album was introduced by the single Angry, with a video starring US actress Sydney Sweeney.

The album features a number of guest stars, including Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga on the song Sweet Sounds Of Heaven. Gaga's appearance on the album came about simply because she was recording in the same studio in New York, and asked if she could pop in.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.