Blur’s Graham Coxon Says Kanye West Is A “Fucking Idiot”

July 31, 2015

Turns out Blur’s Graham Coxon will not be running for president of the Kanye West fan club any time soon.

Hot on the heels of his band’s headlining performance at Splendour In The Grass, the guitarist has had a bit of a chat with UK rag The Guardian, and used some strong words to describe Kanye and his music, likening it to the Maccas of the music industry.

When reporter Tim Jonze mentioned Yeezy Kableezy as an example of a mainstream and innovative musician, Coxon responded as such:

“He’s a fucking idiot, isn’t he? Does he even make his own albums? People aren’t interested in learning instruments and putting effort and time into it. They want it immediately.

“It’s McDonalds, isn’t it?” he continues. “It’s convenient. But all I hear is a loop starting, some bloke starts to sing or rap, and the loop finishes. There’s no shape to this stuff. And the lyrics just seem to be idiotic.”

It might surprise Coxon to learn that Ye apparently writes with a bigger vocabulary than Bob Dylan.

But it’s not just Ye that grinds his gears: “Really, the whole music business is shit, isn’t it?” he explains. “We need more groups that have a bit more passion or sexiness or politics or something going for them.

“Instead, it just seems like a splurge of shit all over the internet. And it’s just so boring – people in too much makeup with session musicians.”

Not sure whether he counts Blur’s latest album The Magic Whip in the “splurge of shit” category, but it’s available now.

As an aside, Coxon isn’t the first musician to rag on Yeezy recently. Fellow Splendour headliner Mark Ronson was politely critical of his Glastonbury performance, while Slipknot’s Corey Taylor also had some slightly sterner words to offer the self-proclaimed “greatest living rockstar on the planet”.

Brit rockers Blur just wrapped up an Australian arena tour with Jamie T in Perth last night, as part of their stint at Splendour. Check out some happy snaps from their headlining set at the festival proper, below.

Gallery: Blur @ Splendour in the Grass 2015 / Photos by Yael Stempler