Remember when Elton John did a duet of Stan with Eminem at an awards ceremony few years ago? It involved Elton John dressing up as Mr Blobby and making a noise like a dying seal over Eminem's rapping.
Bizarrely, this whole Mr Blobby/seal/hip-hop combo seems to stuck in Elton John's mind as some kind of new career watermark; so now he wants to make a hip-hop album with Pharrell Williams, Kanye West and Dr Dre. Now, most people will think this is a horrific idea – even Elton John himself thinks it's a bit dumb – but, on the bright side, becoming a hip-hop star does increase the likelihood of Elton John getting shot by about 300%.
Strange how old people get sometimes, isn't it? Just the other day Bob Dylan said he hadn't heard a good record in 20 years, and now Elton John is doing the exact opposite – he's getting ready to bling himself up, chuck on some gigantic clothes and throw funky shapes like your Dad at a wedding by making his very own hip-hop album. Speaking to Rolling Stone – which seems to be hitting its stride at making old men say stupid things lately, Elton John said:
"I want to bring my songs and melodies to hip-hop beats. It may be a disaster, it could be fantastic, but you don't know until you try… I want to work with Pharrell, Timbaland, Snoop, Kanye, Eminem and just see what happens."
Of course, Elton John is no stranger to hip-hop – one of his songs was sampled by Eminem for Ghetto Gospel by Tupac last year and reached number one. However, Elton John is also no stranger to whoring himself to adverts where he can shout "Male!" in order to sell a few more copies of whatever album he has coming out, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea. It's probably no surprise that Elton John's publicity-seeking statement comes just before his new album The Captain And The Kid is released.
On the other hand, perhaps Elton John's new hip-hop direction does have a few upsides. After all, it's quite likely that Elton John spends his mornings getting himself psyched up by angrily rapping about what bad clothes bands wear into a mirror like Eminem does at the start of Eight Mile, so he possibly has some kind of 'dope' lyrical 'flow'. Plus, however bad Elton John's new hip-hop direction is, it won't be nearly as bad as his rubbish Vampire musical. Plus there might be some Rocawear at the next Elton John clothes auction. Plus, as a rapper we'll be able to call Elton John El Jizzle, and frankly we've been waiting to do that for years now.
Read more:
Sir Elton 'plans hip-hop album' – BBC
[story by Stuart Heritage]