Fall Out Boy‘s Pete Wentz has spoken out about the rise of hip-hop and grime while rock is ‘on the back-burner’ – claiming that “Jaden Smith could be the next Nirvana”.

Wentz was talking to NME after unveiling their ‘extreme’ new single ‘Young & Menace’ and their ‘political’ new album ‘M A N I A’.

When asked about the current state of rock music and its popularity, the bassist with last year’s Reading & Leeds headliner replied: “I think it is on the back-burner. Over here in the US, hip-hop is super exciting for kids. I’ll be looking at my Snapchat on Coachella and that is rock n’ roll right now – it’s hip hop. I think that if rock music wants to be culturally relevant on a mass level you have to be open to updating it and changing it and making it a little weird. If you don’t it becomes quaint. That’s not what we’ve ever really been into.”

He continued: “The interesting thing is that when I talk to like my rock friends, they’re like, ‘The next Nirvana is coming, the next Nirvana is coming’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, but the next Nirvana probably is coming, but not in the form of Nirvana. It might be like Jaden Smith or, I dunno. The reason Nirvana was a genre-killer is that it was a wave that came from nowhere. Looking for something that sounds like that is not gonna work.”

Wentz also added that grime is finally ‘infiltrating’ culture in the US.

“When you hear Drake and see people dressing like it, you know,” Wentz told NME. “You hear the Ed Sheeran Stormzy remix and stuff. But I don’t think it’s had that pop moment yet. It’s bubbling under the surface, so much that when it does it’ll be massive.”

He continued: “American culture is so distinctly American that it’s hard for us to understand other cultural ideas unless they get Americanized first. Like, we have Thai food but they’re like ‘let’s put mayonnaise in it!” It’s gotta be a little bit dumbed down for us.

“I think it’ll happen, there’s just gotta be the right moment. American radio works so different, it’s much slower. I think that you’ll burn through like four singles while we’ve done one or two over here. It’s a longer build, and people don’t really stop. I was talking to some friends in the UK and they say ‘you can do a tour in six days’. You need like 40 days to do a proper American tour, if you want a break, you need to go to like 40 stops. That’s a lot.”

Read more of our interview with Wentz talking Trump, youth revolt and their new album here. 

Fall Out Boy will release their seventh album ‘M A N I A’ on September 15.

The post Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz: ‘Jaden Smith could be the next Nirvana’ appeared first on NME.

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