Legendary R&B singer Gladys Knight had some harsh words for the genre of Hip-Hop in a recent interview.
Knight is making the press rounds promoting her role as church elder named “Wilma” in Tyler Perry’s latest movie I Can Do Bad All By Myself, while she prepares for an October tour of Europe.
In addition to the high profile role in Perry’s latest hit movie, Knight is revered around the world for hits like “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Neither One Of Us” and “Heard It Through The Grapevine.”
During an interview with BlackNews.com, Knight said that Hip-Hop had created opportunities for young artists, but the slammed the genre of music, claiming it had set back African-Americans as a race.
“It’s been bad, in my opinion, as far as the quality of the music and the stories that they tell. It’s one thing to be raw about your history, but they took it to another level and it became vulgar,” Knight said.
She also claimed that Hip-Hop had not “elevated our industry musically,” before blaming the music for a number of issues within the African-American community.
“It definitely has not elevated us as African-Americans, because we show disrespect for our partners, men and women,” Knight stated. “I believe we have lowered our self-esteem with these performances and presentations.”
Gladys Knight’s catalog has been sampled extensively by a number of rappers, including The Wu-Tang Clan, Scarface, Madlib and numerous others.