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Unintentional masters of mystery The Neighbourhood have spoken about how big an influence hip hop has on their music, and praised Kanye West as 'The Beatles of rap'.
Talking about the current scene in the US, the hip hop driven Californian guitar band cited Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky as the new icons of the genre. However, it was Kanye West's ability to offer fans a 'complete package' that the band have real respect for.
"Kanye West is... there's no word you could use," says frontman Jesse Rutherford in an interview with Gigwise. "I mean, he's The Beatles of rap, just because he's such a complete package, it's so much more.
"To me it's like 'OK, you're a musician, you play music', but there's so much more. There's what you say, what you wear, what you project, who you are, everything that surrounds you, the art - and I don't mean the music, I mean the album art, the videos the visuals.
"He's a package and it's hard to do that at the moment. I don't think there's any one put there who has that, besides Kanye."
Watch the video for The Neighbourhood's 'Let It Go'
Similarly the band praised A$AP Rocky's ability to mean something beyond his music.
"I think A$AP is an icon of our generation already, and I wouldn't even just for his music.
"When I watch a Tupac interview and I see what he wears and what he says to people and the look in his eye when he says it, to me that's Tupac. When I listen to a Tupac record I hear a guy yelling, which is cool, but that's not Tupac to me.
"I listen to an A$AP record, I have a good beat, it feels cool, but what he's saying on his tracks doesn't mean that much to me.
"When I hear him talk to people in interviews, or look at the people he wants to collaborate with, the person that he seems to be, to me you can't deny that."
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