Mercury Music Interview
The Observer, July 2001
Alright, you lot? So I take time out of my day to be interviewed by a turgid English broadsheet, only to be called Murdo, a mouthpiece for Albarn, and generally misrepresented. I can only imagine the shriveled-up old hack who put the piece together! The type that holidays in Greece, cried while watching Captain Corelli's Mando-bloody-lin, and blatantly lusts after Damon, probably due to the side effects of HRT treatment. For a paper called The Observer, they could do with being a bit more bloody observant! I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is my band, my band!
You seem happier about being up for the MTV award than the Mercury. Why is that?
Murdoc: Mercury's that crap they stick on top hats, and I want nothing to do with that class because they're all mad and they'll take you down with them. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's because there's a difference between being educated and stuck up.
Mercury is a prize awarded by critics, not influenced by the big labels or by sales figures, and so usually seen as the most prestigious. So why don't you want it?
Murdoc: Listen, you may live in an insecure bubble and constantly need Daddy to give you praise for the dry little offerings you timidly serve up, but I don't give a monkey's. Incidentally, critics come a very poor third in the major label, sales figures, and critics race.
Aren't you just rejecting them because you're worried it will look bad if you don't win?
Murdoc: What are you wittering on about? We've already won this egg and spoon race by pulling out, and you'll find us behind the bike sheds smoking. I pity the person who wins the cup that we have already pissed in.
Why did you choose Reggae and Hip-Hop as the basis of your music? What do you say to critics who say you're white boys pretending to be black?
Murdoc: If you can name one form of popular music that isn't black in origin other than Irish folk and Inuit kelp drumming, then I'll answer your facile question.
2D: What about Mozart?
Russel: That guy's strictly Motown! He used to have that record store Mo's Art, the place where Mos-Def used to work.
Murdoc: We're saving our really jiggy stuff for our next album, "Fear of a White Planet".
Russel: Damn straight!
You seem happier about being up for the MTV award than the Mercury. Why is that?
Murdoc: Mercury's that crap they stick on top hats, and I want nothing to do with that class because they're all mad and they'll take you down with them. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's because there's a difference between being educated and stuck up.
Mercury is a prize awarded by critics, not influenced by the big labels or by sales figures, and so usually seen as the most prestigious. So why don't you want it?
Murdoc: Listen, you may live in an insecure bubble and constantly need Daddy to give you praise for the dry little offerings you timidly serve up, but I don't give a monkey's. Incidentally, critics come a very poor third in the major label, sales figures, and critics race.
Aren't you just rejecting them because you're worried it will look bad if you don't win?
Murdoc: What are you wittering on about? We've already won this egg and spoon race by pulling out, and you'll find us behind the bike sheds smoking. I pity the person who wins the cup that we have already pissed in.
Why did you choose Reggae and Hip-Hop as the basis of your music? What do you say to critics who say you're white boys pretending to be black?
Murdoc: If you can name one form of popular music that isn't black in origin other than Irish folk and Inuit kelp drumming, then I'll answer your facile question.
2D: What about Mozart?
Russel: That guy's strictly Motown! He used to have that record store Mo's Art, the place where Mos-Def used to work.
Murdoc: We're saving our really jiggy stuff for our next album, "Fear of a White Planet".
Russel: Damn straight!