As we reported yesterday, Kanye West served as a headliner at the Big Day Out 2012 Music Festival in Gold Coast, Australia. But what we didn't know is that he managed to piss off one of his fellow performers. Apparently seminal Seattle rockers Soundgarden were on an adjacent stage and they weren't too happy with the sounds of Yeezy's set. As PopDust reports, frontman Chris Cornell said to the crowd: "Sounds like there’s children playing music there. Retarded children, retarded as in held back. There’s no other word for it."
Oof. Anyone else think Cornell went way too far?
[via Stereogum]
MAUI January 23rd, 2012 at 09:55 PM
Not even worth Ye's time.
Bert January 23rd, 2012 at 10:20 PM
When was the last time Soundgarden was relevant?
Complexington January 23rd, 2012 at 10:24 PM
who?
poliosh.czar January 23rd, 2012 at 10:37 PM
he mad lool lame stay lame
John Cyzycki January 23rd, 2012 at 11:02 PM
If Kanye would've called someone retarded, you'd have all kinds of "That's Offensive" comments from commentators. STFU Chris Cornell, irrelevant self.
Violent J January 23rd, 2012 at 11:38 PM
You mad ho???
Muni January 24th, 2012 at 12:09 AM
Yes! Not only is he disrespecting "retarded" kids but he can not even compare to the level of success Kanye's had. Not even worth Ye's time.
Raab January 24th, 2012 at 01:06 AM
I'm not even trying to rationalize a beef that should never happen, but Kanye's career is not and probably won't be as successful and influential as Chris Cornell's. I know we all love hip hop, and we all like Yeezy, but for fucks sake, Chris Cornell is a fucking rock & roll legend. All of that aside, I don't think anyone here gives a fuck if Kanye took shots at Taylor Swift at the VMA's (at least I don't care anyway), so why care if Chris Cornell takes shots at Ye'? Ultimately it doesn't matter at all, it's not even a hip hop beef, it's just one guy insulting another. If an actual rapper said something like that on wax to Kanye, maybe it would be worth a story on Complex.
P4L January 24th, 2012 at 01:18 AM
I gotta disagree with you here. Kanye West is already more important in his time than Chris Cornell was in his time, in terms of fame. Yes, he's got one of the greatest voices of all in rock music, but remember, Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains and even The Smashing Pumpkins all outsold Soundgarden in their time. Soundgarden was like the 4th or 5th tier band in the alternative era. They weren't Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Now, I love Soundgarden and all and agree that they are rock legends, but even at their peak, they didn't have the sheer critical and popular success that Kanye has today. Hip-Hop is the biggest culture in the world, and Kanye West is arguably the most influential person in it other than maybe Jay-Z. He's a pop superstar, something Soundgarden never pulled off.
Raab January 24th, 2012 at 03:50 AM
Ok, that argument works, so long as you only look at record sales and total income figures. Yes, Kanye West has sold more records, and with the furthered convenience of online music, Kanye probably get's listened to by more people. The question that I raise, is who has really affected people more? Kanye West is a huge star, but is he really inspiring the same amount of people in the same way Soundgarder or their equivalents did back then? Really, you can't actually prove it either way, because you can't measure people's feelings and thoughts, they hold no weight. But going off of my own personal observations, i believe that Chris Cornell is a more strongly influential artist then Kanye, because while both put a large amount of themselves into their music, I think the music of Chris Cornell had challenged a status quo in the music industry, and was more condusive to thoughtful listening then Kanye, who is just trying to go HAM half the time
wow January 24th, 2012 at 12:54 PM
You need a history lesson if you're really arguing that Chris Cornell is more influential. I almost fell out of my seat at that comment. Turn off the radio and really go look at the projects Kanye has put together. No one in hip-hop takes chances like Kanye, and no one produces full on records like he does. Sound Garden is cool but really? you're trying to compare two different genres and one guy vs a band.
tylr66 January 24th, 2012 at 01:17 PM
first off not even close to half of kanye's songs are him just goin HAM, maybe half that are on the radio or half of his features, but it's features on other people's songs and a couple radio singles what do you expect in the most corporate climate in music industry history as previously stated, soundgarden is influential, but they are more famous for being a popular and critically acclaimed band in the grunge era, i don't think very many people at all outside of their die hard fans would say soundgarden were the most influential grunge band as for kanye being influentail himself, he came out in 2004 when gangsta rap ruled the game, a couple years later gangsta rap declined drastically, he paved the way for rappers who didn't pretend to be hard and had an image of pretty ordinary people; like it or not he started this whole emo lyrics with sung choruses phase rap is going through now with 808s & heartbreaks; kanye alone paved the way for lupe fiasco, drake, b.o.b, big sean, xv, kid cudi and others soundgarden among other more influential grunge bands paved the way for dozens of bands that are very derivative of the original grunge sound, yet a sound that is still popular 20 years after its breakthrough
wrong January 24th, 2012 at 03:58 PM
wrong dude, just wrong. so wrong i can't even collect the number of thoughts your comments elicit in my brain into a cohesive response. WRONG. and while yes, you cannot logically prove who has been more "affected" by the music, you can use common sense. example: i cannot prove the beatles affected their fans more than smashmouth. but they did. just like in this case, kanye did. p.s. wrong.