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Weezer's Rivers Cuomo: "How can I marry rock with hip-hop?"

The inside story on Weezer's new album Raditude

Joe Bosso, Mon 19 Oct 2009, 4:00 pm UTC

Weezer's Rivers Cuomo: 'How can I marry my rock with hip-hop?'

Rivers Cuomo is mighty stoked about Raditude (© Reuters/CORBIS)

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Would you say you're a hip-hop fan?

"Yeah, I'm a huge fan. Obviously, I haven't done a lot of it on Weezer records. [laughs] But this one worked. Any other rapper wouldn't have done justice to the song."

It's funny, because I read the lyrics - "Monday to Sunday I hit all the clubs/ And everybody knows me when I pull up" - and I can't tell if you're being ironic or not.

"Well, people have been saying that about Weezer all along. But the thing about Can't Stop Partying is, it's got a dark side to it - like, maybe it's not a good thing that I can't stop partying. [laughs] Lil Wayne totally caught onto that and delivered the right bit of edge."

Let's go to the last song on the record, which is probably my favorite -

"The last song? Cool. Now I know you listened to the whole thing."

"I had this wicked crush on a girl, but she had another boyfriend and there wasn't anything I could do about it. So I went home and wrote the song. I had to let it go" Cuomo discussing the track I Don't Want To Let You Go

Of course I listened to the whole thing. It's the one that's called I Don 't Want To Let You Go. To me, to paraphrase Brian Wilson, you truly wrote your 'teenage symphony to God.'

"Wow, that's a big compliment. Thank you so much. That was a big song for me. The basis for it, however, isn't very unique: I had this wicked crush on a girl, but she had another boyfriend and there wasn't anything I could do about it. The relationship just wasn't gonna happen. So I went home and wrote the song. I had to let it go."

Are we talking recently? Because you're married now, and you have a kid.

"No, no. This was probably back in 2004. It's a bit of an older song. It's been sitting around a while. I'm not always ironic. I do write love songs."

Speaking of, there's the track called Love Is The Answer, which uses Indian instrumentation. George Harrison would've definitely approved.

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