From mysterious footballer-turned-rapper Dide, to the likes of Moise Kean and Memphis Depay dropping albums, it isn’t unusual to see players taking on the music industry in this day and age.
But that wasn’t always the case. Indeed, for a long time, the only name that immediately sprang to mind when you said the words ‘footballer’ and ‘rapper’ was John Barnes, thanks to the former Liverpool and England winger’s iconic bars on New Order’s 1986 World Cup banger ‘World in Motion’.
'I was never asked to be on another rap song' - John Barnes on why his music career ended with 'World in Motion'
“No, that never happened,” he tells FourFourTwo on behalf of Video Gamer. “These days you would be asked but, back then, it wasn't like that at all. Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle did a song together, Gazza did a song, even Pele did a song. But those were pop songs especially written for those guys.
“There wasn’t a proper crossover between established music artists and footballers back then. We weren’t truly celebrities back in my day. Not like today, when you see Premier League footballers hanging out with rappers, Formula 1 drivers and movie stars and all the rest of it.
“We didn’t do that at all,” he continues. “We weren’t hanging out with pop stars. There wasn’t this idea of, ‘Hey, we’re all from different walks of life but we’re all celebrities together’.
“As good as it got for us was being invited, along with the rest of the Liverpool players, to a Rod Stewart concert or, in my Watford days, Elton John playing some songs for us.
“Which was amazing by the way, but not a collaboration. We just didn’t have that harmony between footballers and singers like there is now. I was too old by the time that all started.”
Failure to recruit Barnes more often is British rap’s loss, in FFT’s humble opinion, given how many tunes his dulcet tones would have undoubtedly improved. When asked to name any legendary rap tunes he’s loved to have been a part of, Barnes doesn’t hesitate.
“Easy, Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’,” he grins. “I do like Dr Dre and Ice Cube as well, but there's too much swearing in their songs. I also love Grandmaster Flash.
“I’m from that late-70s, early-80s era, so I love the old stuff like Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ and Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’. I like those kinds of raps.
“The New Order song, as much as it was a brilliant tune and a lot of fun to be a part of, you could say it wasn’t a real rap. Because it was a rap section added onto a New Order song, a pop song. If I had it my way these days, I'd be doing more Ludacris or something like that.”
Somebody offer this man a record deal, for the love of god.
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