Bob Dylan Correctly Predicted This Genre Would Take Over the Music Industry—Swaying George Harrison’s Opinion in the Proccess

A young Bob Dylan (or Robert Zimmerman, technically) might have found his passion for music in early rock ‘n’ roll and the folk stylings of Woody Guthrie, but years later, he would correctly predict a different genre entirely would take over the music industry. While the genre isn’t one we typically associate with Dylan, his affinity for this style makes sense.

After all, Dylan is nothing if not a word man.

Bob Dylan Predicted This Genre Would Take Over Industry

In the late 1980s, Bob Dylan collaborated with rapper Kurtis Blow on the track “Street Rock Duet,” sparking Dylan’s appreciation for the word-forward, rhythm-centric genre. Blow introduced Dylan to popular rap groups of the time, including Run-D.M.C., Public Enemy, Ice T, and N.W.A. With their unapologetic and socially driven lyrics, Dylan became an instant fan.

“These guys weren’t standing around bulls****ing,” he later said. “They were beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs. They were all poets and knew what was going on.” Dylan, arguably the most iconic voice of the 1960s folk generation, went so far as to say that the next similarly influential artist would be a rapper “with a chop top hairdo who came from that world, who knew it.”

While “Bob Dylan” and “rap” might seem like an unlikely association at first, the connection between this prolific singer-songwriter and the poetry-heavy genre makes perfect sense. Even with his guitar skills and immense talent for arranging, Dylan has been a poet and a lyricist above all else. So, it would only be natural that rap music would draw him in the way it did.

He Even Convinced A Former Beatle To Give Rap A Chance

Ever the influencer, Bob Dylan wasn’t about to keep his love of rap to himself in the late 1980s. While the folk-rock star was playing in the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Jim Keltner, and George Harrison, Dylan was able to convince the last member and former Beatle of rap’s cultural importance. Harrison’s son, Dhani Harrison, recounted the story of Dylan introducing his dad to rap in a Line of Best Fit interview. 

“My dad didn’t really like rap music,” Dhani admitted. “But then I remember when he was doing the Traveling Wilburys, Bob Dylan used to like wearing his hat backwards, and my dad would be like, ‘Why? Why are you wearing your hat back?’ Until Dylan answered, ‘Because that’s what rappers do, and they are the only ones saying anything!’ Bob Dylan was listening to N.W.A., Public Enemy.” After his father’s exchange with Dylan, he “had more respect for it and left it alone.”

Dylan has continued to be an outspoken supporter of rappers well into the 2020s, praising Eminem and the Wu-Tang Clan in a 2022 interview with the Wall Street Journal. The singer-songwriter unsurprisingly said these artists’ lyrical prowess was his favorite thing about them, adding he would listen to “anybody whose vision parallels mine.”

Photo by Val Wilmer/Redferns