Rap beefs are a dime a dozen these days — Nicki Minaj vs. Remy Ma, Drake vs. Meek Mill, etc. — but it’s been a minute since we’ve gotten a truly tantalizing war of words between two rock entities. That drought has finally ended. Today, seemingly out of nowhere, Ryan Adams took to Twitter where he launched a pair of attacks against members of the Strokes. Channeling his best Liam Gallagher impression — one of the true guiding lights of rock beefs — Ryan wrote about that band’s guitar player, “Albert Hammond is a more horrible songwriter than his dad. If that’s possible. It rains in Sthtrn CA & washes out the dirt,” then he added Gallagher’s signature, “As you were,” tag followed by his initials.
https://twitter.com/TheRyanAdams/status/892101641914208256
He didn’t stop there however. He also has something for the groups lead singer Julian Casablancas as well.
https://twitter.com/TheRyanAdams/status/892105650913890305
It’s hard to tell what specifically set Ryan off today, but his name has been linked to the Strokes, and not in the most positive manner ever since Lizzy Goodman’s oral history of the New York rock scene around the turn of this century, Meet Me In The Bathroom, dropped back in May. In that tome, many laid the finger on Ryan for exacerbating Hammond’s dalliance with heroin.
Along with several others, Hammond himself took a swipe at the singer-songwriter in the book, saying, “I remember Julian threatening to beat Ryan [Adams] up if he hung out with me, as a protective thing. He’d heard that Ryan would come and give me heroin, so he was just like, ‘If you come to my apartment again with heroin, I’m going to kick your ass.’ I hadn’t really been doing it in baggie form until Ryan showed up. He was definitely a bad influence.”
Casablancas added, “Did I specifically tell Ryan to stay away from Albert? I can’t remember the details, to be honest. I think heroin just kind of crosses a line. It can take a person’s soul away. So it’s like if someone is trying to give your friend a lobotomy — you’re gonna step in.”
