Bruce Willis’s Surprising Musical Grudge: The Genre He Can’t Stand
Bruce Willis, once a Motown recording artist, made no secret of his strong dislike for rap music. His blunt opinion was revealed in stories from Yo! MTV Raps hosts, showing his clear aversion to hip-hop.
Plenty of actors have given music a crack, with results ranging from the impressive to the downright odd. But few efforts have been as unexpected as Bruce Willis’s stint with Motown, which saw him put out two albums. The first, The Return of Bruno, was tied to an HBO mockumentary and featured a cast of music legends like Booker T Jones, the Temptations, and the Pointer Sisters. Despite its lukewarm reception, the album somehow went gold in the US. Willis followed up with If It Don’t Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger in 1989, but after that, he left the recording studio behind for good.
His musical choices gave a fair hint at his personal tastes, and it turns out there was one style he just couldn’t cop. In the action flick The Last Boy Scout, Willis’s character, Joe Hallenbeck, is threatened with torture. When his captors say they want to hear him scream, he quips, “Play some rap music.” It’s a throwaway line, but it’s not far off the mark in real life.
Willis’s Musical Preferences and On-Screen Jabs
Given his fondness for blues, soul, and rock, it’s not a shock that hip-hop wasn’t his thing. But he didn’t just dislike it—he was pretty open about his feelings. In the book Naked Under Our Clothes, written by the former hosts of Yo! MTV Raps, Ed Lover and Doctor Dré, there’s a story that sums it up. Ed Lover recalled,
“I did one thing with Bruce Willis. I had heard he didn’t want to work with me because I was hosting Yo! MTV Raps. We were all right because we both understood each other. I did something with him for Planet Hollywood. I was interviewing him, and I said, ‘I heard you hate rap music’. He said, ‘Yeah, I can’t stand it.’”
Not missing a beat, Lover shot back,
“Well, I hate that harmonica bullshit you be playing, too. So now we understand each other, so let’s get the interview going on.”
After that, things went smoothly between them.
Behind the Scenes: A Blunt Exchange
This exchange likely happened in the early ‘90s, around the time Planet Hollywood was just getting started. Whether Willis ever warmed up to hip-hop later on is anyone’s guess, but judging by his own words, it seems unlikely. He was never shy about his musical dislikes, and his brief foray into the industry only highlighted the genres he preferred—and the ones he’d rather avoid.