ABC/Randy HolmesRivers Cuomo has dabbled in the rap world before: he guested on the B.o.B. track "Magic," and Lil Wayne appeared on the 2009 Weezer album Ratitude. While working on Weezer's forthcoming effort Pacific Daydream, Cuomo got really into one style of hip-hop in particular: mumble rap.
"It felt so creative and mind-boggling," Cuomo tells Billboard of the genre, which is used to describe artists like Future, Lil Uzi Vert and Desiigner.
"I was listening to it all the time, and then I'd go to write a song and I'm doing mumble rap," he continues. "And I'm like, 'This is awesome!' But I'd send it around to everybody and they're like, 'This is horrible!'"
While the dreams of making Pacific Daydream a mumble rap album may have been dashed, Cuomo still knew the album had to be different.
"[I wanted to] break away from who we are and what we have always done and try to figure out something that's totally different but incredibly amazing," he says.
In other Weezer and hip-hop news, Cuomo tells NME that he'd like to work with rapper Post Malone, who currently holds the number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100 with the track "Rockstar."
"I'd love to work with him," says Cuomo, who's previously covered Malone. "In fact, I think we are fans of each other's music. He's in a great zone right now. I'd absolutely be open to working together."
Pacific Daydream, featuring the lead single "Feels Like Summer," will be released October 27.
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