Hotly-tipped US duo MGMT have said Jay-Z's headlining of this year's Glastonbury festival is good news for the event.
The Somerset festival - held at Worthy Farm, Pilton, at the end of June - has not sold out as quickly as in previous years and critics have blamed the New York rapper's headlining slot as the reason for slower sales.
Oasis' Noel Gallagher said featuring a hip-hop act at Glastonbury was "wrong" but his comments have been met with a frosty response from much of the industry, with Coldplay's Chris Martin claiming last month he found any debate about whether Jay-Z was an appropriate headliner "embarrassing".
Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly also said last week that as the Roc-A-Fella mogul was the "best rapper in the world", he was an ideal choice for the legendary festival and now MGMT's Ben Goldwasser has also dismissed any notion that Jay-Z does not belong on the Pyramid stage.
"I think people are thinking about the legacy of the festival and the kind of acts that usually play there, the general vibe and attitude of everyone," he told inthenews.co.uk.
"I personally think it's cool that a rapper is headlining."
Goldwasser, whose song Time to Pretend shot up the charts after being featured in the final episode of the second series on Skins, added: "I've been to a lot of festivals which have been predominantly white music for white audiences, without a lot of crossover, so it's cool."
Jay-Z himself - real name Shawn Carter - commented publicly on the apparent furore this week, saying his headlining slot was "just a natural progression".
"We don't play guitars, Noel, but hip-hop has put in its work like any other form of music," he told the World Entertainment News Network, in reference to Gallagher's comments.
"We just have to respect each other's genre of music and move forward."
21/05/2008 00:02:01
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