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Lewis Hamilton has opened up on his love of music, stating that it has been a big part of his life since he was a child.
Hamilton is well-known for his love of music, and is known to have written pieces over the last number of years, however he has not publicly confirmed he has released them.
The five-time world champion says that his grandfather and father were both interested in music, which peaked his interestest when he was young.
"I grew up around a lot of music," Hamilton said. "My dad was in a band, he used to play drums. I grew up around a lot of reggae, my grandad always played a lot of reggae.
"Family get-togethers, there was always reggae in the house and my dad always had a really great, old hifi that he saved up and built up over time that he still has today. He would always be playing the greats like Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Marvin Gaye.
"When I got into the teenage years I was really heavy into hip hop. That's just carried on through today. I don't use it as meditation or anything like that but of course, music is really the universal language."
Hamilton added that he enjoys listening to music that contains lyrics not in English, as he is still able to "connect" with it.
"Right now I'm listening to a Danish rapper, and I don't understand a word he's saying, but the great thing with music is that you can still connect with it," he said.
"One of favourites artists is Rosalía, a Spanish singer. I don't understand what she's saying, I don't speak Spanish, but I don't want her to sing English because it's so powerful. I listen to music before the race, I don't have to.
"I just like to drown out all the noise of planes coming over, cameras, engineers yapping. A lot of people use music to drown out other noise and allow them to focus. There's a certain amount of calmness that comes with certain types of music you listen to.
"If you want to get hyped for a run you're going to do, you can listen to something hardcore. I don't really listen to a lot of hardcore stuff, unless I'm going partying," Hamilton laughed.
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
Replies (3)
Login to replyajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Love Lewis on track. Absolutely prodigy. But I gotta say that I his off-track life always seems incredibly inauthentic. Like everything he does it calculated for marketing impact. In that regard he's the Polar opposite of guys like Ricciardo or Norris, who post for fun, to show their lives, to joke around.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Really? I felt that way when he was younger, but I've been impressed to see the man he's matured into. He's got some business savvy and like any big name athlete has to do what it takes to make sure his 'brand' is marketable so he has to be somewhat calculating in his public persona but he looks to me like he is doing whatever he loves doing and cares ef-all for anybody who doesn't like it. More power to him. Also gotta say it's pretty impressive how he has won over the hearts of British racing fans. 5 championships will do that, but it's partly his personality as well.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
@Ram I gotta say that he definitely looks comfortable with himself. It's just my general perception. Regarding winning the hearts of British fans I partially agree. Partially because strangely he's both beloved and reviled. He's quite a divisive figure, unlike Mansell or Button.
I think it's his personality that rubs some people the wrong way and the fact he is not overly "british" with his lifestyle, residence, accents, etc. The flipside of that is that Lewis is a lot more popular worldwide than Button or Mansell ever were.