Jay-Z Claims Kurt Cobain And Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' Temporarily Eclipsed Hip-Hop
Monday, 05 November 2012
Written by Elliott Batte
Hip-hop and rap superstar Jay-Z has claimed that Nirvana’s seminal track ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ - the first track from their second album ‘Nevermind’ - was so good that it temporarily put hip-hop in it’s tracks.
The 90s was a constant battle between nu-metal, hip-hop, grunge, and rock to become the most popular music amongst young people, and although hip-hop had - and still does - a strong grip on the music scene, Jay-Z has claimed in his new book that Nirvana and their track ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ caused the genre to ‘wait a while’ before becoming as big as it is today.
Quotes on K-Roq claim Jay-Z wrote in the new bio: “Hair bands’ dominated the airwaves and rock became more about looks than about actual substance and what it stood for - the rebellious spirit of youth….That’s why ‘Teen Spirit’ rang so loud because it was right on point with how everyone felt.
“I have always been a person who was curious about the music and when those forces come on the scene, they are inescapable. Can’t take your eyes off them, can’t stop listening to them. [Cobain] was one of those figures. I knew we had to wait for a second before we became that dominant force in music.
“It was weird because hip-hop was becoming this force, then grunge music stopped it for one second, ya know Those ‘hair bands’ were too easy for us to take out; when Kurt Cobain came with that statement it was like, ‘We got to wait awhile'.”
Do you share Jay-Z’s opinions? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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