Jay-Z: Kurt Cobain's Impact Delayed Hip Hop
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Super producer Pharrell Williams sat down with rap mogul Jay-Z to discuss late rock legend Kurt Cobain in Skateboard P's upcoming book "Pharrell: The Places and Spaces I've Been". Jay spoke on Cobain's impact and influence on pop culture and recalls listening to the renowned track "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time.
"First, we got to go back to before grunge and why grunge happened," said Jay. "'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, you know what I'm saying? 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.'"
Hov acknowledged that Cobain's music was extremely important and even admitted Hip Hop and Rap had to take a backseat before it became number one.
"I have always been a person who was curious about the music and when those forces come on the scene, they are inescapable," Jay says. "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."
source: hiphopblog.com
