Jay-Z: 'Kurt Cobain stopped hip-hop music'
Rapper reveals his love of Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'



Jay-Z has revealed he is a massive Kurt Cobain fan, and that 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' temporarily stopped the hip-hop world.

Speaking to super-producer Pharrell Williams in his new coffee table book Pharrell: The Places and Spaces I’ve Been, he said that Nirvana were so culturally powerful that hip-hop had to "wait awhile" before becoming the dominant sound of youth culture, CBS local reports.

"'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," he said.

He added that Cobain was a force bigger than hip-hop: “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."

He continued: "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'."
Jay-Z: 'Kurt Cobain stopp... | NME.COM

ok ok... i fucking love Nirvana. But the damn hype & power people give the band is just....

Nirvana did not kill RNR, And it did not stop hip-hop or any other genre. It simply made a new genre of music big, hip-hop was huge in the early 90's.. in fact it was in what many see as the golden age of hip-hop.

Gtfo Jay-Z

Gunsnhalen said:

ok ok... i fucking love Nirvana. But the damn hype & power people give the band is just....

Nirvana did not kill RNR, And it did not stop hip-hop or any other genre. It simply made a new genre of music big, hip-hop was huge in the early 90's.. in fact it was in what many see as the golden age of hip-hop.

Gtfo Jay-Z

Thats what I said when I read the title. Hip Hop was exactly during its prime/peak during the early to mid 90s.

He probably just wants to come off intelligent because he really isnt

Your the rock guru what was the genre they created again?

[Edited 10/10/12 17:14pm]

mjscarousal said:

Gunsnhalen said:

ok ok... i fucking love Nirvana. But the damn hype & power people give the band is just....

Nirvana did not kill RNR, And it did not stop hip-hop or any other genre. It simply made a new genre of music big, hip-hop was huge in the early 90's.. in fact it was in what many see as the golden age of hip-hop.

Gtfo Jay-Z

Thats what I said when I read the title. Hip Hop was exactly during its prime during the early to mid 90s.

He probably just wants to come off intelligent because he really isnt

Your the rock guru what was the genre they created again?

lol...

Well they didn't exactly create it, but they popularized grunge , and hip-hop was doing just fine at the time

Was he unconscious between 1991 and 1994? Hip-hop was on the rise when Nirvana was relevant.

Stop acting like you know everything, Shawn. Damn man, shut up...

Timmy84 said:

Was he unconscious between 1991 and 1994? Hip-hop was on the rise when Nirvana was relevant.

Stop acting like you know everything, Shawn. Damn man, shut up...

i gotta go in

1991-92 was when Nirvana & Grunge got big same time...

The CHRONIC album came out

Kool G Rap

Gang Star

Ice Cube with It Was A Good Day, Check Yourself & Wicked

Boogie down Productions getting bigger

Enter The Wu-Tangw as about to come out

Shaba Ranks

Pete Rock

Mary J Blige

Snoop Dogg

Sit down Shawn

Gunsnhalen said:

mjscarousal said:

Thats what I said when I read the title. Hip Hop was exactly during its prime during the early to mid 90s.

He probably just wants to come off intelligent because he really isnt

Your the rock guru what was the genre they created again?

lol...

Well they didn't exactly create it, but they popularized grunge , and hip-hop was doing just fine at the time

Yes it was and thanks for info

mjscarousal said:

Gunsnhalen said:

lol...

Well they didn't exactly create it, but they popularized grunge , and hip-hop was doing just fine at the time

Yes it was and thanks for info

I feel a lot of us know about the scene thing....

It was an amazing bunch of artists from all genres coming in the early 90's!, and i forget 2Pac himself was just starting in 91.....

Maybe Jay-Z think's Hip-hop was in a sad state cause he wasn't big enough to save it yet

Nonsense

puzzling nonsense

if anything, Cobain stopped classic heavy-metal (leather and dungeons & dragons stuff) and glam-metal, and helped alternative-rock to reach the mainstream (often with sad results)

Ice Cube, Ice-T, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Tribe Called Quest, etc were huge when Nirvana reached the mainstream, and Dre/Dogg were just around the corner

for real, Nirvana had ABSOLUTELY no impact in the dance, electronica and hip-hop scenes...

[Edited 10/10/12 17:33pm]

Timmy84 said:

Was he unconscious between 1991 and 1994? Hip-hop was on the rise when Nirvana was relevant.

Stop acting like you know everything, Shawn. Damn man, shut up...

aside from the shitty music, if Jay Z kept his camel mouth closed I might could tolerate him more... he tries to come off like his so damn important

Timmy84 said:

Was he unconscious between 1991 and 1994? Hip-hop was on the rise when Nirvana was relevant.

Stop acting like you know everything, Shawn. Damn man, shut up...

Gunsnhalen said:

mjscarousal said:

Yes it was and thanks for info

I feel a lot of us know about the scene thing....

It was an amazing bunch of artists from all genres coming in the early 90's!, and i forget 2Pac himself was just starting in 91.....

Maybe Jay-Z think's Hip-hop was in a sad state cause he wasn't big enough to save it yet

When Jay-Z was rolling with Big Daddy Kane in '90, '91, Kane was always selling so I don't know where he got that "Cobain stopped hip-hop sales" for. He wasn't even a BLIP on the radar in 1991.

mjscarousal said:

Timmy84 said:

Was he unconscious between 1991 and 1994? Hip-hop was on the rise when Nirvana was relevant.

Stop acting like you know everything, Shawn. Damn man, shut up...

aside from the shitty music, if Jay Z kept his camel mouth closed I might could tolerate him more... he tries to come off like his so damn important

Didn't Nas call him trash in "Ether"?

mjscarousal said:

Timmy84 said:

Was he unconscious between 1991 and 1994? Hip-hop was on the rise when Nirvana was relevant.

Stop acting like you know everything, Shawn. Damn man, shut up...

aside from the shitty music, if Jay Z kept his camel mouth closed I might could tolerate him more... he tries to come off like his so damn important

I'm just waiting for someone to say Nirvana killed R&B in 1991 to

That will be a hard one to prove

Timmy84 said:

mjscarousal said:

aside from the shitty music, if Jay Z kept his camel mouth closed I might could tolerate him more... he tries to come off like his so damn important

Didn't Nas call him trash in "Ether"?

hey, the guy may have an ego bigger than his sales, but I dig him, one of the few interesting rappers of the 00s

Gunsnhalen said:

mjscarousal said:

Yes it was and thanks for info

I feel a lot of us know about the scene thing....

It was an amazing bunch of artists from all genres coming in the early 90's!, and i forget 2Pac himself was just starting in 91.....

Maybe Jay-Z think's Hip-hop was in a sad state cause he wasn't big enough to save it yet

Probably... this comparision makes no sense at all and its laughable. He just wants to sound intelligent like he knows music. He needs to STFU

mjscarousal said:

Gunsnhalen said:

I feel a lot of us know about the scene thing....

It was an amazing bunch of artists from all genres coming in the early 90's!, and i forget 2Pac himself was just starting in 91.....

Maybe Jay-Z think's Hip-hop was in a sad state cause he wasn't big enough to save it yet

Probably... this comparision makes no sense at all and its laughable. He just wants to sound intelligent like he knows music. He needs to STFU

I also recently recall Jay-Z being on the cover introducing RS 500 greatest songs of all time & talking about Bohemian Rhapsody...

And also RS updated the list & put 99 problems in the top 200 songs of all time

Gunsnhalen said:

mjscarousal said:

Probably... this comparision makes no sense at all and its laughable. He just wants to sound intelligent like he knows music. He needs to STFU

I also recently recall Jay-Z being on the cover introducing RS 500 greatest songs of all time & talking about Bohemian Rhapsody...

And also RS updated the list & put 99 problems in the top 200 songs of all time

I saw that and shook my head. Heaven forbid he'd be put in the Hall of Fame in 10 years...

Timmy84 said:

mjscarousal said:

aside from the shitty music, if Jay Z kept his camel mouth closed I might could tolerate him more... he tries to come off like his so damn important

Didn't Nas call him trash in "Ether"?

Nas called him everything but a child of God

Gunsnhalen said:

mjscarousal said:

Probably... this comparision makes no sense at all and its laughable. He just wants to sound intelligent like he knows music. He needs to STFU

I also recently recall Jay-Z being on the cover introducing RS 500 greatest songs of all time & talking about Bohemian Rhapsody...

And also RS updated the list & put 99 problems in the top 200 songs of all time

Rolling Stones does to much smoking for my liking.........and ass kissing

Huh?

mjscarousal said:

Timmy84 said:

Didn't Nas call him trash in "Ether"?

Nas called him everything but a child of God

True.

mjscarousal said:

Timmy84 said:

Was he unconscious between 1991 and 1994? Hip-hop was on the rise when Nirvana was relevant.

Stop acting like you know everything, Shawn. Damn man, shut up...

aside from the shitty music, if Jay Z kept his camel mouth closed I might could tolerate him more... he tries to come off like his so damn important

wow we really agree on something , but he is always talking and most of the time dont know wtf he's talking about. he was recently asked about his support of obama and he says..he's not into politics, if he had his way there would be less government (a republican platform), then he says he supports obama basically because he's black. death row was on top of the world in the early 90's so how did nirvana stop hiphop

^ That tells you all you need to know about Jay-Z. Like Hank Hill would say, "that boy ain't right".

Jay-Z is out of his fucking mind to even say some stupid shit like that.

lowkey said:

mjscarousal said:

aside from the shitty music, if Jay Z kept his camel mouth closed I might could tolerate him more... he tries to come off like his so damn important

wow we really agree on something , but he is always talking and most of the time dont know wtf he's talking about. he was recently asked about his support of obama and he says..he's not into politics, if he had his way there would be less government (a republican platform), then he says he supports obama basically because he's black. death row was on top of the world in the early 90's so how did nirvana stop hiphop

just so the org knows this is the first time me and lowkey has agreed on.... ANYTHING I didnt think it was possible guess it is....

LMAO

He's just saying he respects Nirvana, but he's wrong. Hip hop (and rock) were better back then!

Also Jay-Z ''we'' had to wait.. like he was even known when nirvana was out

mjscarousal said:

Gunsnhalen said:

I feel a lot of us know about the scene thing....

It was an amazing bunch of artists from all genres coming in the early 90's!, and i forget 2Pac himself was just starting in 91.....

Maybe Jay-Z think's Hip-hop was in a sad state cause he wasn't big enough to save it yet

Probably... this comparision makes no sense at all and its laughable. He just wants to sound intelligent like he knows music. He needs to STFU

90% of the people on this forum then?