Jay-Z says Kurt Cobain and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" put the hip-hop world on ice - but he's still a huge fan of Nirvana.
He believes Nirvana was so culturally powerful that hip-hop didn't have a chance to be the dominant form of youth music, but is just had to wait a while.
He made the confession in Pharrell William's new coffee table book "Pharrell: The Places And Spaces I've Been" (via NME).
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'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," said Jay-Z. "
That's why 'Teen Spirit' rang so loud because it was right on point with how everyone felt."
He recognises that an individual like Kurt Cobain was a force to be reckoned with.
"I knew we had to wait for a second before we became that dominant force in music," said Jay-Z. "It was weird because hip-hop was becoming this force, then grunge music stopped it for one second. 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 think hip-hop would have had a chance to dominate if Nirvana didn't stand in the way? How might music have developed without their influence? Share your theories in the comments.
, but i think that even you can tell that there is a difference between john mayer's music's impact and cobain's music's impact. i don't disrespect any writer's efforts but nirvana had an impact on the entire mainstream and alternative scenes and changed the media's acceptance of the alternative scene.. i don't think mayer, again without dissing him, had that effect, or any other writer since cobain. 
This!
