The grunge icons Lil Wayne calls his favourite band of all time
Whilst most people closely associate rapper Lil Wayne with modern hip-hop thanks to his work as a solo artist and with the supergroup Cash Money Millionaires, this does not account for the broad musical taste of the New Orleans native. Whilst he has discussed a host of music outside his immediate sphere, the most intriguing is that the ‘Lollipop’ singer is a self-professed fan of grunge.
This love of the most vital guitar music of the 1990s might not be overly surprising for Lil Wayne fans, given his general attitude of challenging authority and the fact he’s played the guitar live on numerous occasions. However, what will likely cause more shock is that he claimed that he loves one grunge outfit so much that they’re his “favourite band” of all time.
In a reflection of the old idiom “don’t judge a book by its cover”, when speaking to Blender in 2008, Lil Wayne revealed himself to be a longtime fan of the definitive grunge outfit of all time, Nirvana. Notably, the trio was led by the late Kurt Cobain, the man hailed as the ultimate musical champion of Generation X. Together, Nirvana released three albums in their time, starting with 1989’s Bleach. This sludgy underground success was followed by their 1991 masterpiece Nevermind and 1993’s much darker third offering, In Utero.
Borrowing the quiet-loud-quiet dynamics of alternative rock pioneers, Pixies and fusing their heavy sound with pop melodies inspired by The Beatles and The Wipers, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana struck gold. Whilst their story ended tragically with the frontman’s suicide in April 1994, the Washington state trio remain one of the most significant acts of all time, with their breakout hit ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, a timeless reminder of their potency.
When sitting down with Blender, Lil Wayne was asked to name his favourite band, and it was here that he categorically named Nirvana as the one. In his account, he also outlined how ‘Smeels Like Teen Spirit’ was the song that introduced him to them.
“Nirvana,” Wayne said. “I been into them since ‘Teen Spirit.’ There used to be this video-request station called the Box, and some motherfucker must have loved Nirvana, ’cause that video was always on. I loved it—everyone was throwing everyone else around, and all the girls looked like they were ready to do whatever.”
Ironically, due to Nirvana’s immense success kicked off with ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Kurt Cobain came to loathe his track. “Everyone has focused on that song so much,” the frontman told Rolling Stone in 1994. “The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. It’s been pounded into their brains. But I think there are so many other songs that I’ve written that are as good, if not better, than that song, like ‘Drain You.’ That’s definitely as good as ‘Teen Spirit’. I love the lyrics, and I never get tired of playing it. Maybe if it was as big as ‘Teen Spirit’, I wouldn’t like it as much.”
Listen to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ below.
