Nas Talks the N-Word, Black Presidents Backstage in New York

Last week Nas played a special Rolling Stone gig at New York's intimate Highline Ballroom and sat down to chat about his big year and untitled album. "With the Don Imus situation, Oprah Winfrey's show where they had a big conversation about the derogatory language in hip-hop music, I felt like wow, the timing with this album is so perfect," he says. "The album ends with the song 'Black President,' and it really happens this year — it gets no better than that." Click above to watch the New York MC in action.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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