Hey, One Song Nation, we're off this week, but for now we're revisiting one of our favorite

early episodes of the pod, our episode on Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. That's right, y'all. This is one of my favorite episodes from the early era. Like, we were really hitting our stride at this point, figuring out what the show was. Listen, I'll just say this one thing about our own show is that after we tape it and a year goes by, it's fresh to my ears to listen to it again. So if you missed it the first time, but even if you

haven't, check it out again. So if you miss it the first time,

but even if you haven't, check it out again. It's our one song episode on Smells Like Teen Spirit.

I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ, Diallo Riddle. And Riddell. And I'm producer, DJ, and songwriter Luxury, also known as the guy who says interpolation on TikTok. And this is one song. Man, I am so excited for this one. Smells Like Teen Spirit is a mainstay at the top of all those 100 greatest songs of all-time lists. It's got over a billion streams on Spotify. And personally, for me, it represents a crucial moment in the history of pop music. We're going to be getting into all of that, including the flannel, the grunge, and all the mosquitoes, albinos, and even our libidos. This is one song. So, Dialla, do you remember the first time you heard Nirvana, smells like teen spirit?

Yeah, man. I was of the age where, like, after school, I would go home and I would watch MTV to find out, like, what music I should be buying on cassette. And, uh... You're a cassette guy? I was a cassette guy. Because, you know, I, I'd like to... I live in Atlanta driving community. I would drive around. I had my cassette deck in my 84 Honda accord. I was so proud it had four doors. It had four doors. I was so happy. I didn't have to be that guy with the compact where it's like you have to lift up the seat and let people in the back. I was like, no, you got your own door, Joe and Rashid. y'all let y'all selves in you know like I was very proud of that but I remember

watching the video uh by Samuel Byer I you know I was like a person who early on was like you know

because MTV listed the director on there and I was like wow this video is cool and it was like a bunch

of a bunch of really rock dudes in the in the stands and they were like the the cheerleaders

with the anarchy symbol on their thing and then this song came on and you know like nowadays

like everybody gets content on their own time but this is still in a time when you know there was

such a thing as like a water cooler moment we didn't have water cool school. Obviously, couldn't afford water in my neighborhood. But we would get at lunch and we would talk about stuff. I'll never forget the day after that song, we all heard it. I feel like the same day, the next day at lunch, we were all like, because we were all like, it's a, guys, it's an all black, you know, school environment. I always say there were only two non-black kids in my school.

There was Tran Lee and Josh.

And there was Jorge Ramos. I thought there was a Josh, too. There were three. You're right. Jorge Ramos. And. Don't forget Josh. Oh, my gosh. Joel Blesinger. Oh, okay. So we had literally one Asian kid, one Latino kid, and one white kid.

Long story short, I'm sitting at a table with all my friends, all of them black, and they were just like, yo, did you see that band Nirvana yesterday? And we were all like, yo, that song goes. We didn't say goes hard because that wasn't an expression back then. I'm sure we were like, yo, that's dope. You know, like we all like that song. It felt different. Like, we, nobody came to school talking about. You hear that new white snake song? No, no, no, no. That was never a thing. For some reason. Not a lot of Motley crew fan. And dotage. Exactly. For some reason, that song and Kurt's whole thing just connected with people all outside the rock community and the Seattle Pacific

Northwest. We all felt it. We all felt that song. I can't even describe how much that song meant.

But to me, that song still symbolizes how one song can change everything.

Absolutely. It's just, it's the Oppenheimer of songs. It's like after Smells Like Team Spirit, nothing was the same. It created a genre, and it absolutely... It created a genre. Ripple effect that... It changed Atlanta radio. Like, I remember just a couple of months after that song came out, everybody wanted to get into the new alt rock. I think it was called alternative rock. And one of the stations that we used to listen to...

Which to this day persists 30 years later, that's still a format that did not exist before. 99... at 99 FM became 99 X, you know, because they were playing edgier music than the pop stations. What about you, man? Do you remember the first time you heard smells? 100%. i mean it's interesting that your story was similar the revelation was instantaneous

and actually i have to give props remember the first time you heard smells. 100%. Because I mean, it's interesting that your story was similar.

The revelation was instantaneous.

And actually, I have to give props to a friend of mine, Cessaly Jacobson. So you have to understand, just back you up a second. When I was in high school, my senior year, I was a DJ at the local college radio station. So like I'm literally on a Wednesday night, my senior year, I'm awake at two in the

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