Watch: Rapper Ty Dolla $ign Covers Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Rapper Ty Dolla $ign has posted video of a live cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” filmed with his full band at a rehearsal space earlier this month. Ty dons a Fender Strat for the clip, which sees the band adeptly take on the song’s iconic intro section before transitioning into a vamp of the verse with a decidedly funkier groove, wrapping up at around a minute and a half in length.

Ty told Spin in a 2019 interview that he has a portrait of Kurt Cobain tattooed on his leg, and that the song introduced him to rock:

“The first time I ever actually loved a rock song was ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and then it made me go and listen to all of his [Cobain’s] shit. I wish he would have lived longer to really give off everything and I wonder what he would sound like right now.

“I definitely wanted to pay homage to Kurt because he’s the rock star of rock stars. I’m just a sex symbol, I’m trying to get there.”

The “homage” he mentions above is the cover of that same issue of Spin, which saw the rapper recreate Cobain’s black and white Spin cover shot nearly two decades earlier:

You can watch the clip of Ty Dolla $ign and his band covering “Smells Like Teen Spirit” below.

[via Metal Injection]