It seems that a song written by grunge rocker Courtney Love 30 years ago has landed her in the middle of controversy and public discourse, with many calling her racist after she declared she had a “mad crush” on Kendrick Lamar.
Love spoke with The Standard on Nov. 26, where she shared her thoughts on “Not Like Us” rapper Kendrick Lamar and his series of disses toward Drake. During her sit down, the outspoken rock star was asked if there were any artists she’d like to collaborate with.
“I would love to work with Kendrick Lamar; I have a mad crush on him. I also love UK femme drill artists, but it has to sound organic – not forced. Additionally, I’m a fan of Stormzy and Doja Cat,” she said.
The 60-year-old Love doubled down on her adoration of the Compton rapper later in the interview, saying, “Like I said I have a big crush on Kendrick – he is also genius,” while also mentioning she’d like to work with her “home guys” Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube as well.
However, her fondness for rap did not come without several fans rehashing some of Love’s past indiscretions. Conversations around “N—ger of Your Dreams,” a song recorded and performed only once in 1994 by her group Hole, have popped up on the internet— and now people are looking at a series of incendiary remarks she has made over the years and second-guessing her allyship.
A resurfaced article that was first published on Cracked.com in 2021, asked, “Is Courtney Love a Racist?”
It blasted her for statements she made during the “Live Through This” tour, where she had the crowd repeat after her various bad words between her songs. At one point, she had them yell out the B-word, the C-word, and then, after getting them in a frenzy, the N-word.
After raving that the audience was made up of a bunch of “good white people.” She then asked them, “Ahh, do you feel less politically correct now? Because I do.”
According to the article, not every time she asked the crowd to do it, they obliged her. In some cases, she would get booed. When that happened, she would shrivel up and stop the chant.
Celebrate Boston says that one show that didn’t stand for this was at the Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theatre on December 4, 1994, where the audience was just as rowdy, smashing her with derogatory terms as she performed.
Eventually, she stopped using trigger words in her set, except for the time when she debuted the song “N—ger of Your Dreams” during the tour.
The lyrics, according to Genius, were, “In the bible there’s a will/ Just because I know a way/ I’m the n—ga of your dreams/ Your the n—ga you will never see/ Everyone can take from you and everyone bleed from you/ They can tell your guts are true/But why do you/ Don’t just jump/ Just jump, just jump, just jump.”
According to the January 2003 issue of SPIN magazine, “During a soliloquy about the greatness of the Strokes, Love singled out a Black girl, yelling, ‘You don’t know who the Strokes are! Which is good! You’ve got your culture, and I’ve got mine.”
The article also highlighted a comment she made to a Black male, “Then she asked a Black man wearing a ‘do rag, ‘What is the problem with African-Americans? What is wrong with your own hair?”
The article even looked at her appearance at the comedy roast of Pamela Anderson in 2005, where she quipped at comedian Eddie Griffin, a vulgar comment that she thought was funny, “You African-Americans only know about me because I’ve been arrested.”
There was another time where she yelled a Black fan for liking a white rock act.
-In 2010, at one of her concerts, she pulled an AfricanAmerican girl on the stage with her and asked her, “Do you really like rock music?”
The moment caused an awkward moment in the venue, and she turned to the crowd and the Black girl, and said, “Because you’re African-American. That would be like me being into Lil Wayne.”
Fast forward almost a decade and a half later, it seems that there are a few things very different about Love.
Between that time, she has gotten therapy for the loss of her husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who died by suicide in April 1994, months before her tour rant. In 2020, while accepting the “Icon Award” at the NME Awards, she admitted that after all of those years, she was finally sober.
Now, in 2024, she doesn’t believe that artists of certain races should stick to their own culture. Not only has she covered Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” but she afforded him permission to record the Nirvana smash hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit” lyrics on his song “Holy Grail,” featuring Justin Timberlake, HuffPost reported.
As for her linking up with Mr. “Not Like Us” himself, fans suggest the singer pass on that.
“The Black delegation wants nothing to do with Courtney Love. Will the White delegation please come and collect their people? Thank you,” one person wrote on Threads.
Who knows if she is sincere about wanting to work with the “GNX” rapper, but it appears that fans are having it. Perhaps it is the case where no matter what you do to change up your style, people will remember what you did and said, especially if it is something bigoted, forever.
