“Kool Thing” was written by Sonic Youth and appears as the lead single from their 1990 major-label debut album Goo. The song grew out of an interview Kim Gordon conducted with LL Cool J for Spin magazine in 1989. Gordon came away disappointed by his attitude toward punk and women and channeled the encounter into the track. Public Enemy’s Chuck D contributed the spoken-word responses simply because he was recording down the hall at the same studio. Released in 1990, the song reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 81 on the UK Singles Chart. It became Sonic Youth’s highest-charting single on alternative radio at the time and remains one of their best-known tracks.