On My iPod: Natasha Lyonne

Lou Reed, ”Coney Island Baby”
”I don’t even know where to begin with this. I’ll listen to it, stare at the wall, and enter a fugue state. I got to join Lou Reed on his Sirius radio show recently. It was only the heaviest moment in my life. He’s my everything.”

Ol’ Dirty Bastard, ”Cold Blooded”
”I always just want to have this around when I’m just hanging out, lurking about. Once upon a time, I wanted to get a tattoo inside my lips: The upper lip would say ‘R.I.P.’ and the lower lip would say ‘ODB.’ And whenever I smoked, I could sort of honor him. It never happened, and now I just feel like I’ll never be that wild again. Maybe I’ll make that one of my requests for the executor of my estate: posthumously give me that inner-lip tattoo. And then I can show up to the pearly gates — like, arrive ready, so when I meet ODB there, I don’t feel embarrassed.”

Love, ”Always See Your Face”
”This song always gets me. Generally speaking, it helps when I know there’s some substance and suffering behind the music. Pop music to me [feels] like it’s manufactured from the ether.”

Charlotte Dada, ”Don’t Let Me Down”
”She’s from Ghana — it’s a cover of the Beatles song. It’s like, you get older, and you’re like, ‘What am I going to do with the Beatles?’ So then you start getting involved in John Lennon’s ‘Steel and Glass,’ you know? [Laughs] But covers, as a rule, are not my bag. I don’t enjoy them — except this one.”

R. Kelly, ”My Story”
”I don’t know how he rhymes the line ‘I went from broke to sleeping in Versace shirts.’ But somehow it rhymes!”