A saying of advice to artists of all sorts to eliminate the behaviors or styles of their "idols" or what they took influence/inspiration from. It's synonymous with Kill your darlings. First said by Sonic Youth on the EP Kill Yr Idols, on the song of the same
name.
They came up with the song and phrase after music critic
Robert Christgau attended a very early live session of theirs and wrote a quite negative review in The Village Voice. Sonic Youth had looked up to Christgau before, and as stated in the song had previous wanted to impress him with their music.
"I
don't know why
You want to impress Christgau
Ah, let that shit
die
And find out the new goal"
After the review they said "fuck that" and adopted a new mindset, where trying to impress people, or mimic the styles of your idols is detrimental to the creativity of your
work. A very
good mindset to have for the
band they are, as they certainly did what they said and were a very
unique band that didn't sound like much before it.