"Date Rape" is a song by American

ska punk Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music. Ska punk tends to feature brass instruments, especially Horn (instrument), horns such as trumpets, trombones and woodwind instruments like saxophones ...

band Sublime, originally recorded for their 1992 debut album, '' 40 Oz. to Freedom''. It was first released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

in 1991, but did not become a hit until four years later, when the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

radio station

KROQ KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The sta ...

began adding it into their playlists and it quickly became one of their most requested songs.

Lyrics and meaning

The song is about a woman who gets

date rape Date rape is a form of acquaintance rape and dating violence. The two phrases are often used interchangeably, but date rape specifically refers to a rape in which there has been some sort of romantic or potentially sexual relationship between ...

d by a man who is convicted of the crime and in turn gets anally raped while in prison.

Background

Bradley Nowell Bradley James Nowell (February 22, 1968 – May 25, 1996) was an American musician and the lead singer of the band Sublime. Born and raised in Belmont Shore, Long Beach, California, Nowell developed an interest in music at a young age. Nowell ...

explained,

"I've never
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
d anyone at least as far as I can remember. We were at a party a long time ago and we were all talking about how much
date rape Date rape is a form of acquaintance rape and dating violence. The two phrases are often used interchangeably, but date rape specifically refers to a rape in which there has been some sort of romantic or potentially sexual relationship between ...
sucked. This guy named Stanley was like, "Date rape isn't so bad; if it wasn't for date rape I'd never get laid." Everyone at the party was bummed out about it, but I was cracking up and I wrote a funny song about it."

Although "Date Rape" is one of Sublime's most popular songs, it barely made it on their first CD. Nowell and the other members of the band thought of it as one of their worst songs, often being reluctant to play it during live shows when fans screamed out requests for it.

Music video

Pornographic actor A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts on video that is usually characterized as a pornographic film. Such videos tend to be made in a number of distinct ...

Ron Jeremy Ronald Jeremy Hyatt (born March 12, 1953) is an American former Pornographic film actor, pornographic actor, and actor. Nicknamed "The Hedgehog", Jeremy was ranked by AVN (magazine), ''AVN'' at No. 1 in their "50 Top Porn Stars of All Time" l ...

cameos in the "Date Rape"

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

. Jeremy plays both the judge at the rape trial and the "large inmate" who rapes the man who sexually assaulted the female protagonist of the song.

Legacy

The song was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of ...

Fishbone Fishbone is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1979, the band plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative ...

(whom Sublime cited as an influence) on both the 2005 Sublime

tribute album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century a ...

'' Look at All the Love We Found'' and Fishbone's own 2006 album ''

Still Stuck in Your Throat ''Still Stuck in Your Throat'' is a 2006 studio album by Fishbone, released in Europe on October 16, 2006, and in the United States on April 24, 2007. It was their first album since '' Fishbone and the Familyhood Nextperience Present: The Psycho ...

''. The cover's video was directed by Renee Tod and Josh Fischel (of the band Bargain Music), the latter of which is the director of the Sublime documentary ''Stories, Tales, Lies & Exaggerations''. "Date Rape" is also featured in the soundtrack for the video game ''

BMX XXX ''BMX XXX'' is a 2002 sports video game developed by Z-Axis and published by Acclaim Entertainment under their AKA Acclaim label for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. While primarily a BMX-based action sports title, the game places ...

''.

References

External links

Date Rape lyrics

A flyer written by Bradley and the rest of the band about the song
(

JPG JPEG ( , short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and sometimes retroactively referred to as JPEG 1) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degr ...

, 110 kB) * {{authority control 1991 debut singles 1995 singles Sublime (band) songs 1991 songs MCA Records singles Songs written by Bradley Nowell Songs about prison Works about rape Songs about sexual assault