Nookie (Limp Bizkit Song)

"Nookie" is a song by the American nu metal band Limp Bizkit, released on June 15, 1999 as the lead single from their second album ''Significant Other''.

Lyrics and background

In a 2008 interview with British rock magazine ''Kerrang'', guitarist Wes Borland said the following about how the lyrical content turned out: "The music was cool, but I didn't like the lyrics at all. The funny thing is that 'Nookie' was actually the working title. When we were in the studio there was a porn magazine that had the word 'nookie' on the cover, so I was like, 'This song's called Nookie!', I never thought someone would actually run with it. I suppose it's all my fault." However, in an interview with SongFacts, he would claim the initial beat was sampled by DJ Lethal from "an Italian porn movie from the '70s or something", which then inspired the name "Nookie".

Fred Durst said about the song, "It's about my ex-girlfriend, how she treated me like shit, and I couldn't leave her, wouldn't get over it," he said. "She screwed my friends and used me for my money. I tried to figure out why I did it, and I figured I did it all for the nookie."

Music video

In the music video, filmed in Long Island City, Durst sings the song while walking through city streets drawing a crowd of female followers as he leads them to a secret concert performance of the song in an alley. The band allowed hundreds of fans to participate, playing the song in front of the large crowd. All the guys went to one side of the stage, and the girls on the other side. When Durst sang the chorus at certain parts, he would hold out his microphone to the crowd, getting that particular side to sing. This was, according to Durst, to show that "guys go off hard, but girls go off even harder". At the end of the video, Durst gets arrested and taken away by the police for disturbing the peace.

Commercial performance

"Nookie" made Limp Bizkit extremely popular, helping its parent album ''Significant Other'' become certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was their first single to chart on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, debuting at number 80 on July 31, 1999 and staying on the chart for 11 weeks. It also went to number 74 on the Radio Songs chart, number six on the Mainstream Rock chart, and number three on the Alternative Songs chart. The song's music video went to number one on MTV's ''Total Request Live'' six times during late July and August of 1999. "Nookie" was also the band's first single to chart internationally, reaching #13 in Australia, #33 in New Zealand, and #36 in the Netherlands.

The song gained Limp Bizkit its first Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, which it lost to Metallica's "Whiskey In The Jar".

Reception

Pharrell Williams, while recording N.E.R.D.'s 2008 album ''Seeing Sounds,'' cited this song as part of the band's incentive and drive to record more energetic music, noting it as the last energetic hit single before the album's release. According to ''Stereogum'', "aside from the infantile lyrics, the awful rapping, and the yelling, it’s really not that bad of a song". Author Dave Holmes wrote that "Nookie" is "terrible, yet the kids ate it up". In 2022, ''Louder Sound'' and ''Kerrang'' ranked the song number two and number three, respectively, on their lists of Limp Bizkit's greatest songs.

Track listing

# "Nookie" – 4:28
# "Counterfeit" (Lethal Dose Remix) – 3:21
# "Counterfeit" (Phat Ass Remix) – 3:05
# "Nookie" (video)
# "Faith" (video)

Charts

Certifications

Citations

Bibliography

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1999 songs
1999 singles
Flip Records (1994) singles
Limp Bizkit songs
Music videos directed by Fred Durst
Song recordings produced by Terry Date
Songs written by Wes Borland
Songs written by Fred Durst
Songs written by John Otto (drummer)
Songs written by Sam Rivers (bassist)
Songs based on actual events