“Nookie” by Limp Bizkit

"Nookie" was the lead single from Significant Other, Limp Bizkit's second album, released in June 1999, and it's nu metal at full, sulking swagger: a thick, rubbery riff, a groove that stalks instead of runs, and a chorus that stomps its feet like a kid refusing to leave the party.

The title started as a joke. Wes Borland told Kerrang in 2008 that there was a porn magazine lying around the studio with the word on its cover, so he tossed it out as a working title, never dreaming anyone would keep it. He liked the music and didn't care for the words, and he jokingly took the blame for the whole thing. Fred Durst wrote those words about an ex-girlfriend who treated him badly and whom he couldn't bring himself to leave, and the song is him trying to work out why he stayed.

Borland, John Otto and Sam Rivers built the music, with Scott Borland adding keyboards. Terry Date produced it with the band and recorded it, and Brendan O'Brien mixed it, leaving plenty of room for the bottom end to shove its way through the speakers. The video, shot in Long Island City, has Durst marching through the streets gathering a crowd of women behind him as he goes.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.