Nookie (Limp Bizkit song)

1999 single by Limp Bizkit

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

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." 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."

In the music video, filmed in Long Island City, 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, "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, which it lost to Metallica's "Whiskey In The Jar".

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.