Rape Me

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Lore & Background

The history of "Rape Me" is marked by immediate friction with media gatekeepers. Written on an acoustic guitar in 1990, it was first performed live at the Hollywood Palladium on June 29, 1991. Early versions featured a guitar solo rather than the bridge found on the final album. Controversy surrounded the song before its official release, but MTV did not formally block Nirvana from performing it at the 1992 Video Music Awards. The band agreed to play their single "Lithium" instead, though Cobain played the opening riff of "Rape Me" at the start, and MTV did not cut to commercial. Years later, this stance led Walmart and Kmart to initially refuse selling In Utero; the chain stores relabeled the song "Waif Me" only on the packaging of their censored versions released in February 1994—the actual track listing and lyrics remained unchanged, and the title change was a label decision, not Cobain's choice for easy graphic editing.

In Their Own Story

The recording of the final studio version took place in February 1993 at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, with producer Steve Albini. Instruments were tracked on February 15, followed by a reported six-hour session where Cobain completed his vocals. Albini noted that Cobain's screaming at the song's ending was intentionally recorded to "overwhelms the band and becomes this really uncomfortable presence," though these abrasive vocals were softened in the final mastered version. Prior to this, an earlier demo from October 1992 with Jack Endino featured a unique take where Cobain held his then-infant daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, on his lap; her crying is audible on the recording released later on With the Lights Out. The song's lyrics were written from the victim's perspective, intended as a defiant taunt mixed with submissive invitation. Cobain explained to Rolling Stone that he wanted to show karma: "That man will be caught, he'll go to jail, and he'll be raped." While primarily about rape, the later-added bridge also addressed the band's contentious relationship with the press, with lyrics like "my favorite inside source" referencing a suspected anonymous interview in Vanity Fair.

Reader's Guide

Musically, "Rape Me" opens with pick scratching over a verse chord progression that Pitchfork's Will Bryant described as an "almost direct inversion of the famous 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' riff." Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross noted it shares the same catchy soft/loud dynamic as their 1991 breakthrough hit, though written after it and before Nevermind's release. The song was released as a double A-side single with "All Apologies" on December 6, 1993, in CD, cassette, and vinyl formats, but not commercially in the United States. It reached number 32 on the UK Singles Chart and charted in Belgium and Ireland, standing as the band's final original single before Cobain's suicide in April 1994. Live performances included appearances on Saturday Night Live on September 25, 1993 (the first show with guitarist Pat Smear) and Nulle Part Ailleurs in Paris on February 4, 1994. The final live rendition occurred at Nirvana's last concert at Terminal 1 of Munich-Riem Airport on March 1, 1994.

Did You Know?

• MTV did not formally block Nirvana from performing "Rape Me" at the 1992 Video Music Awards; the band agreed to play "Lithium" instead, and Cobain played the opening riff of "Rape Me" during the performance without MTV c
• Walmart and Kmart refused to stock the unedited In Utero, but the retitled version released in February 1994 renamed the song "Waif Me" only on the packaging, not in the actual track listing or lyrics, and the title chan