Format Single Label Gasoline Alley/MCA | Genre Ska punk | |
Released May 6, 1991 (original)
August 1995 (re-release) Recorded 1991–1992 at Mambo in Long Beach, California Length 4:32 (album version)
3:37 (radio edit) | ||
"Date Rape" is a song by the band Sublime originally recorded for their 1992 debut album, 40 Oz. to Freedom. It was first released as a single in 1991, but did not become a hit until four years later, when the Los Angeles radio station KROQ began adding it into their playlists and it quickly became one of their most requested songs.
Bradley Nowell explained,
"I've never raped 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 sucked. This guy 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."
The song ends with the date rapist being sent to prison and being anally raped by an inmate.
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. They were often reluctant to play it during live shows when fans screamed out requests for it.
Pornographic actor Ron Jeremy stars in the "Date Rape" music video. 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.
The song was covered by Fishbone (who Sublime cited as an influence) on the 2005 Sublime tribute album entitled Look at All the Love We Found for which a music video was directed by Renee Tod and Josh Fischel (of the band Bargain Music). Fischel is the director of the Sublime documentary Stories, Tales, Lies & Exaggerations. The song also appeared on Fishbone's 2006 album Still Stuck in Your Throat.