Rape Me

Kurt Cobain wrote "Rape Me" on an acoustic guitar in Los Angeles in May 1991, while Nirvana's second album Nevermind was being mixed. He debuted it live on June 18, 1991, at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, and the earliest versions featured a guitar solo where the bridge would later sit. That bridge came several months afterward, its lyrics addressing the press scrutiny Cobain and his wife, Courtney Love, faced after the band's mainstream breakthrough. The song's title caused trouble before it was even released: MTV blocked Nirvana from playing it at the 1992 Video Music Awards, and manager Danny Goldberg later recalled that network president Judy McGrath feared it would look like the channel was normalizing rape. The band agreed to play "Lithium" instead, though Cobain still teased a few seconds of "Rape Me" at the start of the performance, nearly sending the live broadcast to commercial.

The title and lyrics also contributed to In Utero, released in September 1993, initially not being stocked by Walmart and Kmart. "Rape Me" came out as the album's second single in December 1993, a double A-side with "All Apologies," reaching number 32 on the UK Singles Chart and the Top 40 in Belgium and Ireland. It was the band's final original single before Cobain's suicide in April 1994.

Cobain recorded his vocals for the album version in a reported six-hour session with Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, in February 1993. Albini deliberately captured the screaming at the song's ending so that it would overwhelm the band and become an uncomfortable presence. An earlier demo, taped in October 1992 with Jack Endino in Seattle, even caught Cobain's infant daughter Frances Bean crying while she sat on his lap during the vocal take.