-Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)-
Single by N.E.R.D from the album Seeing Sounds
B-side	"Spaz"
Released	May 13, 2008 (2008-05-13)
Format	CD single, music download, vinyl record
Genre	Alternative hip hop
Length	3:27
Label	Interscope
Writer(s)	Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo
Producer	The Neptunes
N.E.R.D singles chronology
"Maybe" (2004) "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)" (2008) "Spaz" (2008) Alternate cover United Kingdom single cover

"Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)", simply known as "Everyone Nose," is the first single by American band N.E.R.D from their third studio album Seeing Sounds and was released on May 13, 2008 by Interscope Records.

The song was generally well-received by critics despite its subject of cocaine use. N.E.R.D promoted the song through numerous tours and festivals. The song peaked at number seventeen on the Japan Hot 100 Singles and at number forty-one on the UK Singles Chart, but failed to chart on any Billboard chart.

N.E.R.D filmed the music video for "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)" and was directed by Diane Martel. A video for the remix of the song featuring Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and Pusha T was also filmed and directed by Hype Williams.

Background

The song was written by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo and produced by The Neptunes. The title of the song derives from the subject of social snorting cocaine in lavatories among women.^[1] "Yes, when the girls go in the bathroom, they're powdering their faces with that other white stuff," N.E.R.D said.^[2]

N.E.R.D promoted the song by performing it in several tours and festivals, including the Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Diesel Bash.^[3][4] Toby Green of The Guardian attended a concert in Roundhouse, London, and gave the performance four out of five stars, saying "Pharrell's knack is connecting with the crowd. Many bands tell the audience they want to party with them, but N.E.R.D seem to mean it."^[5]

Remix

The song produced a remix featuring Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pusha T and was available as an iTunes and Zune Marketplace bonus track. When asked why the song was remixed, Hugo replied with, "We wanted something with more of a straight-ahead, club-bumping beat, just a different take on it. We like to remix, dismantle, take apart shit and put it back together. It's just like a Rubik's Cube: When you can't solve it, you just break it and you put it back together." Williams added, "We think that 'Everyone Nose' in its current form already hits a certain demographic a certain way, so I just wanted to go and do something different."^[6]

Critical reception

Critical responses to the song were generally positive. Nick Levine of Digital Spy gave the song three out of five stars, saying, "It's a triumph of beats over melody, but few would deny that those beats sound pretty good as they're dropping."^[7] The Daily Mirror gave the song four out of five stars, saying, "This naughty nose-tapper is nicely buffeted electropop, with trickily timed beats, synthesised horns and playful vocal jousting."^[8] Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone said the song is "destined to go down as [one] of 2008's most interesting hip-hop cuts."^[9] Addi Stewart of Now magazine said the song "is straight groovy, baby!"^[10]

Other reviews were negative. Ian Cohen of Pitchfork Media said, "P[harrell] lampoons partygoing cokeheads by sounding like Baha Men after five too many rails."^[11] Scott Lowe of IGN said the song "features an intriguing jazzy beat layered over pounding bass and the nauseatingly reiterated title lyric." He went on to say, "Their lyrics are about as shallow and trite as an inflatable kiddy swimming pool, but less fun." Of the remix, he said, "Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pusha T make an appearance on a somewhat more enjoyable remixed version of [the song], which adds a nice outside perspective to the otherwise tiresome track."^[12]

Williams stated, "We love the reaction that we get [from that song]. They know what we're talking about." Shay Haley, a member of the band, went on saying, "Me, personally, I'm shocked it's being embraced the way it is. I feel like it sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to what you hear every day on the radio- It's just our personal observation of what we've seen over the past couple of years, so we felt like making a party record out of it."^[2]

Music video

The '80s video-game graphics in the music video of the remix.

During filming inside a Madison nightclub in New York, a fight broke out on the set of the music video and nearly shut down production. One person was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Lindsay Lohan and Kanye West both visited the set at different times during the shoot, but were not present at the time of the fight. Union workers threatened to walk off the set, complaining that the production team behind the video failed to hire enough security and felt the environment had become unsafe.^[13]

The official video for "Everyone Nose" was released May 14, 2008 and was directed by Diane Martel. Kanye West, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson make cameos. The video was reportedly going to feature a giant dancing nose and unclothed strippers, but were censored out with "removed by request" slates.^[13][14]

A music video for the remix of "Everyone Nose" featuring Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and Pusha T was shot in July and was directed by Hype Williams. "The concept [is based on] old '80s video-game graphics playing behind us while we're rhyming," Williams said. "We just want to have fun with the project. In a day and age where the record industry is what it is, I'm lucky enough to be on a label that understands and they'll just let us have fun."^[6]

Track listing

United Kingdom CD single

1. "Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)" - 3:27
2. "Spaz" - 3:50

Charts

References