What Do the “Parental Advisory” Lyrics to Prince’s “Darling Nikki” Mean?

When the Minnesota-born rocker Prince released his album and movie by the same title, Purple Rain, he became one of the biggest stars in the world. With a mastery of imagery, songwriting, charisma and aura, the man who always wore purple blazed his way into billions of minds.

One of the reasons he was so beloved by his fans was his fearless writing. Among other topics, he was never afraid of sex, intimacy or lust. This is evidenced by the song at hand here, “Darling Nikki,” from the late artist’s 1984 Purple Rain record.

Parental Advisory

The song “Darling Nikki” was so, well, raunchy that it pushed Tipper Gore, wife of former Vice President Al Gore, to create the Parental Advisory sticker for albums. As the story goes, Tipper saw her 11-year-old daughter listening to the song and went mad thinking about how Price had gotten those sexual lyrics into her home. Of course, the Parental Advisory sticker largely backfired and only pushed kids to buy more explicit albums.

Sex Fiend

There’s no getting around it, especially if you watch Prince writhing in Purple Rain on stage, “Darling Nikki” is about a self-described “sex fiend.” In fact, Prince says it outright at the opening of the song,

I knew a girl named Nikki
I guess you could say she was a sex fiend
I met her in a hotel lobby
Masturbating with a magazine
She said how’d you like to waste some time?
And I could not resist when I saw little Nikki grind

The tryst begins,

She took me to her castle
And I just couldn’t believe my eyes
She had so many devices
Everything that money could buy
She said sign your name on the dotted line
The lights went out and Nikki started to grind

But though the night went well, Nikki is not one to be captured. Offers Prince,

Woke up the next morning
Nikki wasn’t there
I looked all over all I found
Was a phone number on the stairs
It said thank you for a funky time
Call me up whenever you want to grind

Oh, Nikki, ohhhh

Come back Nikki, come back
Your dirty little Prince
Wanna grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images