First released on a three-track demo before appearing as the opening track on their debut album, Deaf Dumb Blind (1993), the song was an immediate success for the band, reaching No.

[5] "Nigger" was performed at every Clawfinger concert as of 2019[6] but in 2024, Tell said that the band had stopped playing the song out of respect for changing times.

[7] Clawfinger frontman Zak Tell wrote the song in 1991 as a 20-year old, wanting to spread an anti-racist message.

[8] Tell listened to early hip hop groups including Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul growing up, and when writing "Nigger", said, "I was angry and I was slightly confused.

"[9] Historian Todd M. Mealy, in his book The N-Word in Music: An American History, described the message of "Nigger" as "a declaration that the word is and always will be a racial slur, and that Blacks on any continent should refrain from saying it regardless of the connotation.

"[10] The provocativeness of Tell's lyrics was influenced by punk rock bands like the Sex Pistols and the Dead Kennedys.

Tell continued to combine humour, metal music and what he called "lyrics with a big middle finger" on "The Faggot in You" and "Right to Rape" from the band's 2005 album Hate Yourself with Style.