Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)

"Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" is a punk rock song by The Offspring. It is the fourth track from their fifth studio album Americana (1998) and was released as the first single from the album. It achieved significant pop and alternative radio play and popularity, peaking at number 53 on the US charts and at number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song reached the charts in over 15 countries and peaked at #1 in nine of these, including Australia and the United Kingdom, making it one of the most commercially successful singles released by the band.

The song appears as the seventh track on their Greatest Hits (2005).

Track listing

Initial pressing

Australia CD Maxi

Europe CD Maxi

Composition and lyrics

Beginning with a sample of the pseudo-German nonsense phrase "Gunter glieben glauchen globen" from Def Leppard's song "Rock of Ages," chanted as a replacement for the traditional "1, 2, 3, 4" to start the recording, the song ridicules a "wannabe gangsta" (or "wangster") who is immersed in hip-hop culture not because he truly loves or understands it, but because it is trendy, makes him feel tough ("friends say he's tryin' too hard, and he's not quite hip/but in his own mind, he's the - he's the dopest trip") and makes it seem that he can get all the girls ("and all the girlies say I'm pretty fly - for a white guy"). The song openly mocks the middle-class suburban youths who listen to rap music for this reason. The female vocals are performed by Nika Futterman.

Music video

In the video, directed by McG, the "white guy" drives through town in his lowrider and tries to act cool in front of people, playing with car's hydraulic system and interrupting a break dance session to dance. He is then carried by girls watching it to a pool party and thrown into the pool. These scenes are cut by the band's playing. The video ends with the "white guy" returning home and accidentally scaring his little sister wearing a fairy costume because of his appearance.

Noodles has stated that it was one of his favorite videos to make.

Guy Cohen cameos as the "white guy" driving by in his lowrider at the end of the "Why Don't You Get a Job?" video.

DVD appearances

The music video also appears on the Complete Music Video Collection DVD. It was released in 2005. The DVD also contains a storyboard version of the video (in which the storyboard plays over top of the music video.)

Rock Band and Guitar Hero

The song was released as downloadable content for the video game Rock Band. The song was released in the first "Offspring pack" which was released on October 7, 2008 along with "Gone Away" and "Self Esteem".

The song was released on the Guitar Hero: Van Halen spinoff tracklist on December 22, 2009.

Charts