Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit
Rock band
In the late 1990s, Limp Bizkit changed the belief that hard-edged rock was dead by developing a hybrid of rap and rock music. Formed in 1994, the group perfected their outrageous stage shows and released their 1997 debut release entitled Three Dollar Bill, Y’AII$, which included the stereo-infused cover of George Michael’s pop hit “Faith.” Throughout 1998, Limp Bizkit performed with both the Warped and Ozzfest tours, as well as with the inaugural Family Values tours headlined by the rock band Korn. For their Ozzfest sets, Limp Bizkit shocked audiences by emerging from a gigantic toilet, and performances with Family Values came complete with a troupe of break dancers and a science fiction-themed stage. In order to gain female fans, Limp Bizkit also traveled on their own for two months to put on “Ladies Night in Cambodia,” for which the first 200 women to attend each night received free admission.
By the end of 1999, Three Dollar Bill, Y’AII$ had gone double platinum. Their subsequent album, 1999’s Significant Other, proved an even greater success and debuted at number one on the Billboard album chart, selling 635, 000 copies in its first week alone. After another round with the Family Values tour, an appearance at Woodstock 1999, and a headlining tourof theirown, Limp Bizkit secured their rock star status.
Although guitarist Wes Borland, bassist Sam Rivers, drummer John Otto, and turntable man DJ Lethal simply enjoyed performing and reaping the rewards of their newfound wealth, rapper Fred Durst had dreamed of the fame and attention for some time. A self described workaholic who moved to Los Angeles to live closer to the heart of the entertainment industry (his band mates stayed in Jacksonville), Durst wants to do it all. In addition to fronting Limp Bizkit, Durst directed two of the group’s videos for the songs “Faith” and “Nookie,” helped design his band’s outlandish stages, worked as a representative for Flip/lnterscope Records, and performed on records with other artists such as Korn, Videodrome, and Soulfly. In July of 1999, Interscope appointed Durst senior vice president and gave him his own imprint. In the midst of all this, he also started writing a screenplay, hoping to one day direct and produce movies.
Durst, born in Jacksonville, Florida, spent most of his childhood in the small, southeastern town of Gastonia, North Carolina, where he lived until he graduated from high school in a middle-class neighborhood. His father worked for the Gaston County police department, and at the time of his retirement, he served as chief of under-cover narcotics. Durst’s mother worked in a mental health facility as a social worker. While Durst’s parents did not quite understand their son’s interest in rap, punk music, and wearing wild clothes and earrings, they
For the Record…
Members include Wes Borland (born 1975), guitar; 1A 1 Fred Durst (born 1971 in Jacksonville, FL; son of a retired narcotics officer who became a landscaping business owner and a former social worker who later worked as an administrator for a Lutheran church; children: daughter Adriana, born 1990), rapper, vocals; DJ Lethal (born Leor DiMant in 1970; son of Jewish Latvian immigrants; former member of House of Pain; joined band 1995), turntables; John Otto (born 1978), drums; Sam Rivers (born 1977), bass.
Formed band, started traveling on a grass-roots tour, 1994; signed with Interscope and released debut album Three Dollar Bill, Y’All$, 1997; released follow-up album Significant Other, performed at Woodstock concert, 1999.
Addresses: Home —Jacksonville, FL (Durst lives in Los Angeles, CA); Record company —Interscope Records, 10900 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 1230, Los Angeles, CA 90024, (310) 208-6574. Website— Limp Bizkit Official Website, http://www.limpbizkit.com.
nevertheless supported his taste in musical and popular culture. When Durst discovered break dancing, for example, his father built a studio in the family’s garage, and his mother sewed uniforms for his break dancing group called the Dynamic 3.
Felt Like an Outsider
Living in a home with a police officer father made an impact on Durst and helped keep him out of trouble, as he explained to Jon Wiederhorn in an interview for Allmusic Zine. “I’ve seen him come home shot when I was real young, and I’ve seen the people he had to deal with because of drugs and stuff, and that kept me out of it. He’s been shot a couple of times, and he’d come home from the hospital, and you’re just like, ’Holy shit!’ There were crazy raids and shit. The drug dealers attacked him…. I remember when pot came into my life, but I never did anything else. I was too scared to. I had horror stories straight from the mouth.”
Durst attended racially mixed schools and made a lot of African American friends growing up who introduced him to the emerging hip-hop music by New York-based groups in the 1980s. He especially liked records by the Sugarhill Gang. He was known as one of the few white boys in Gastonia that lived for break dancing and old school hip-hop music, though he enjoyed skate boarding and listening to punk, ska, metal, and rock as well. Durst sometimes felt like an outsider at his school where blacks and whites seldom hung out together. “Gastonia’s got this small-town attitude,” Durst explained to Zev Borow in Spin magazine.
Even though Durst had his share of run-ins with other white kids because of his choice of friends, he nonetheless described life in Gastonia as “awesome” and “just as up-to-date as anywhere else.” The future rock/rap star, who started break dancing around 1982, entering local dance contests around 1984, rapping in 1984, and deejaying in 1985, said to Wiederhorn,“I had a couple friends who were into what I was into: breakdancing, rapping, deejaying, skate boarding…. I was definitely the outcast of the city, but I still had those couple of friends who lived in their own little world.” However, Durst liked other types of music in addition to rap and hip-hop. Some of his early influences included the rock band Ratt, as well as alternative rock acts such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Rage Against the Machine.
Went to Boot Camp
A good student throughout grade school and high school, after graduation Durst admitted that dreams of rapping, skate boarding, forming a metal-rap group, and achieving fame started to cloud his academic intentions. He decided to enroll at Gaston College to study art, but dropped his classes only four days later. As time passed, Durst ran out of money and resorted to sleeping on friends’ couches. Feeling like a “loser,” as he admitted to Steven Daly of Rolling Stone, and wanting to please his parents, Durst chose to enlist in the United States Navy. After serving 18 “soul-destroying” months at boot camp in San Francisco, California, Durst injured his wrist skate boarding and received a medical discharge. Returning to North Carolina, Durst worked at a skate park in the city of Charlotte, then moved to Jacksonville with his parents when his father retired from the police force. Within this time Durst also married, divorced, and had a daughter with his former wife named Adriana (born 1990), who lives with her mother in Florida.
In Jacksonville, Durst’s father opened a landscaping business, and Durst worked for him as a foreman for a time, while his mother took a job performing administrative duties at a Lutheran church. Durst also started working part-time at a surf shop and learned how to tattoo. At first, he tattooed people just for fun and admits to making some mistakes on people in the beginning. Still, he harbored the idea of forming his own band, and in 1994, after seeing Rivers play with a local metal group at a club, Durst persuaded the bass guitarist to try something new. Rivers’s cousin Otto, at the time studying jazz at a performing arts high school, joined the group on drums, and Borland offered his services on guitar after seeing Durst perform his rap onstage. “I’d never really seen someone sing-rap like that,” Borland recalled to Borow. Although Borland was already fronting another band, he quit in order to join Limp Bizkit. Before the band was signed, though, Durst had kicked Borland out of the band because he felt that his musical tastes were too different, replacing him twice with other guitarists. DJ Lethal came on board the following year. Limp Bizkit met the former member of House of Pain when they opened for one of the group’s final shows. Limp Bizkit spent two years of relentless grassroots touring before getting their big break, spending time on the Warped and Family Values tours and playing at numerous small clubs.
Near Death Experience
However, Durst soon discovered that there “wasn’t anyone as good as him [Borland] who I liked as much,” he told Borow. Also aiding his decision to ask Borland back involved living through a near-death experience. The band was on their way to Los Angeles to make their first record, driving through Texas near the town of Van Horn, when the driver of Limp Bizkit’s van fell asleep at the wheel. He awoke in a panic and flipped the vehicle over several times. Fortunately, no one suffered serious injuries from the crash, although Durst crawled away from the wreckage with two broken feet. After the accident, Durst realized that recording without Borland didn’t feel right. “It was kinda like God flipping the van,” he said to Daly. “We took it as a sign to get Wes back and start all over again.”
Prior to the eventful night, Durst continued to work as a tattoo artist in his spare time. By chance, he met the successful rock group Korn when the band toured in Florida and gave all the members tattoos. “Fred told us he’d been tattooing for years,” Korn’s front man Jonathan Davis told Daly. “But it turned out it was, like, his third tattoo! He did a KORN tattoo on [guitarist] Head’s back—and it looked like HORN.” Despite the mishap, Korn held no hard feelings and started spreading the word about Limp Bizkit after Durst sent Korn bassist Fieldy a demo tape. Before long, several record labels started calling to offer Limp Bizkit a contract. They were originally set to sign with MCA but backed out at the last minute. Instead, Limp Bizkit went with the Flip/lnterscope label, a record company that helped artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and Eminem gain a mass audience. Working with Korn producer Ross Robinson, Limp Bizkit released their 1997 debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y’AII$, and started touring with Korn.
However, before most people even heard Limp Bizkit’s music on the radio, the band woke up one morning at the center of a controversy. It seemed that Interscope, known to promote groups by any means necessary, had paid a Portland, Oregon, radio station to play the “Counterfeit” single 50 times. Although the deal was technically legal because it was considered buying advertising time, many music industry insiders reacted with outrage, and the story appeared on the front page of the New York Times. Despite the commotion, Limp Bizkit remained calm and allowed the news to blow over, believing that in the end the event would not harm the group’s credibility. “It wasn’t like we were getting tons of radio play anyway,” Durst said to Borow regarding incident.
Took Over MTV
The song “Faith,” a pounding metal remake of George Michael’s 1980s pop hit, did hit the airwaves, and the video took over MTV (Durst himself directed the video). Nonetheless, the album as a whole went largely overlooked at first, and many critics deemed it one dimensional. In addition, one of the tracks called “Stuck,” full of misogynistic references, angered many female rock fans. Durst explained to Daly that his not so politically correct choice of lyrics resulted from a painful breakup with a former girlfriend. “If you heard what she called me… I understand that two wrongs don’t make a right. I was reacting; I didn’t think of the consequences. I’ve learned my lesson. Now I soak everything in and then I respond. And when someone criticizes my lyrics, it makes me think twice. Was I a dick? A homophobe? A chauvinist? No, but I go back to make sure.” Limp Bizkit also tried to make up for Durst’s lyrical mistake byputting on the two-month traveling show called “Ladies Night in Cambodia.” And to promote the album, constant touring—again with pals Korn as well as turntable stylists the Deftones—helped put Limp Bizkit back in line for greater things.
In the summer of 1999, Limp Bizkit released their sophomore effort, the more creative Significant Other. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard album chart, knocking out the Backstreet Boys’ Millennium for the top spot and becoming the 15th highest debut in SoundScan history. This time around, Limp Bizkit hired Terry Date (who produced albums for Helmet and Pantera) to produce the album. Date, who Borland described as more of an engineer than a producer, enabled the band to become more involved in the recording process. “We really feel like we produced a lot of this ourselves,” the guitarist commented to Borow. Likewise, DJ Lethal’s hip-hop sensibility sounded more apparent on Significant Other. “I choose songs to dig into,” reported the turntablist. “If a track doesn’t need DJing, I’m not going to force it. But even the straight-rock shit, almost all the drums are breakbeat hip-hop.” Durst again directed a video to support the album, this time for Limp Bizkit’s hit single “Nookie.”
As before, Limp Bizkit set out on another round of touring. In addition to joining the Family Values crew, the group also took the stage at Woodstock 1999 and headlined their own tour later that fall. In July of the same year, Inter scope named Durst senior vice president and gave the rapper his own imprint. His duties for the company included producing, remixing, shooting videos, and signing new acts. While so many activities may overwhelm most people, the ambitious, hard-working Durst insists that he can handle it all and more.
Selected discography
Three Dollar Bill, Y’AII$, Interscope, 1997.
Significant Other, Flip/lnterscope, 1999.
Sources
Periodicals
Rolling Stone, July 8-22, 1999; August 5, 1999; August 19, 1999.
Spin, August 1999.
Online
Limp Bizkit Official Website, http://www.limpbizkit.com (October 11, 1999).
“Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst Lonely at the Top,” Allmusic Zine, http://www.allmusic.com/zine/limp_interview.html (September 26, 1999).
Rolling Stone.com, http://www.rollingstone.tunes.com (October 11, 1999).
—Laura Hightower
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit
Rock group
In the late 1990s, Limp Bizkit changed the belief that hard-edged rock was dead, by developing a hybrid of rap and rock music. Formed in 1994, the group perfected their outrageous stage shows and released their 1997 debut release titled Three Dollar Bill, Y'All$, which included the stereo-infused cover of George Michael's pop hit "Faith." Throughout 1998, Limp Bizkit performed with both the Warped and Ozzfest tours, as well as with the inaugural Family Values tours headlined by the rock band Korn. For their Ozzfest sets, Limp Bizkit shocked audiences by emerging from a gigantic toilet, and performances with Family Values came complete with a troupe of breakdancers and a science fiction-themed stage. In order to gain female fans, Limp Bizkit also traveled on their own for two months to put on "Ladies Night in Cambodia," where the first 200 women to attend each night received free admission.
By the end of 1999, Three Dollar Bill, Y'All$ had gone double platinum. Their subsequent album, 1999's Significant Other, proved an even greater success and debuted at number one on the Billboard album chart, selling 635,000 copies in its first week alone. After another round with the Family Values tour, an appearance at Woodstock 1999, and a headlining tour of their own, Limp Bizkit had secured their rock star status.
Although guitarist Wes Borland, bassist Sam Rivers, drummer John Otto, and turntable man DJ Lethal simply enjoyed performing and reaping the rewards of their new-found wealth, rapper Fred Durst had dreamed of the fame and attention for some time. A self-described workaholic who moved to Los Angeles to live closer to the heart of the entertainment industry (his bandmates stayed in Jacksonville), Durst wanted to do it all. In addition to fronting Limp Bizkit, Durst directed two of the group's videos for the songs "Faith" and "Nookie," helped design his band's outlandish stages, worked as a representative for Flip/Interscope Records, and performed on records with other artists such as Korn, Videodrome, and Soulfly. In July of 1999, Interscope appointed Durst as a senior vice president and gave him his own imprint. In the midst of all this, he also started writing a screenplay, hoping to one day direct and produce movies.
Durst was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and spent most of his childhood in a middle class neighborhood in the small, southeastern town of Gastonia, North Carolina. His father worked for the Gaston County police department, and at the time of his retirement served as chief of undercover narcotics. Durst's mother worked in a mental health facility as a social worker. While Durst's parents did not quite understand their son's interest in rap, punk music, and wild clothes, they nevertheless supported his taste in musical and popular culture. When Durst discovered break dancing, for example, his father built a studio in the family's garage, and his mother sewed uniforms for his break dancing group called the Dynamic 3.
Felt Like an Outsider
Living in a home with a police officer father made an impact on Durst and helped keep him out of trouble, as he explained to Jon Wiederhorn in an interview for All Music Guide. "I've seen him come home shot when I was real young, and I've seen the people he had to deal with because of drugs and stuff, and that kept me out of it."
Durst attended racially mixed schools and made a lot of African-American friends who introduced him to the emerging hip-hop music by New York-based groups in the 1980s. The future rock/rap star started break dancing around 1982, entering local dance contests around 1984, rapping in 1984, and deejaying in 1985. He especially liked records by the Sugarhill Gang. However, he liked other types of music besides rap and hip-hop. Some of his early influences included the rock band Ratt, as well as alternative rock acts such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Rage Against the Machine, and he enjoyed skate boarding and listening to punk, ska, metal, and rock.
Formed His Own Band
A good student throughout grade school and high school, Durst enrolled at Gaston College to study art, but dropped his classes only four days later, as dreams of rapping, skate boarding, forming a metal-rap group, and achieving fame started to cloud his academic intentions. He served 18 months in the Navy, but injured his wrist skate boarding and received a medical discharge. He then moved to Jacksonville with his parents when his father retired from the police force. In Jacksonville, Durst's father opened a landscaping business, and Durst worked for him as a foreman for a time. He started working part-time at a surf shop and learned how to tattoo.
Still, he harbored the idea of forming his own band, and in 1994, after seeing Rivers play with a local metal group at a club, Durst persuaded the bass guitarist to try something new. Rivers's cousin Otto joined the group on drums, and DJ Lethal came on board the following year. Borland offered his services on guitar after seeing Durst perform his rap onstage. "I'd never really seen someone sing-rap like that," Borland recalled to Zev Borow in Spin magazine. Durst replaced Borland twice with other guitarists, because he felt that Borland's musical tastes were too different from his, but he soon discovered he wanted him back, and Borland later rejoined the group. Limp Bizkit spent two years of relentless grassroots touring before getting their big break, spending time on the Warped and Family Values tours and playing at numerous small clubs.
Durst met the successful rock group Korn when the band toured in Florida, and Korn started spreading the word about Limp Bizkit after Durst sent Korn's bassist Fieldy a demo tape. Before long, several record labels started calling to offer Limp Bizkit a contract. They were originally set to sign with MCA, but instead signed with the Flip/Interscope label, a record company that had helped artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and Eminem gain a mass audience. Working with Korn producer Ross Robinson, Limp Bizkit released their 1997 debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y'All$, and started touring with Korn.
For the Record . . .
Members include Wes Borland (born in 1975), guitar; Fred Durst (born in 1971, in Jackson ville, FL; son of a retired narcotics officer who became a landscaping business owner, and a former social worker who later worked as an administrator for a Lutheran church; children: daughter Adriana, born 1990), rapper, vocals; DJ Lethal (born Leor DiMant in 1970; son of Jewish Latvian immigrants; former member of House of Pain; joined band 1995), vocals, turntables; John Otto (born 1978), drums; Sam Rivers (born in 1977), bass.
Group formed, traveled on grass roots tour, 1994; signed with Interscope, released debut album Three Dollar Bill, Y'All$, 1997; released follow-up album, Significant Other, performed at Woodstock concert, 1999; released Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog FlavoredWater, 2000; released New Old Songs, 2001; released Bipolar, 2003; released Results May Vary, 2003; released The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1, 2005.
Addresses: Record company—Interscope Records, 10900 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 1230, Los Angeles, CA 90024, phone: (310) 208-6574. Website—Limp Bizkit Official Website: http://www.limpbizkit.com.
However, before most people had even heard Limp Bizkit's music on the radio, the band woke up one morning at the center of a controversy. It seemed that Interscope, known to promote groups by any means necessary, had paid a Portland, Oregon, radio station to play the "Counterfeit" single 50 times. Although the deal was technically legal because it was considered buying advertising time, many music industry insiders reacted with outrage, and the story appeared on the front page of the New York Times. Despite the commotion, Limp Bizkit remained calm and allowed the news to blow over, believing that in the end the event would not harm the group's credibility. "It wasn't like we were getting tons of radio play anyway," Durst said to Borow regarding the incident.
Took Over MTV
The song "Faith," a pounding metal remake of George Michael's 1980s pop hit, did hit the airwaves, and the video took over MTV (Durst himself directed the video). Nonetheless, the album as a whole went largely over-looked at first, and many critics deemed it one-dimensional. In addition, one of the tracks called "Stuck," full of misogynistic references, angered many female rock fans. Durst explained to Daly that his not so politically correct choice of lyrics resulted from a painful breakup with a former girlfriend. "If you heard what she called me... I understand that two wrongs don't make a right. I was reacting; I didn't think of the consequences. I've learned my lesson." Limp Bizkit also tried to make up for Durst's lyrical mistake by putting on a two-month traveling show called "Ladies Night in Cambodia." Constant touring with Korn, as well as with turntable stylists the Deftones, helped put Limp Bizkit back in line for greater things.
In the summer of 1999, Limp Bizkit released their sophomore effort, the more creative Significant Other. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard album chart, knocking out the Backstreet Boys' Millennium for the top spot and becoming the 15th highest debut in record-tracking system SoundScan's history. This time around, Limp Bizkit hired Terry Date (who produced albums for Helmet and Pantera) to produce the album. Date, whom Borland described as more of an engineer than a producer, enabled the band to become more involved in the recording process. "We really feel like we produced a lot of this ourselves," the guitarist commented to Borow. Likewise, DJ Lethal's hip-hop sensibility was more apparent on Significant Other. Durst again directed a video to support the album, this time for Limp Bizkit's hit single "Nookie."
As before, Limp Bizkit set out on another round of touring. In addition to joining the Family Values crew, the group also took the stage at Woodstock 1999, and headlined their own tour later that fall. In July of the same year, Interscope named Durst a senior vice president and gave the rapper his own imprint. His duties for the company included producing, remixing, shooting videos, and signing new acts.
In 2001, the group won MTV awards for Best Group and Best Album, as well as the Web Award, for their album Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. According to David Browne in Entertainment Weekly, Chocolate Starfish "melds rapping, monster-truck riffs, and turntable scratching into claustrophobic vents" against "a veritable laundry list of teenage aggravations." Although Browne praised Borland's guitar work, he noted that the band's music was starting to sound formulaic, and that this album might be an attempt to break out of a rut, as well as keep teenage listeners interested as they grew older. A Guitar Player reviewer also praised Borland, noting, "If he's half as influential as his band, Borland could almost single-handedly make it cool to play clean-toned rhythm guitar again."
"Rap/Metal Has Not Aged Well"
In 2003 the band released Results May Vary, "in which the lead singer is a troubled, sensitive sort backed by a band that downplays its rivet-gun sonics in favor of something more melodic," according to David Browne in Entertainment Weekly. However, the group was still dogged by the perception that their style was not keeping up with changing times. Chuck Arnold in People felt that the group "struggles to remain relevant," and Bram Teitelman commented in Billboard that "rap/metal has not aged well."
Limp Bizkit released The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1 on Geffen Records in 2005. All Music Guide writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine deemed the effort "certainly a comeback of sorts," noting that "the music is a step in the right direction—it's more ambitious, dramatic, and aggressive, built on pummeling verses and stop-start choruses." Also in 2005, Durst's career took a turn in a new direction: he was chosen for a lead part in the movie Population 436, which also starred Jeremy Sisto.
Selected discography
Three Dollar Bill, Y'All$, Interscope, 1997.
Significant Other, Flip/Interscope, 1999.
Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water, Flip/Interscope, 2000.
New Old Songs, Flip/Interscope, 2001.
Bipolar, Flip/Interscope, 2003.
Results May Vary, Flip/Interscope, 2003.
The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1, Geffen, 2005.
Sources
Periodicals
Billboard, October 11, 2003, p. 69.
Daily Variety, May 27, 2005, p. 4
Entertainment Weekly, October 27, 2000, p. 115; October 10, 2003, p. 121.
Guitar Player, March 2001, p. 114.
Music and Media, November 24, 2001, p. 4.
People, October 20, 2003, p. 50.
Rolling Stone, July 8-22, 1999; August 5, 1999; August 19, 1999.
Spin, August 1999.
Variety, March 14, 2005, p. 3.
Online
"Limp Bizkit," All Music Guide,http://www.allmusic.com/ (September 26, 2005).
Limp Bizkit Official Website, http://www.limpbizkit.com (October 11, 2005).
Rolling Stone.com,http://www.rollingstone.tunes.com (October 11, 2005).
—Laura Hightower andKelly Winters
Limp Bizkit
LIMP BIZKIT
Formed: 1994, Jacksonville, Florida
Members: Fred Durst, vocals (William Frederick Durst, born Jacksonville, Florida, 20 August 1971); DJ Lethal, turntables (Leor DiMant, born Latvia, 18 December 1972); John Otto, drums (born Jacksonville, Florida); Sam Rivers, bass (born Jacksonville, Florida, 21 September 1977). Former member: Wes Borland, guitar (born Richmond, Virginia, 7 February 1975).
Genre: Rock
Best-selling album since 1990: Significant Other (1999)
Hit songs since 1990: "Counterfeit," "Nookie," "My Way"
In the late 1990s, Limp Bizkit started a musical rebellion. Though not the first group to meld the attitude and style of hip-hop with hard rock and funk, Limp Bizkit were among the most successful. They helped to launch a raft of imitators in a category dubbed "nu-metal" for its contemporary spin on heavy metal. Under the inspiration of Fred Durst, a former tattoo artist-turned-record-mogul and their singer/rapper and visionary, the group released a string of hit albums. With cathartic hits such as "Nookie" and "Counterfeit," they developed a reputation for loutish, misogynist behavior, volatile fans, and outrageous live shows.
A native of Gaston County, North Carolina, Fred Durst, the son of a police officer and social worker, grew up listening to rap and break dancing in local competitions while also feeding his hunger for the hard rock of bands such as Nirvana and Soundgarden. Durst began pursuing a career in tattooing when, in 1994, he saw the bassist Sam Rivers performing with his heavy metal band and convinced Rivers to join him in a new group.
The group got an early break when the California hard rockers Korn performed their first show in Jacksonville in 1995. When Korn returned to Jacksonville the next year, Durst gave them Limp Bizkit's demo tape, which was passed on to the rising hard rock producer Ross Robinson. In 1996 the band signed with up-and-coming independent label Flip Records. The lineup was completed that year by DJ Lethal.
Their debut, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all (1997), failed to make an impression on the charts when first released. In the first of many controversies to follow, Limp Bizkit found themselves at the center of a media firestorm when it was revealed that Flip's distributor, Interscope Records, had paid a Portland, Oregon, station to play the thrashing single "Counterfeit" fifty times. Although technically legal—the song was prefaced by a voice-over announcing the sponsor, making it a paid ad—the move was frowned upon by the music press and industry insiders.
Limp Bizkit's debut signaled a shift in rock music. Ushering in a new genre of rock variously called "rapcore" or "nu-metal," the album blends hard rock with funk bass and Durst's screamed lyrics about low self-worth and anger at the world ("Pollution," "Nobody Loves Me"). Critics, though, faulted the group for their one-dimensional sound and the misogynist lyrics of "Stuck."
In 1998 Limp Bizkit performed an energetic set on MTV's Spring Break Fashion Show ; that appearance led to more support from the channel and a very important slot on that summer's inaugural Family Values tour, headlined by Korn. The group also performed on the Ozzfest tour.
Shortly after the debut of the rap/metal song "Nookie," the first single from the band's second album, Significant Other (1999), Limp Bizkit had become rock superstars. Durst's signature look, a red backwards baseball cap, black work pants, and a white T-shirt, had become the outfit of choice for both the band's male and female fans. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard album charts and sold more than 635,000 copies in its first week, a stunning achievement for a relatively new rock band. The testosterone-laden lyrics and aggressive music is augmented here with a string section, coupled with more cathartic lyrics from Durst.
The album features even more hip-hop attitude and music than earlier releases, with Lethal's turntable scratching and rap-style beats moving to the fore along with improved, fluid rapping from Durst. Guest rapping from Method Man and production by the revered hip-hopper DJ Premier also helped the group gain credibility within the hip-hop community, while Wes Borland's guitar keeps them firmly rooted in heavy metal.
At their peak Limp Bizkit became embroiled in yet another controversy. Durst was roundly criticized for inciting fans to follow the edict of a Significant Other song, "Break Stuff," during the group's set at the disastrous Woodstock '99 concert, which ended the next day in fiery riots and several alleged sexual assaults. Following Durst's exhortation, the crowd in the teeming mosh pit near the front of the stage became frenzied, leading to dozens of injuries and an alleged rape in the swirling pit. The band's set was cut short because of the chaos.
In the fall of 1999, the group released their third album, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, which sold more than 1 million copies its first week, a new record for a rock group. Along with Durst's profane lyrics, delivered in his pinched, nasal style, the album features the standard array of crunching metal chords from Borland and deep, throbbing rhythms from John Otto and Sam Rivers. In songs such as "My Generation," Durst also enters into the time-honored tradition of grousing about how, in light of his success, nobody understands him.
Citing creative differences, Borland split with the group in October. An album of remixes, New Old Songs, sans Borland's contributions, was released in December. In January 2002 Durst launched a heavily hyped, twenty-two-city talent contest in search of a fresh face to replace Borland. The stunt did not yield the expected results, and Durst made a public plea to Borland to return in May 2002, a plea that Borland shunned. The group recorded their fourth album, Bipolar (2003), with no lead guitarist in place.
Limp Bizkit were not the first nu-metal band, but they were certainly among the genre's most popular and controversial groups. Critics lambasted the band for what was termed their "mook rock" attitude—denigrating and objectifying women—while mostly male fans eagerly embraced their antiestablishment, testosterone-driven lyrics and music.
Spot Light: Nu-Metal Explosion
For a generation of young men with rock-star dreams in the 1990s, the rhythms and attitude of hip-hop were just as vital a part of their musical education as the posturing and guitar slinging of rock gods past. Combining their love of rapping and programmed drum beats with crunching guitar chords and pent-up aggression, Limp Bizkit led the charge for a new genre of bands that came to be known as nu-metal, a moniker that signified their embrace of fresh styles over the traditionally bombastic attack of heavy metal. The successors to the noisy grunge mantle of the early 90s, these nu-metal bands tended to vent their spleen about dysfunctional childhoods over the scratching of turntables and distorted guitars. With the success of their 1997 debut, Limp Bizkit provided the formula for the success of dozens of other platinum nu-metal acts such as Linkin Park, Sevendust, Disturbed, P.O.D., Saliva, and Staind.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
Three Dollar Bill, Y'all (Flip/Interscope, 1997); Significant Other (Flip/Interscope, 1999); Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (Flip/Interscope, 2000); New Old Songs (Flip/Interscope, 2001); Less Is More (Flip/Interscope, 2003).
gil kaufman