10. Hot Dog (Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, 2000)
The opening song from Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water was the scourge of parents worldwide, its profanity-laden verses seeing Durst drop the f-bomb 49 times. Controversial, yes, but also the perfect way to kick up a storm in the mainstream media at the start of the album, while the rock press could lick their lips at the juicy beef between Durst and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, who had openly derided Durst and the band in public. Hot Dog was the perfect clapback - crediting Reznor as a songwriter, Bizkit lifted directly from Nine Inch Nails' Closer while openly mocking him throughout the track. Say what you want about Limp Bizkit, but the band could be brutal when it was time to step up to the plate.
9. Counterfeit (Three Dollar Bill, Y'all, 1997)
You'd think Limp Bizkit would be concerned about the glasshouse they resided in when it came to casting stones about rip-offs and imitations (flick to 2:40 and tell us its not Rollins Band's Liar), but the band were never known for their self-awareness and the world enjoyed some obnoxious brilliance because of it. Written against the local bands who copied Bizkit's style in the early days, the song ultimately became the band's debut single but became embroiled in controversy when it turned out the band's label had been paying radio stations to play the song on repeat in an instance of payola which split opinion. Nevertheless it worked - Bizkit got airplay, media coverage and Three Dollar Bill, Y'all shifted over 1.5 million records across its run, launching them towards stardom.
8. Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle) (Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, 2000)
And now we're onto the big guns. Who among us hasn't done the arm wave to Rollin' in a metal club (or even at a gig, or festival) over the years? Even people who couldn't tell you Limp Bizkit's name ("Flaccid Wafer?" no, mom, not quite) could probably tell you they sang Rollin', such was the song's all-encompassing success in 2000. It topped the charts in the UK and Ireland, and made a decent showing elsewhere (including a no. 10 spot on the US Mainstream Rock charts, though only reached no. 65 on the Billboard Hot 100), released on the same day as My Generation to help Chocolate Starfish become an international smash. Its video featured Ben Stiller and has been streamed over 500 million times between Spotify and YouTube, such is its utterly colossal reach. To many, this song is Limp Bizkit.
7. Re-Arranged (Significant Other, 1999)
The second single from Significant Other, Re-Arranged was decidedly more grounded than just about anything Limp Bizkit had done to that point, its lyrics dealing with the breakdown of a relationship with nuance and tact. Profiled by Rolling Stone in 1999, Fred Durst admitted he was 'a workaholic' and this had affected his past relationships including that with his ex-wife (and mother of his daughter, Adriana), admitting that the band's success was bittersweet. This sense of bittersweetness is explored again in the video, a response to accusations levelled at Bizkit following their set at Woodstock '99, which literally sees the band put on trial. It's not subtle, but it's certainly effective and showed that there was much more to Limp Bizkit than obnoxious swagger and energetic, angsty outbrusts.
6. Take A Look Around (Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, 2000)
Durst was never shy about professing his love for movies (once stating he wanted to be "the only musician who puts true, good, original thoughts into music and into films that have a major impact worldwide"), so it makes sense he'd be well on board for a song which uses the Mission Impossible theme as its main motif, even moreso when considering it got inclusion on the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack. The single itself went on to become a huge hit in Europe, topping the charts in countries like Portugal and Iceland whilst achieving top 10 status elsewhere (including a no. 3 placing on the UK singles chart). It's a little goofy, but also perfect for Limp Bizkit at the height of their powers and frankly the beefed-up, metal take on Mission Impossible is everything you would hope it would be.
5. My Way (Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, 2000)
Chocolate Starfish really does feel like the album where almost every track could make a mad dash for radio at any moment. Mining the 'quiet/loud' dynamic that had been repeated endlessly since Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit broke big, My Way proved to be a radio hit (not least because its use of profanity is sparing enough to not leave whole sections of the song blanked out), and entered the charts internationally, even breaking into the Billboard hot 100. While not the band's most successful single, it was popular enough to catch the ears of execs at WWE, who ultimately took the track for the official theme of WrestleMania X-Seven, helping the band expand their reach even more.
4. Boiler (Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, 2000)
The final single released from Chocolate Starfish And The Hotdog Flavored Water, Boiler arrived a little over a year after the album had been released. By that point the world was changing, and by 2002, new scenes would take over as rock's new commercial darlings (pop-punk, post-hardcore and indie all having landmark releases that year), but Bizkit weren't entirely spent as a commercial force, managing international chart success which included a no. 2 placement in Portugual but barely scraped top 20 in the UK and top 30 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. The song's melancholic tone almost pre-empted fellow nu metal smash sensations Linkin Park, a comparison only further strengthened by the music video's usage of Hybrid Theory style animation.
3. My Generation (Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, 2000)
It's almost inevitable that each new generation will face criticism from their forebears for hollowing out the spirit of society, a trope that stretches back to the 50s and possibly beyond. Limp Bizkit might have been on the nose in their reference to The Who's song of the same name (and subject), but Durst and co. had some justifiable gripes with how they were portrayed in the media, particularly following their experiences at Woodstock '99. Bizkit had gotten so tired with being called shit that in 1998 they came on-stage via a giant flushing toilet ("coming out like five turds", as Durst put it), so the band had refined the middle-finger clapback into an art. My Generation was an anthem for exactly that - a disaffected generation of youth who were blamed for the decline of society while their elders brazenly ran the planet into the ground. They wouldn't do much better, but as the frequent proclamations of 'we don't give a fuck' contests, they never pretended they were going to.
2. Nookie (Significant Other, 1999)
Fred Durst wasn't pretending he had any greater calling or drive with the first single from 1999's Significant Other, Nookie's chorus stating things plain and simple - he 'did it all for the nookie'. Its not high art or poetry, but wasn't really supposed to be - Wes Borland admitting in one interview that Nookie was supposed to just be a working title until the band could come up with something better. Things never worked out that way though and the song's straight-up obnoxiousness helped it crash land into the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, peaking at No. 80. It's brash, it's dumb and chauvinistic, but to many it nonetheless represents Limp Bizkit's inexplicable charm and helped the band land a no. 1 album in the US in 1999.
1. Break Stuff (Significant Other, 1999)
Amazingly the last single released from Significant Other, Break Stuff was the final line Limp Bizkit needed to cross to truly become superstars, one of the most important bands on the planet (for a hot minute, at least). The song hones the angst and aggression at the heart of Limp Bizkit's most aggro moments into a sub-three minute anthem that came to define the band more than anything else. It was held aloft by their detractors when the song was accused of inciting riots (and worse) at Woodstock '99, scapegoated like so many other songs, bands, movies, books (and on), but the band remained insanely popular and reached No. 9 on the US Mainstream Rock charts.
Break Stuff's star-studded video (featuring everyone from Jonathan Davis and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea to Alec Baldwin, Dr. Dre and Eminem) also helped establish that Limp Bizkit were pop culture heavyweights, moving beyond the realms of mere music stardom. It also became a metal club staple, a mosh-call for every subsequent generation and such an inescapable force that chances are more metal fans know the opening verse of Break Stuff than the Lord's Prayer. Break Stuff crystalized the most wantonly destructive aspects of youth and offered an outlet for all the frustrations life can throw up, encapsulated entirely in that opening lines, 'It's just one of those days when you don't wanna wake up/Everything is fucked, everybody sucks'. We've all been there, Fred.
