Significant Other

Background:

A ground-breaking Nu Metal band hailed from Jacksonville, Florida, Limp Bizkit, which now comprises of Fred Durst (vocals), Sam Rivers (bass guitar), John Otto (drums) and DJ Lethal (turntables/keyboards/samples), has enjoyed more than 60 million record sales worldwide since breaking into the music industry with their debut album, “Three Dollar Bill Y'All” (1997), which spawned the hits “Counterfeit” and “Faith,” the cover of George Michael’s hit. Adoring by fans through their stage performances, the group gained significant global success with the second album “Significant Other” (1999), which earned 7x platinum certification, and the third album “Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water” (2000), which sold more than 18 million copies worldwide. Both albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts. Unfortunately, after the departure of guitarist Wes Borland, Limp Bizkit suffered a major set back. Their forth album, “Results May Vary” (2003), with Mike Smith on the guitar, was a flop with both critics and fans. Even after Borland returned for the follow-up “The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1” (2005), the group still coped with disappointment.

The new album “The Unquestionable Truth, Pt.2” will be released in 2008.

The Jacksonville

Childhood and Family:

In 1994, Limp Bizkit was founded by the North Carolina native vocalist Fred Durst (born On August 20, 1970) and his friend, bassist Sam Rivers (born Samuel Robert Rivers, on September 21, 1977, in Jacksonville, Florida), after he moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Before long, drummer John Otto (born on March 22, 1977), who is the cousin of Rivers, joined the group, and they then recruited guitarist West Borland (born on February 8, 1975, in Richmond, Virginia) to complete the original quartet. DJ Lethal (born Leor Dimant, on December 18, 1972, in Riga, Latvia) was brought into the group in 1996 as a supplement in turntables/keyboards/samples.

Borland departed Limp Bizkit in 2001 after having performed together for seven years. Mike Smith filled in the place left by Borland in 2003, but only stayed with the group for a single year. In 2004, after the released of “Results May Vary,” Borland returned to the group, but left again in the following year.

Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water

Career:

First giving free shows and concerts in their local of Jacksonville, Florida, Limp Bizkit's luck started to change when lead vocalist Fred Durst gave their demo tape to the band Korn. In 1995, when Korn first performed in the Jacksonville area, bassist Reginald Arvizu earned several tattoos from Durst, who at the time also worked at a tattoo parlor, and the two became friends. The second time Korn played at the area, they brought up Limp Bizkit's demo and then passed it on to their producer, Ross Robinson, who was impressed with their music and intended to produce for the band. In the meantime, Limp Bizkit's awesome stage presence, most notably touring gigs with the Irish-American hip hop group House of Pain and the Deftones, put the group on the radar of many record labels and they eventually decided to sign with Flip/Interscope Records.

On July 1, 1997, Limp Bizkit released their debut album, “Three Dollar Bill Y'All,” in which they included three tracks from their early demo, the first single “Counterfeit,” “Stuck” and “Pollution, as well as the popular second single “Faith,” a cover of George Michael's song of the same name. The group supported the album by doing extensive touring, such as with Faith No More, Primus and in the MTV Spring Break '98 fashion show, and by the mid-1998, they had emerged as one of the more ballyhooed bands in the burgeoning rap-metal circuits.

However, Limp Bizkit did not reach superstar status until the release of the highly-anticipated sophomore effort “Significant Other” on June 22, 1999. Noted for being a little more hip-hop involuntary than the rest of the group's work, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 600,000 pieces in the first week of its release. The first single “Nookie” became a huge hit on rock radio and its popular video music further boosted the group's profile. By the end of 1999, “Significant Other,” which also produced the singles “Break Stuff,” “Re-Arranged,” “N 2 Gether Now” and “Nobody Like You,” had been certified multi-platinum, a success that also helped their first album to achieve an eventual double platinum status.

In the height of their success, Limp Bizkit had to deal with controversy after a summer performance at Woodstock '99. As a result of the public violences and sexual assaults occurred in the festival, Durst, who was previously appointed as a senior vice president at Interscope, was hardly knocked for bombarding on the already disorderly audiences and prompting them to tear plyboard from the walls during a performance of the band's single “Break Stuff,” and the group was blamed for the outbreak. The accusation did not stop Limp Bizkit from performing and later that same year, they enjoyed massive victory with their action at Family Values Tour. At this time, Durst again made headlines with his sporadic conflicts with the group's tour mates.

Limp Bizkit returned in 2000 with their third studio album, “Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water,” which hit the stores on October 17. Despite its mixed reception, the album went on to become a No. 1 hit on the Billboard 200 and the group's most financially booming record, selling over one million copies in the U.S. within first week of its release and 18 million copies internationally. Some tracks released from the album included the first single “My Generation,” “Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle),” which marked the only No. 1 hit song from the group in the UK, “Take a Look Around,” which was used as a theme for the film “Mission: Impossible 2,” and “My Way,” among others.

After the departure of guitarist Wes Borland, who quit the group shortly after the release of “Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water,” Limp Bizkit launched a remix album called “New Old Songs” on December 4, 2001.Borland originally had his own rendition on the song “Break Stuff,” but the band had to pull his remix from the track list after he left.

With a new guitarist, Mike Smith, Limp Bizkit resurfaced in 2003 with a new album called “Results May Vary.” However, it largely received negative reviews from critics and later was ranked No. 3 on the Metacritic lists of “Worst Reviewed Albums.” Borland reunited with the group in 2004 and with the original line-up, Limp Bizkit released “The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1” in May 2005. An average hit, the album peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than a million copies worldwide. A compilation album, “Greatest Hitz,” followed six months later in November 2005 that comprised tracks from their first to forth albums. The album missed the Top 40 and only reached No. 47. Borland has since left Limp Bizkit for the second time.

Limp Bizkit's sixth studio album, “The Unquestionable Truth (Part 2),” the sequel to “The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1,” is scheduled to be released in 2008.

Awards:
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