A Look Back: Limp Bizkit Significant Other

A look back - Limp Bizkit Significant Other

“You wanted the worst?  You got the worst.  The one, the only Limp Bizkit.”

Intro

“Shut the fuck up.”

N 2 gether Now

“Like a chump. HEY! Like a chump. HEY! Like a chump. HEY! Like a chump.  HEY!”

“I did it all for the nookie k’mon the nookie k’mon.  So you can take that cookie and stick it up your yeah stick it up your yeah stick up your…”

Nookie

Ah the lyrical genius that is Fred Durst.  With such insightful and thought provoking lyrics and such expert delivery it’s a shock both rap and rap/rock was able to survive.  Seriously though play that “Like a chump” part over and over and try to tell yourself your cd is not skipping.  I always thought “stick it up your YEAH” was put in there for the radio edit but believe it or not that is the actual lyric.  There is some ambiguity about where he wants the female subject of this song to stick that cookie.  What cookie?  Is it a euphemism for something?  Up her ass?  Up her vagina?  Up her mouth?  Kinda makes cookies sound less appetizing doesn’t it?

When I started writing this I sent a frustrated text message to my brother

ME: So I’m gonna be starting a new segment on my blog about all the music I used to listen to back in the day.  I’ve been listening to Limp Bizkit.  LIMP BIZKIT!  This totally sucks and I hate myself.

MY BRAH: Lol… gotta have faith, a faith, aaaah faaaith!

ME: More like nookie I never listened to 3 Dolla Bill Yall$

MY BRAH: Their worst album hands down was Chocolate Starfish and Hotdog Flavored Water.

ME: I dunno dude saying there’s a worst Limp Bizkit album is like saying at least the hooker who gave me herpes was hotter than the one that gave me crabs.

MY BRAH: LOL!

Last time I talked about Korn’s Family Values Tour and this next band was another popular addition to that tour and one I’m sure many of the people myself included are now ashamed that we listened to.  I am of course talking about Limp Bizkit or the reason why rap and rock don’t really fuse together all that well.  As I remember the only album they had out at the time was Three Dollar Bill, Yall$(uhhh yeah that was actually the name of the album and if you think that’s stupid you’ve never heard Hot Dog off their third LP) and the only single was a cover of George Michael’s Faith accompanied by the music video which featured Tour footage from the Family Values Tour.  Even though some of my friends owned that album it was never popular and I never saw anyone actually listening to it.  Even Limp Bizkit fans didn’t really like it at the time(but that didn’t stop it from going double platinum somehow).  Their next album, Significant Other, was different; everybody including yours truly loved it.

This album suffers from the same lyrical themes as the orgy album did(only put in a less eloquent way) and I’m starting to think that if you judged us entirely by the music we listened to you’re bound to think we were a very shallow, illiterate, and selfish generation.  Just to put it in perspective 6 out of the 12 songs on this album are about women that wronged Fred Durst and how he is very upset with them(I added Break Stuff because it’s all about the he said she said bullshit and I think that’s what forced Durst to become so mad he wanted to “Break Stuff”).  Musically it’s not that interesting either.  The songs start off with a beat, change for a chorus, wash, rinse and repeat.  A lot of rap takes a 4 or 5 second beat and loops it through the entire song.  Limp Bizkit does the same but the difference is Fred Durst is backed by an entire band and a dj.

The worst song on this album is “N 2 gether Now(sic) featuring Method Man.  I remember seeing the music video and it was the second part of a two part video and the lyrics were so graphic half the damned vocals were chopped up.  To get an idea of just how bad it is the lyric “Shut the fuck up” is uttered continuously throughout the song.  

I better stop listening to this shit before I go shopping for red flexfit hats and khakis.  The reason Limp Bizkit is so bad is not any one person’s fault.  The reason Limp Bizkit is so bad is because it’s so disposable.  There’s a time and a place for everything and some bands like Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath are timeless, Limp Bizkit is not.  Thirty years down the line do you really expect anybody to remember Limp Bizkit or their music in a positive way or any way for that matter?  Limp Bizkit’s music isn’t relevant to a specific era, or politics, or even a subject.  The majority of their lyrics centers on Fred Durst and his problems and are you going to give a crap about them in 10 or so years?   Does their music have memorable hooks or riffs?  Is there anything special about it at all?  The only personal problem Durst ever had that was interesting was having an alleged sexual relationship with Britney Spears and her lying about it because she didn’t want to be associated with a horny dirtbag, but even then it’s not interesting enough to write a song about (which is exactly what he did).  If you ask me they both acted childish about the whole affair but that’s neither here nor there.  Durst sucks, Spears sucks, Limp Bizkit sucks, and this album sucks.  A lot of rap nowadays seems to revolve around bragging about your skills be it professional or sexual, bragging about yourself, your money, or your possessions, and a lot of rap/rock is just the same only most of the time it’s got a white guy doing it.

I wouldn’t say the worst thing about this album is the bad lyrics or repetitive music.  What pisses me off is it reminds me of all the bad or inappropriate relationships I’ve been in.  Unlike most rap artists Durst doesn’t have a chauvinistic approach to women he simply doesn’t trust them and I can’t say I blame him.  Out of all the people in my life the ones that have caused me the most amount of pain and torment are women.  A man can bruise me, scar me, and break my bones but that shit heals.  I guess from that standpoint I can understand Limp Bizkit’s music but just because I understand it doesn’t mean I have to like it and I don’t.  At least not anymore.  This music just isn’t relevant to me anymore because I’ve grown up and can deal with these heartbreaks.  In this ever changing world we live in Fred Durst can’t get past the idea that a woman pulled the wool over his eyes and did what men have done to women for centuries. 

No more ironic words have ever been spoken than that uttered by Matt Pinfield on the outro:

“What the world needs now is a is a musical revolution.  We need some rock, we need something that has balls.  We need something with substance, depth, something with soul, some edge, some passion, some power.  Shit if it's going to be mellow, fuck man it had better have something, it had better mean something.  I'm telling, you gotta hit 'em with something hard, you gotta stick 'em with something Limp, like Limp Bizkit”

Yeah no part of me thinks this wasn’t scripted.

And don't think I haven't forgotten their terrible cover of Metallica's Welcome Home(Sanitarium) that Durst for whatever reason turned into a more personal statement.  But as bad as that was it wasn't nearly as embarrassing as Avril Lavigne covering Fuel.