Break Stuff

"Break Stuff" is a provocative thought experiment examining our primitive impulses in the context of Malthusian theory. Just kidding. It's about breaking stuff. Limp Bizkit was predicated on rage, giving the middle finger (often literally) to anyone and anything that tried to bring them down. This song is a clear expression of that rage, with lead singer Fred Durst explaining his coping mechanism for dealing with a bad day.

This was the last single from Limp Bizkit's breakthrough album, Significant Other. They made their impact in the summer of 1999 with the first single, "Nookie," and kept the momentum going for over a year. "Break Stuff" was big in the summer of 2000, a few months before their next album appeared: Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. By the time nu metal died down, Limp Bizkit had sold over 15 million albums just in America.

By this time, Limp Bizkit were huge on MTV, which toed the line between teen pop, hip-hop, and testosterone-laced rap-metal. The "Break Stuff" video, directed by Fred Durst, was big on the network, which favored videos with lots of famous people. In "Break Stuff," you'll see Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Derek Jeter, Pauly Shore, Roger Daltrey, Lily Aldridge and Aaron Lewis of Staind. Dre and Eminem later said they regretted appearing in the video because they disagreed with Durst's support for Napster, a file-sharing program that listeners used to download music for free.