Its lineup consists of lead vocalist Fred Durst, drummer John Otto, guitarist Wes Borland, turntablist DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers.

Borland's elaborate visual appearance, which includes face and body paint, masks, and uniforms, also plays a large role in Limp Bizkit's live shows.

[1] Formed in 1994,[2] Limp Bizkit became popular playing in the Jacksonville underground music scene in the late 1990s, and signed with Flip Records (with distribution from Interscope), who released the band's debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y'all (1997).

Following the release of their fourth album Results May Vary (2003), Borland rejoined the band and recorded the EP The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) (2005) with Durst, Rivers, Lethal, and drummer Sammy Siegler before entering a hiatus.

[7] Attracting crowds by word of mouth, the band gave energetic live performances, covering George Michael's "Faith" and Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" and featuring Borland in bizarre costumes.

[7] The progressive metal band Tool provided a strong influence in shaping the album's sound, particularly in the song "Nobody Loves Me", which contains a breakdown in which Durst imitated the singing style of Maynard James Keenan.

[21] On the opening night of the band's Limptropolis tour with Kid Rock, Sam Rivers smashed his bass in frustration over the venue's poor sound, cutting his hand.

[21] Durst directed a music video for "N 2 Gether Now" which featured Method Man and Pauly Shore, and was inspired by Inspector Clouseau's fights with his butler Cato Fong in the Pink Panther film series.

[28] The album title is intended to sound like a fictional band; the phrase "Chocolate Starfish" refers to the human anus and Durst himself, who has frequently been called an "asshole".

[29] In the summer, Limp Bizkit's tour was sponsored by the controversial file sharing service Napster, doing free shows with a metal cage as the only thing separating them from the audience.

400,000 of those sales happened during the first day, making it the fastest-selling rock album ever and breaking the record held for seven years by Pearl Jam's Vs.[34] Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water was certified Gold, Platinum, and six times Multi-Platinum.

[35] Limp Bizkit headlined the first Anger Management Tour edition that year with Eminem acting as co-headliner along with support from Papa Roach, Xzibit, D12 and later, Godsmack, DMX, Sinnistar.

[40] After viewing videotapes and hearing witness testimony, however, the coroner said it was evident that the crowd's density was dangerous at the time Limp Bizkit took the stage, stating that Fred Durst should have acted more responsibly when the problem became apparent.

Under Durst's sole leadership, the album encompassed a variety of styles[49] and featured a cover of the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes", which differed from the original's arrangement in its inclusion of a Speak & Spell during the song's bridge.

[52] AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine panned the album, writing, "the music has no melody, hooks, or energy, [and] all attention is focused on the clown jumping up and down and screaming in front, and long before the record is over, you're left wondering, how the hell did he ever get to put this mess out?

Sammy Siegler took over drumming duties for the band for much of the EP, which featured a more experimental sound, described by AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "neo-prog alt-metal".

[69] "Shotgun" received favorable reviews, with Artistdirect writing, "['Shotgun'] feels like Bizkit approached the signature style on Three Dollar Bill Y'All and Significant Other with another decade-plus of instrumental experience and virtuosity, carving out a banger that could get asses moving in the club or fists flying in the mosh pit.

[112] In July 2024, the band embarked on a tour of amphitheaters entitled Loserville with Durst wanted Limp Bizkit to be a "megaband" which could cross over into as many different styles of music as possible.

[137] AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that the band's album Significant Other contains "flourishes of neo-psychedelia on pummeling metal numbers" and "swirls of strings, even crooning, at the most unexpected background".

Their Ladies Night in Cambodia club tour visually paid tribute to the film Apocalypse Now, with an elaborate stage setup which featured an empty Jeep, camouflage mesh and palm trees.

[17] During their appearance at the first Family Values Tour, Limp Bizkit performed on a set which the Los Angeles Times described as "a mix of The War of the Worlds and Mars Attacks".

[17] Limp Bizkit's influences include the Jesus Lizard,[146] Tomahawk,[146] Dave Matthews Band,[146] Portishead,[146] Mr. Bungle,[146] Sepultura,[146] Ministry,[146] Prong,[146] Tool,[147] Primus,[146][148] Pantera,[149][150] Minor Threat,[146][151] Angry Samoans,[151] Black Flag,[151] the Fat Boys,[151] the Treacherous Three,[151] the Cold Crush Brothers,[151] Urban Dance Squad,[149] Rage Against the Machine,[149] Korn,[149] Deftones,[149] Jane's Addiction,[152] and John Zorn.

[153] As pointed out by author Joel McIver, Limp Bizkit's mix of rap and metal was notably preceded by the bands Rage Against the Machine and Faith No More, but its lyrics widely differed from the radical politics of the former and the existential poetry of the latter.

[171][172] Marilyn Manson was known to be overly vocal against Limp Bizkit's music; in 1999, he attacked the band's artistry and their fans, referring to them as "illiterate apes that beat your ass in high school for being a 'fag' and now sell you tuneless testosterone anthems of misogyny and pretend to be outsiders...".

"[68] Durst's relationship with Manson had seemingly grown cordial as the two later appeared on the cover of a Rolling Stone magazine issue in June 2003 alongside James Hetfield and Ozzy Osbourne.

During a show in Seoul, South Korea on August 15, 2008, Manson introduced Borland onstage and began attacking Limp Bizkit, exclaiming to the crowd "Here's our new guitarist, he used to play for a really bad band...".

[182] On June 11, 1999, Durst was introducing the band Staind, prior to their performance as part of K-Rock's Dysfunctional Family Picnic in Holmdel, New Jersey, when he once again instigated the audience to chant "Fuck Placebo".

Break Stuff, ahem, broke Limp Bizkit through its fiendishly simple two-chord motif, kick-up-the-arse drop, and its glued-to-MTV video featuring Jonathan Davis, Flea, as well as rap megastars Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Dr. Dre, taking them to an audience far beyond metal.

[212][213] Limp Bizkit appears in Generation Kill (2004), originally conceived by journalist Evan Wright as a three-part Rolling Stone magazine series, before being released as a full-length book and becoming a 2008 HBO mini-series under the same name.

While driving along a winding canal en route to Baghdad, a Ripped, Fuel-ed Corporal from Missouri named Josh Ray Person (played by actor James Ransone) memorably "recounts the band he formed after high school, Me or Society.