Limp Bizkit

Like most of these bottle-breaking Basics, "Nookie" is as uncompromising and mangled as a three-car pileup — made all the more menacing by Fred Durst's flagrant freak-outs and the go-for-the-throat turntable cuts of House of Pain's former beat-basher, DJ Lethal. It's also a not-so-gentle reminder of rap-metal's peak, right alongside Bizkit's beefy breakthrough (the cutting George Michael cover "Faith"), a DJ Premier-produced duet with Method Man (heard amid the street lamp-lighting strings of "N 2 Gether Now"), and the incendiary, id-embracing single "Break Stuff."

Think you're in need of more reasons to rage, along with a high-profile remix or two? Nudge that Next Steps tab.

Unlike similar acts that lean one way or the other, Limp Bizkit usually gives equal time to both sides of its rap-metal equation. No wonder why they had no trouble attracting big name producers for the remix record New Old Songs, including Timbaland (a shifty, sneaky rendition of "Rearranged") and P Diddy (a bleacher-stomping, electro-spiked spin on "My Way"). Not to mention that other House of Pain guy Everlast, who grabs the mic on a funky, low-rider reinvention of "Faith." And who is that barking over the steel plant synths of "Rollin' (Urban Assault Vehicle)?" Why it's none other than DMX, yet another rap superstar who's down with Durst.

Between his B-boy upbringing and teenage riot years of skateboarding and blasting Black Flag, it's no wonder Fred Durst sounded like a natural-born rap-metal frontman the minute he grabbed the mic with Limp Bizkit. OK, it didn't hurt that he had the wild, Jack the Ripper cuts of DJ Lethal (ex-House of Pain) behind him along with a calm-like-a-bomb backing band that included a complete and utter madman (guitarist Wes Borland, often found bouncing around in a furry bunny suit). Oh, and the occasional guest spot from hip-hop superstars, like Method Man and DMX, or big-money producers like Timbaland, P Diddy, and DJ Premier. All of which made Limp Bizkit the rap-metal band to beat — a garden-fresh middle ground between unadulterated aggression and blunted beats.