Birdman explains why he signed Limp Bizkit to Cash Money
by Aaron Zorgel
February 28, 2012
By now you’ve heard that the scorned princes of Nu-Metal Limp Bizkit have once again ascended to rock-relevance, thanks to their recent signing to Cash Money Records. In what was most-assuredly a collective “WHAT YEAR IS IT?” moment, Twitter exploded with equal amounts of skepticism and wise-cracks about the signing. In an interview with XXL, Birdman shed some light on this unusual partnership.
By now you’ve heard that the scorned princes of Nu-Metal Limp Bizkit have once again ascended to rock-relevance, thanks to their recent signing to Cash Money Records. In what was most-assuredly a collective “WHAT YEAR IS IT?” moment, Twitter exploded with equal amounts of skepticism and wise-cracks about the signing.
In an interview with XXL, Birdman shed some light on this unusual partnership.
“Fred [Durst] reached out, bruh. It was weird how it happened. He was like, ‘Stunna, what’s good?'” I was like, ‘What’s poppin, 5?’ [Fred said] ‘I wanna join the team.’ Whoa! For real? He didn’t have to say it twice. I was already a fan of him. When the opportunity came, we really was supposed to announce it at the Grammys. Wayne was going to announce it at the Grammys, but he did it when he felt like it.”
That’s not all, folks – Birdman also revealed that Limp Bizkit would be dropping their first Cash Money-approved single next week (!!!), and it’ll have a guest appearance from Lil Wayne himself. Baby continued to gush about Durst:
“He’s a visionary, he a great artist…Also, I want him to be a part of our staff and take over the rock department and bring us over more talent because that’s what he does. I think with having Limp he brings a lot. He’s a movie director, he’s a one-stop shop…So whatever direction he wants to go in his music, he knows it. It’s hot. The single with him and Wayne is very hot. Our thing is we’ve never been the ones to tell the artists what to do and how to do it. We let them be self-controlled. We just back their machine up. Whatever he wanna do, that’s what we wanna do. We just gonna bring what we do to the table. We’re definitely excited. When I sign somebody to the team, I get evaluations from the team and he got all approvals.”
It’s hilarious that Birdman thinks that giving Bizkit the YMCMB stamp of approval will revitalize their career. But is the signing really so surprising given what Lil Wayne’s abysmal 2010 rap-rock record Rebirth sounded like?
Durst had this to say about the partnership:
“As both an artist and someone who has signed artists, I can say without a doubt that Cash Money is at the top of their game,” Durst said in a statement. “What attracted me to the label is not only their great taste and hustle, but their belief in their artists and the family atmosphere. Slim and Birdman allow their artists to be themselves and encourage creative output and continued development. I look forward to bringing my vision as a director as well as my voice to the label and to Limp Bizkit putting out some of our best music to date.”
And just like that, we flash back to 1999. Start growing out your beard-braids, break out your over-sized Mudvayne t-shirt, and dust off your dog collar, because NU-METAL IS BACK, BABY.
