Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water is the third studio album by American nu metal band Limp Bizkit. Released a year after the success of Significant Other; the album saw the band attempt to capitalize on their newfound mainstream success. It was released on October 17, 2000, through Flip and Interscope Records, setting a record for the fastest selling rock album upon release at the time. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart in the United States, selling 1,054,511 copies in its first week alone. The album ultimately sold over 6.7 million copies in the United States alone as it would also go onto receive platinum certification in 13 countries, selling a further 10 million copies worldwide. It is the band's last album to feature guitarist Wes Borland until the 2011 album Gold Cobra.

Background and recording

In January 2000, Limp Bizkit sought to return to the studio in an effort to capitalize off of their mainstream success stemming from Significant Other's release the previous year. The band initially hired Rick Rubin to produce the record, though creative differences culminated in him abandoning the project after less than a week, culminating in Terry Date returning to produce the record. Through multiple interviews, Fred Durst and guitarist Wes Borland often expressed that they had very little material prepared for the writing sessions, with Borland claiming during an interview in January 2000; "I don't think that we entered the studio with a method, or there's like 17,000 methods and we used all of them". Recording sessions took longer than expected as the band regularly experimented with newer material whilst simultaneously touring as headliners in Napster's Back-To-Basics tour. The longtime working title for the album had been "Limpdependence Day", but this was abandoned after the band failed to meet the deadline for their original intended release date of July 4. Despite numerous delays; the band managed to compose most of their new songs by August 2000; debuting the track "Livin' It Up" at that year's MTV Video Music Awards in a duet performance with Christina Aguilera.

Promotion

The band appeared at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards in September 2000 due in large part as they were nominated for multiple awards; and in conjunction with their performance alongside Christina Aguilera. In a mashup of the two artists following Aguilera's performance of her 1999 single "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)", the band played an excerpt of the song "Livin' It Up" possibly hinting at the song being a future single, though this never materialized for unknown reasons. The following weekend, the band announced a radio-broadcast listening party on New York's 92.3 WXRK live from Electric Lady Studios in New York City while they answered questions from callers, and the station played several songs of the album. To generate further attention for the album's release; the band's management group The Firm hosted a large scale party at the Playboy Mansion in Southern California on the night of the album's release. The band aired a full hour-long special on MTV with numerous celebrities present; such as Chino Moreno from Deftones, David Silveria from Korn, Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray, Brandon Boyd from Incubus, Xzibit and more. Durst had initially approached MTV producers with his proposal for the special, in which they later allowed him to cohost per his own request.

Title

The first part of the title is a slang term for the human anus. Hot Dog Flavored Water is an in-joke started by Wes Borland at a truck stop while the band was on tour during the summer of 2000, in which Borland saw bottles of Crystal Geyser flavored water, and made a joke about having meat or hot dog flavored water. Durst himself refers to the album name in three songs. First, "Livin' It Up", where he declares that, "The chocolate starfish is my man Fred Durst." (Wes Borland has stated in an interview when questioned on the naming of the album that, "Fred calls himself Chocolate Starfish, because people call him an asshole all the time." ) Second, "Hot Dog", where he tells his detractors to, "Kiss my starfish, my chocolate starfish," and "Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle)" where he mentions "Chocolate Starfish" in the introduction. Numerous critics and fans speculated that the name was a humorous parody of Smashing Pumpkins' 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

Music and lyrics

The song "Hot Dog" features the word "fuck" 47 times; Durst points out in the lyrics "If I say "fuck" two more times, that's forty-six "fuck"s in this fucked up rhyme". The chorus references the Nine Inch Nails songs "Closer", "The Perfect Drug" and "Burn". Durst said he was a big fan of Nine Inch Nails, who inspired his music, although Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor had made negative remarks about Durst during that period. Reviewers have often interpreted Durst's lyrics in "Hot Dog" as an insult to Reznor. The lyrical references to Reznor's music led to him getting a co-writer credit, which Reznor said he approved as the record was going to print as not to hold up the release. "Livin' It Up" samples "Life in the Fast Lane" by the American rock band Eagles. The lyrics of "My Generation" reference "My Generation" by The Who and "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses.

Lawsuit and sample removal

The track "Getcha Groove On" used an uncredited sample of music that is played during the Aerial Trapeze Act of Cirque Du Soleil's Cirque Reinvente. In the September 2008 issue of Kerrang!, Wes Borland told the magazine: "We actually got sued over this piece of shit. There was some sort of sample used in it that someone didn't get full clearance for, so we ended up getting into some serious trouble for a little while." When the album was later released onto streaming services, the track "Getcha Groove On (Dirt Road Mix)", from their remix album New Old Songs, replaced the original version.

Commercial performance

Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album sold 1,054,511 copies in its first week of being released, with 400,000 of those copies being sold in the album's first day of release —the largest first-week sales debut for a rock album in the United States ever since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking album sales in 1991. It was also the fifth highest-week debut sales of 2000, behind Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, 'N Sync's No Strings Attached, Backstreet Boys' Black & Blue and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again. In its second week of being released, the album sold 392,000 copies, and remained at number 1 on the Billboard 200. The album also went to number 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 98,707 copies in its first week in the country. Two months after its release date, the album was certified 4× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and almost seven months after its release date, it was certified 5× platinum by the RIAA. In April 2002, the album was certified 6× platinum by the RIAA. It also was certified 6× platinum by Music Canada in October 2001.

Critical reception

Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water received mixed reviews from critics, as Metacritic gave it a 49 out of 100. AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote, "Durst's self-pitying and the monotonous music give away that the band bashed Chocolate Starfish out very quickly – it's the sound of a band determined to deliver a sequel in a finite amount of time." The Rolling Stone Album Guide awarded the album three out of five stars, whereas the magazine itself gave the album a 3.5 out of 5. Readers of Kerrang! voted it as the worst album of 2000, with the band and Fred Durst also being voted the worst band of 2000 and "Arse of the Year", respectively. Even so, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water was listed in the book for 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, but later removed in recent editions of the book. In 2020, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 2000 by Metal Hammer magazine.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes. Limp Bizkit Additional personnel Production

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications