XXL caught up with Fred Durst earlier this week to talk about how good it is to be signed to Cash Money Records.
During the interview, Fred discussed his relationship with Lil Wayne, how the song “Ready To Go” came about, the story of how Limp Bizkit decided to sign with Cash Money, sharing an interest in skateboarding with Weezy F Baby as well as music, and more.
You can read parts of the interview were Durst chats about Tunechi and YMCMB below, or click here to read the full interview!
I think the biggest news that’s been coming out of your camp lately is Limp Bizkit signing with Cash Money and your new single with Lil Wayne “Ready To Go.” How did that relationship first come about?
I’ve been a fan of Wayne and Birdman and the whole Cash Money Thing for a while. I went in the studio to do a track with Polow Da Don, and we ended up finding one of his beats I loved and we started working on the track and came up with “Ready To Go.” Wes Borland [Limp Bizkit guitarist] came down and played the guitar—it was a hip-hop version at the time with hip-hop drums—and after I was done I had asked Polow, “I would love to get Wayne on the track, you think he’d be into it?” He said, “You want me to send it to him?” So he sent it to him and got a response back that he likes it he’s down with it.As we were trying to get off of Interscope, I had asked Cash Money if they wanted to put that track out themselves on their label, and just because I knew it’d get out and I knew it’d be something really cool, because I knew Wayne liked rock and skateboarding—all the things I like—and I got a call back saying, “Why don’t you guys just sign with Cash Money? Y’know we’re big fans and we’d love to have Limp Bizkit over here. We’d let you do what you want to do.” That’s how it happened, and bingo! I loved our conversations with Baby and Slim and felt like it was just a good fit.
From an outsider’s look, it makes sense that you guys would sign with someone like Cash Money because not only do you guys have the deep hip-hop influence, but Wayne obviously is a big fan of rock music. So that being said, how does that help you guys build that relationship with Lil Wayne?
Everything feels very organic. He doesn’t push or contrive. Wayne and I bonded after we signed with Cash Money over skateboarding and he’s got a half pipe in the parking lot at the studio down in Miami where we all recorded. I’m a skater and I’ve been skating for a really long time and I’d just go out there and start skating the ramp in the middle of the night, and Wayne would come out and just be skating, and we sort of bonded through our mutual love for skateboarding to be honest. We started talking and just became friends that way. He said that we’re family now and it’s all good and, honestly it was strictly through skateboarding.
