Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst sues Universal Music over unpaid royalties

Post date: 8 October 2024

Reading time 2 minutes

Written by Chris Vuoncino

8 October 2024

2 minutes · By Chris Vuoncino

Throughout the late 90s, as Nu-Metal rose to the top of the charts, Limp Bizkit found a global audience thanks to its unique blend of rap, rock, and metal. On the strength of singles such as Faith, Nookie, and Rollin', the group headlined arenas and was a staple on MTV. While the music industry and tastes have certainly changed, Limp Bizkit has experienced its own revival in popularity, embarking on a North American amphitheater tour this past summer and is projected to hit 793 million streams by the year's end. Behind this success, Fred Durst and his team seemed to have uncovered an issue with royalty payments from his record label, Universal Music Group.

Дмитрий Рузов/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA

Although they are one of the most divisive bands in music, the success of Limp Bizkit is undeniable with the group selling over 45 million records. Now the group’s vocalist, Fred Durst, is suing Universal Music Group over unpaid royalties.

Now the frontman is suing his record label for $200 million, alleging years of unpaid royalties. Not only is Durst an act, but he also operates his own label, Flawless Records, under the UMG umbrella, and the suit mentions unpaid royalties for artists on the imprint as well. In the filing, it notes that UMG has spent $43 million on Limp Bizkit’ received’s music and promotion and the group wouldn’t receive royalty payments until that sum was recouped. The label noted that it was “not required to provide them since his account was still so far from recoupment.” Durst’s team was able to navigate the accounts of Flip Records, another imprint of UMG that initially signed Limp Bizkit, and found that the label had been paid millions in funds and that the singer had a statement balance of $1 million ready to be dispersed.

In the lawsuit, Fred Durst and his team claim that Universal Music Group never intended to pay out the royalties due to the artist. The lawsuit was filed today, October 8th, 2024, and this will be an ongoing story.