Prodigy's The Fat Of The Land was released and debuted at #1 where it stayed for a week, and their lead singer Liam Howlett graced the cover of Rolling Stone. Prodigy's The Fat Of The Land topped the UK Album charts for 3 weeks.
With singles like "Smack My Bitch Up" the group seems to be trying to self-destruct their own success. The band admits that their own attempt at irony in their music might be too sophisticated for their listeners. But in any event, Howlett has stated that it doesn't matter - the pressure and overexposure is too much, and he claimed that there would not be anymore LPs in the band's future.
The 4th annual MTV Europe Music Awards were held in the Netherlands, and Prodigy proved to be the big winner. Prodigy took home 3 awards for Best Dance, Best Alternative, and Best Video for "Breathe."
Prodigy was getting a lot of airplay on rock stations with their track, "Smack My Bitch Up," and were getting even more negative backlash for the song. Time-Warner, Prodigy's parent company, was feeling the heat from the National Organization for Women (NOW) over the track. Although the tune's lyrics are few but repetitive ("Change my pitch up. Smack my bitch up"), NOW has stated that the lyrics are a "...dangerous and offensive message advocating violence against women." Prodigy member Liam Howlett responded to the attacks by claiming that the song's lyrics are being misinterpreted: (the song means) "...doing anything intensely, like being on stage - going for extreme manic energy." The lyrics are also not a product of Prodigy's songwriting abilities, but are sampled from an Ultramagnetic MCs' track. Several radio stations defended the song's message, yet only play the track at night. The video for the song also featured women being pushed and images of injecting drugs. MTV only aired the video between 1 and 5 a.m. in order for mature viewers to see the "groundbreaking" images. Wal-mart and Kmart later announced they would pull Prodigy's The Fat Of The Landoff their shelves because of the recent controversy of "Smack My Bitch Up." Even though the LP had resided on their store shelves for over 20 weeks, the two stores found the marketing campaign for the new single release offensive. Readers of Rolling Stone named Prodigy the Best Electronic Artist of the Year.
Some controversy erupted at the Reading Festival when the Beastie Boys asked Prodigy to not sing a certain song. The Beastie Boys felt the Prodigy song, "Smack My Bitch Up" "...clearly promotes violence against women" to which Prodigy responded, "...they should respect other people's freedom to express themselves." Prodigy won 2 MTV Video Music Awards for Breakthrough Video and Best Dance Video ("Smack My Bitch Up") and was also nominated for Best Direction and Best Editing.
Prodigy won an European Music Award (aka MTV Europe Music Award) for Best Dance Video.
Keith Flint was involved in a motorcycle accident while professionally racing that left him with ligament damage to a knee.
Prodigy appeared on the End Of Days soundtrack with "Poison."
March 31: The Prodigy released The Day Is My Enemy. Tracks: "The Day Is My Enemy" - "Nasty" - "Rebel Radio" - "Ibiza" - "Destroy" - "Wild Frontier" - "Rok-Weiler" - "Beyond The Deathray" - "Rhythm Bomb" - "Roadblox" - "Get Your Fight On" - "Medicine" - "Invisible Sun" - "Wall Of Death" available for download at iTunes and Amazon.mp3
Note: Song title and position links lead you to the song's Top 40 chart run (from the ARC Weekly Top 40) and LP links take you to Amazon.com for that LP (often including track listings and sound samples).
Prodigy won a MTV Europe Award for Best Dance Act.
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March 31: The Prodigy released The Day Is My Enemy.