American Reacts to Firestarter - How The Prodigy Won Over Metalheads! 

RIP Keith Flint

I photographed Keith in 2014. He was a genuine gentleman and an absolute pleasure to shoot and hang out with for the day, The portrait from that session still remains one of my favourite shots to this day. RIP.

The prodigy were a great unifier, Dance, pop, rock, metal, indie, nobody hated them in the 90.s

Keith Flint sadly missed, he loved motorbike and ran a motorcycle racing team, Team Traction Control, which won four Isle of Man TT races in 2015 and 2016.

People were so much nicer in the ecstasy days.

As a lifelong rock and metal fan, The Prodigy slip nicely into my playlist. Fat of the Land is one of the best albums of the 90s. Keith Flint is sadly missed.

I met Kieth Flint in a pub in Camden he was as much like his Firestarter character as the Pope is like Mohamed Ali. He was quiet and a really nice guy and as you say a really good guy to chat with. I was very sad when they announced his death

R.I.P. Keith Flint.

Fat of The Land is a Classic Album. The video for smack my bitch up is great

Love to hear your insite on the singer .REN,,

Your name's Flint and you're best known for Firestarter.

Sorry, but Smart-E's weren't "chancers". Sesame's Treet was a great tune in its day and, whilst it is often looked back upon as being cheesy and childish the guys who wrote it were actually really good, clever producers. Sure, they didn't go on to match the heights of The Prodigy, but they never shifted into mainstream music and stayed very heavily in the rave scene. Chris Howell, aka Luna-C, one of the main guys in Smart E's, is still respected to this day and has crafted tons of incredible tracks and runs his own label that has probably had more impact on rave in the years since the early 90s than The Prodigy have since had (and I love The Prodigy, but very few of their tracks post '95 get played at raves, maybe remixes occasionally). The other 2 from Smart E's, Tom Orton and Nick Arnold, also had a few successful releases in their specific genre, notably what became known as "Happy Hardcore", for like a decade after Smart E's but their reach was more limited perhaps (at least for me as I was never massively into Happy Hardcore) than Luna-C's. The truth is that nothing "killed rave", rave just evolved and grew up (as much as it could).

I saw The Prodigy in the early 90’s at the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend Essex. I was 14 there was about 100 people. During their set both Keith and Maxim jumped into the small crowd from the stage and were dancing right with us. Amazing moment that only a year later you’d be 1 in thousands. RIP Keith (legend)

How do you unite old school E'-head ravers, Metal heads, Indie kids, hip hop fans and sexy student girls and get them on the dance floor? What the Prodigy did was genius.

Prodigy, soundtrack to my life.have loved them since 1990, great music and influence.

Braintreeeeeeeee (my home town if not obvs)

I loved playing Wipeout 2097 back in '96, Firestarter was the background music for that game

saw them so many times keith was so GENTLE and down to earth nothing like his image gave off

I can definitely confirm they crossed genres with Firestarter and gained a whole new audience of metallers. I've always been into metal but I mix in some EDM, trip-hop, jazz, classical etc, but even among my metal friends who were usually very elitist about their limited taste The Prodigy made an impact. I remember trying to see The Prodigy when they played the second stage at Download Festival (rock/metal/alt fest not used to dance music at all) and you couldn't get near the stage. It felt like the entire festival was there to see them. Keith was something special. By all accounts he was a lovely guy, one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. But isn't that usually the way? The people who look intimidating are often completely opposite when you actually start to talk to them. His funeral was a testament to his impact on music and Britain. Thousands upon thousands of people stopped and showed their respects. I don't think anyone really expected how it impacted the country. No one knew he was a national treasure until it was too late to tell him.

The Fat of the Land...Great CD (still have it)

I'm loving this music series JJ, If they do Ian Dury and the Blockheads then I'd love to see you react to them. I saw them at Glastonbury I think back in 97 and they suffered a power cut halfway through their set...it was bastard year, the mud was unbelievable. I also saw Rage but I'm not sure if this was the same year but one of L7 joined them on stage.

The Prodigy are definitely the premier band of their genre. Liam is a musical genius. Pretty much the UK's Trent Reznor. Both of them musical genius'.

Almost forgot... saw/ heard the Pridigy 6 times in one weekend once... Phoenix Festival, 198....6? 5? Warmup gig the night before, soundchecking as we arrived, and they played 4 sets during the 3 days... 2 on the main stage, 2 in the dance tent... Met the Original Lara Croft, Rhona Mitra, that weekend, too. And ended up with a boot full of 172 cans of the new, cool drink, red bull too. Best weekend ever.

Love listening to a bit of Prodigy when I’m at the gym, best way to make you run faster on the treadmill! 😂

OMG.. memories of Grandmaster Flash. "don't push me coz I'm close to the ...edge". I used to horrify my sons rapping that line when they were irritating me. LMAO. Both my sons made music in their bedrooms..one at each end of the house, one into rap and hip hop (with his friend Lord Dazastah - known to me as Daz, his workmate, who loved my cat), the other techno./EDM - later became a teacher by day, DJ by night. I was in the middle. I used to play a music quiz game online where your opponent could choose the category and the young players always chose categories they thought I wouldn't know judging by my profile pic, but I'd beat them every time and they'd be like "how do you know Wiz Khalifa" or "What? You know Skrillex?". Don't judge a book.. hehe. I did like Firestarter from the first time I heard it too- the raw energy of it. I even liked "Smack My Bitch Up" but my sons requested I never say that title as it sounded so ridiculous coming from their well-spoken mother's lips. 😅😅😅 If you made it this far, thanks for humouring me.

They took rave samples and added wizardry .Their first tour was insane .

I remember being really put-off music by boy bands singing mushy lovey songs about girls at the time. I was 9 years old. Keith and the Prodigy were my first exposure to the idea that music could be shouty and ugly and angry and scary and I fucking loved it!

I grew up listening to all types of music, so I disagree with the statement that people did not listen to dance and rock. You had to be really narrow-minded, isolated and ignorant not to listen to different range of music genres.

Keith Flint terrified a generation of kids in that Firestarter video, but he lived the very opposite of an intense lifestyle. He lived in the most idyllic manor house cottage in Essex, he rode motorbikes but he also loved bird watching and kept a bunch of animals.

I think that they won over metal heads by putting on amazing live shows. Can't beat that, aslo they do have great tunes 😂

Charlie Says, Trumpton, Rhubarb and Custard and Sesame Street were great tracks. Overall Prodigy was and still is one of the best Rave bands going.

Great reaction, loved them all my life. If you like against the grain musicians from the UK check out Sleaford mods, they've done a song with Prodigy also.

Lol... I got into metal in the mid 90s. I was about 15, I'd blast my music as my rebellion to suburban life. I remember my older sister who was about 20 running to our mom and telling her I was worshiping the devil. The Prodigy wow...Fire starter could be heard down the street. I made sure I opened up all my windows, so everyone could hear. Ahh she's still a prick now.

First seen prodigy in Glastonbury in 1995 on the NME stage cracking show loved it R.I.P KEITH FLINT

Check out prodigy phoenix festival 1996 then isle of white festival 2004. 1 with keith, 1 without but both absolutely amazing.

ANY OF YOU GUYS GOING TO WAREHOUSE PROJECT? wanna meet up? 20:19

Cubanate predated The Prodigy for merging EDM and Metal, Liam Howlett has cited them as an influence. You should watch the video of Prodigy doing Smack My Bitch Up at Download 2009/Isle of Wight ferry. That captures The Prodigy playing to a very intense crowd.

Ice-T talks about the controversy of mixing genres on his terrific album O.G. Original Gangster from 1990.

Smack My B*tch Up was abit controversial because of the words, I remember listening to it alot on The Fat Of The Land album.

Loved the Prodigy. Keith Flint took his own life. A very sad loss for us. He was a well known and very well liked man. Ask anyone who encountered him, and you will hear that he was gentle, quiet, humble and kind. Very opposite to his onscreen image. RIP Keith Flint.

I hadn't realised that Trumpton had inspired a second tune. I was only aware of "Trumpton Riots" by Half Man, Half Biscuit.

The prodigy are a cornerstone in British music, if not world music.

Shame they didnt mention the use of Kool Keith from the Ultamagnetic Mcs vocals on 'Smack My Bitch Up' and 'Diesel Power' on the Fat Of The Land album.

Love The Prodigy, best band in the world!!! Maxim from my hometown of Peterborough. Going see them this December. RIP KEEF.

There was a club in Cardiff that played Dance upstairs and Metal on the floor downstairs. Liking both types of music I'd flit between the floors. Guaranteed I'd hear Prodigy played on both. Can't believe it's almost 30 years I've been telling those close to me that I want Breathe played as my coffin enters the crematoria😮😂

I saw them at the Reading Festival, they were so good. The Bestie Boys followed them, the rumour was that the Beastie Boys wouldn't come on if The Prodigy played "Snack My Bitch Up", of course they played it. The Beastie Boys did come on, so if it's true, The Prodigy called their bluff.

I went to Keith's funeral amazing tribute to the man the legend. So many fond memory's listening to them especially mid 90s music for the gilted generation luv it! Their law was originally done by pop will eat itself. class tune - all the prodigy albums were the bullocks.

They really smashed genre boundaries in the 90s. Pillheads and drinkers didn't mix and they made music everyone could listen to

What The Prodigy does was just Break Beat which leads later from Jungle into Drum 'n' Bass. Periot!

Mate, you absolutely have to listen to all of their albums , just goddam brilliant music.

Keith Flint was friends with my brother. He used to come round our house when i was younger. I lost my brother 4 years ago so kinda hope they're both having a laugh together somewhere!

Keiths Passing was covered almost(ish) as much as Princess Di or The Queen mom over here. Thousands turned out for his funeral. As an aside, 'Their Law' featured a friends cousins band, 'Pop will Eat itself' , which is still touring (saw them last year, still awesome), and the singer, Clint Mansell did the Requiem For a Dream theme ( you probably know it from the trailers for the LOTR trailers... but you DO know it. ... 🤔 ) I met Graham (the other singer in PWEI and asked if he might be back in the future,, and he said, 'Nah... he's making too much money in Hollywood....' Google PWEI Beaver Patrol to see how far he has come.... lol 🤔😂

Only got the chance to see them once. Phoenix Festival in the mid 90s. What a band!

Saw them at Rockness. You could feel the sound hitting you in the chest. Best setting for a festival. Check it out.

In the late 80's we (myself and a few friends) were at a free outdoor gig (too small to be a festival), and I bumped into him with a female who looked far more outrageous than he did, we talked for around 30 minutes (I had no idea who he was until I saw my mates minutes later), a fantastic person who was very open and friendly to a stranger, no "do you know who I am" bollocks or too up himself not to speak with a stranger at an open festival.

If you don't listen to all their albums I'll hunt you down. Saying that with my health issues and being 6000 miles away in Scotland your probably safe lol. But we do know the general area where you live and that's enough, so get listening 😂

I love the prodigy, my first gig, On the early singles they always had a b-side remixes by the Dust brothers, who had to eventually had to change their names to the Chemical Brothers another ground breaking act

4:34 this has made me sooooo fucking happy i’m crying! The Prodigy could stop wars, walk through mine fields n shit. ima big fan since the outset and come from that way. if you would like to chat about music etc. viz a shout. we love a white label init. 🐜

mate when i first head Charly i was amazed, i went straight to the record shop and bought it and never looked back

I saw them live at the bizarre festival in 2001 and was completely blown away. When they came on stage and had a real drum set, electric guitar, bass guitar plus their synths and a turntable and actually played their songs I couldn´t believe it. I also saw them as a techno/electronic music act only and I could never have imagined that this music could look like this on stage until then.

they were one of the best acts at glastonbury 95. made up for the terrible noises The Shaman were making that year.

Do the Trash Theory video about Pulp!

I take issue with Aphex being labelled as techno

Big up Liam Howlett, mans a DON. 6:17

rip keith sadly missed another band that worked the same way before prodigy was pop will eat its self they colabed with them on there law track ,they were doing a mix of hip hop rave and rock as far back as 1988 ,def con one track beaver patrol and other tracks way a head of there time ive seen them live back in 1987 /88 /91 /92 ,they toured with prodigy ,the wonderstuff alot,keith was a great guy when john lydon heard of his death he was very emotional about him as a friend

Another really interesting video JJ ❤

come on you cu#ts. let’s go! 15:21 the man only speaks truth. 🐜

14:00 every track is a penny drop moment… come join us 🐜

Saw them at creamfields legends

BIG UP THE ANT ARMY, WE ARE STRONG! 👊 🐜 2:22

Charly was an absolute banger.

i’m gonna say it. “ i got this on vinyl “ 😂 5:34

again 😂 vinyl init. 21:30 😂

19:20 these boys are deep. 🐜

Rest In Power, Keef

RIP Keith.

23:08 rip that man.

Keith Flint 💙😢

So sad, Flint was found hanging at home aged just 49, presumed suicide

JJ Please do check out 'The DirtChamber Sessions (Vol 1)' by Liam, he mixed a LOT of 70s with 80s and 90s. It's his own thing rather than the prodigy but wow if you like your 70s soul but also love upbeat and early HipHop you are in for a wonderful treat. Oh and of course RIP KF! Thanks JJ