Thirty years ago today, The Prodigy released "Firestarter"—one of the defining British records of the 1990s.⁠ ⁠ The track began as an instrumental, built by Liam Howlett around a distorted keyboard riff that was partly inspired by the Foo Fighters' "Weenie Beenie," with samples pulled from the Breeders, Art of Noise, and Ten City. Then, Keith Flint changed everything.⁠ ⁠ Up until that point, Flint had been a dancer in the group, dismissed by much of the rock press as having no real musical contribution. When he heard the instrumental, he approached Howlett and asked to record vocals. He had never done it before.⁠ ⁠ The result became one of the most iconic singles of the decade. Shot on a £20,000 budget in an abandoned London tube station, the video introduced the world to a transformed Flint on a Thursday evening BBC broadcast. The BBC promptly banned it after the premiere. The song debuted at No. 1 anyway and spent three weeks at the top of the UK charts. The controversy only accelera...