“It’s 1999, baby,” Fred Durst yelps on “9 Teen 90 Nine,” a song from Limp Bizkit’s smash hit, “Significant Other.”

And what a year it was for the red Yankees cap-wearing music mogul.

Durst led the rap-rock attack with his genre-defining album and frequent MTV appearances, which served as pleasant offerings in this Backstreet world.

Unless your name was Britney or Ricky, you couldn’t break onto radio without combining hip-hop and rock elements.

Rage Against The Machine, Kid Rock and Citizen King all took on the genre in signature styles, but it was the five George Michael fans from Jacksonville, Fla., who truly made rap-rock the talk of the year.

Below is the fourth and final Moss Pit Bests of the Year.

Best Albums of 1999

10. “Californication,” Red Hot Chili Peppers

9. “Battle Of Los Angeles,” Rage Against The Machine

8. “14:59,” Sugar Ray

7. “Happiness …” Our Lady Peace

6. “Live,” Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise

5. “Mobile Estates,” Citizen King

4. “Central Reservation,” Beth Orton

3. “Play,” Moby

2. “Lost And Gone Forever,” Guster

1. “Significant Other,” Limp Bizkit

Best Singles of 1999

15. “Let Forever Be,” Chemical Brothers

14. “Mambo No. 5,” Lou Bega

13. “Guerrilla Radio,” Rage Against The Machine

12. “My Own Worst Enemy,” Lit

11. “Better Days,” Citizen King

10. “Take A Picture,” Filter

9. “Johnny Feelgood,” Liz Phair

8. “Battle Flag,” Low Fidelity Allstars with Pigeonhead

7. “Back That Ass Up,” Juvenile

6. “I Am The Bullgod,” Kid Rock

5. “Tender,” Blur

4. “Honey,” Moby

3. “Nookie,” Limp Bizkit

2. “Last Kiss,” Pearl Jam

1. “Praise You,” Fatboy Slim

Best Debuts of 1999

5. “A Place In The Sun,” Lit

4. “Truck Stop Jug Hop,” Hot Sauce Johnson

3. “Pictures Of The Big Vacation,” Mike Errico

2. “We Rock Hard,” Freestylers

1. “Mobile Estates,” Citizen King

Buzzkills of 1999

10. Garth Brooks.

Study your music history, country boy. When David Bowie invented Ziggy Stardust, it killed his career. Alter-egos just don’t work when you’ve sold zillions of records.

What is even worse is that VH1 wasted an episode of their coveted “Behind The Music” on the guy. Not Garth, Chris Gaines.

9. Wendell Mosby.

“Come on — Tone Loc? White people may still like him, but he just isn’t cool now.” (Iowa State Daily, Dec. 1, 1999.)

Great quote, buddy. Whom do you want next year, Louis Farrakhan?

8. MTV’s “25 Lamest Videos.”

A decent idea to spend a few weekend hours of programming, but how dare you call “Ice Ice Baby” a lame video and ban it forever! I know guys who learned to dance from that video.

But I suppose Vanilla didn’t do much to help his cause when he showed up with baseball bat and pulled a Rodney King on the set of the show.

7. Puff Daddy.

The former king of the rap world had a great year. He was arrested for assaulting a record executive, released his second record (breaking a promise he made a few years back) that hardly stayed on Billboard’s Top Ten “Forever” and found another way to make money off Notorious B.I.G.’s death.

6. The Artist, DMX and Jay-Z.

One album a year is fine, thank you.

5. Will Smith.

Here’s an idea: Write a weak script for a special-effects-driven action movie, get Will Smith to star in it, and write a song by the same name that rips off a cool ’80s song. It’s money, baby.

4. The Artist, Will Smith, Robbie Williams and The Backstreet Boys.

The Artist started the year off on a bad note when he re-released “1999” as a single. Others followed all year along, capitalizing on the millennium blitz with cheesy songs that we’ll be forced to hear even more in the remaining weeks.

3. “Guns ‘N Roses Live.”

Ten years too late.

2. Woodstock bashers.

Leave it to the media to focus on the final hour of a three-day event. Woodstock 99 may not have been about peace and love, but it wasn’t exactly “Apocalypse Now” either, which a certain influential music magazine dubbed it.

Those music journalist bastards.

1. Iowa State Center.

You’d think Ames was Branson, Mo., from the kind of concerts we’ve had in the past year. Nothing against Lynyrd Skynyrd or David Sanborn, but this is a college town. At least in past years, there were a few “college” bands (Smashing Pumpkins, R.E.M., Dave Matthews).

Whose on tap for 2000? Neil Diamond again?

---

Corey Moss is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.