Read more at:
https://www.theringer.com/music/2020/6/17/21293057/oral-history-deftones-white-pony-20th-anniversary
Go Get Your Knife: The Oral History of Deftones’ ‘White Pony’

In between the eras of WWE-style rap-rock and East Coast punks discovering their parents’ vinyl collections, Deftones carved a niche on 2000’s White Pony that mixed sex and violence unlike any band before them.
“White Pony was the extreme version of [us following our instincts] and going left of center,” singer Chino Moreno says. “We went in with no preconceived ideas of what we were going to make. We knew what we didn’t want to make. ”
What the Sacramento-based band didn’t want to make was the aggressive mix of hip-hop, howling vocals, and heavy metal guitars coined “nu-metal. ” The genre included bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Papa Roach.