Crazy Town

   

Crazy Town (aka. CXT) is a Rapcore band formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles in the fall of 1995 by rappers/producers; Boston born "Shifty Shellshock" (aka. Seth Brooks Binzer) and Brooklyn born "Epic Mazur" (aka. Bret Mazur) who both moved to L.A. at very young ages.

Originally called the Brimstone Sluggers, they had worked with many Underground Hip Hop artists around Los Angeles, most notably working with the Black Eyed Peas.

They incorporated other band members in 1999, adding an element of Punk & Metal to their sound.

Crazy Town emerged during a wave of Californian Rap Rock bands at the turn of the millennium, alongside the likes of Papa Roach, Orgy, P.O.D. and (Hed) Planet Earth.

The Gift of Game

They broke big with the releases of their 3rd & 4th singles, the worldwide smash hit Butterfly & Revolving Door in 2000. The hedonous song, Butterfly, sampled an old Red Hot Chili Peppers track, Pretty Little Ditty, and made no. 1 on the Billboard top 100, propelling Crazy Town nearly to the heights of Pop culture. It was an instant favourite amongst TRL audiences, and got massive airplay on MTV, helping their debut album "The Gift of Game" to achieve multi-platinum status, & sales of more than 2.5 million copies. In 2001 they performed on MTV's spring break, and headlined the main stage at the Ozzfest, alongside Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot & Disturbed. "Squirrel" (aka. Kraigy Tyler) replaced Rust Epique on guitar, and former Shuvel drummer Kyle Hollinger took the over the helm from JBJ.

Darkhorse

Their sophomore effort "Darkhorse", had a more rockier feel and spawned the minor hit Drowning. It came out when many Rapcore, fusion bands were losing popularity and facing a backlash. It failed to achieve the same fortunes as its predecessor. The band broke up soon after.

Life after

Former frontman Shifty, (who dropped Shellshock from his alias) released a pop/rock solo album in 2004 called Happy Love Sick.

Former lead guitarist Rust Epique died in March, 2004, just weeks before the release of his hard rock side project, pre)Thing.

Personnel

  • Shifty Shellshock (aka. Seth Brooks Binzer) - vocals
  • Epic Mazur (aka. Bret Mazur) - vocals
  • Kraigy "Squirrel" Tyler - guitar
  • Antonio Lorenzo Valli - guitar
  • Doug "Faydoe" Miller - bass
  • JBJ (aka. James Bradley Jnr.) - drums (replaced by Kyle Hollinger)
  • DJ AM (aka. Adam Goldstein) - Turntables

Discography

Retrieved from "http://www.centipedia.com/articles/Crazy_Town"

This page has been accessed 126 times. This page was last modified 06:39, 16 Nov 2004. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).