Crazy Town

by Ed NimmervollCrazy Towns music and image reflects one of the most dynamic and volatile sociocultural environments on the planet — Los Angeles — where the urban squalor of the South Central district exists just minutes away from the glamour and glitz of Beverly Hills. Spearheaded by lyricists/vocalists/producers Seth Shifty Shellshock Binzer and Bret Epic Mazur, Crazy Town combines hip-hops lyrical attitude and rhythmic sass with the sonic luv muscle of live rock instrumentation.Bret Mazur and Seth Binzer grew up in Southern California Mazurs father was Billy Joels manager. Binzers father was an artist and film-maker who directed the Rolling Stones live movie Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones. Their sons grew up listening to N.W.A., Cypress Hill and Ice-T, as well as alternative rock bands like the Cure. Mazur is originally from New York but attended high school in California with Ice Cube, Divine Styler, Everlast, and House of Pains Danny Boy. He started making beats and cutting tracks early on and wound up providing music for MC Serch of 3rd Bass solo record. He worked on records by Eazy-E and MC Lyte and was briefly DJ for House of Pain. Meanwhile, Binzer had come across a copy of the Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill while in Mexico, and found a side of hip-hop that inspired him to start making demo recordings on his own. It wasnt until Binzer and Mazur hooked up that they felt they could pursue careers as professional musicians. Initially coming together as the Brimstone Sluggers, the pair recorded plenty of music, but never completed a full album of their own because they kept getting involved with and contributing to other hip-hoppers projects, for example, Divine Styler and what would later become Black Eyed Peas. They both also ended up in rehabilitation clinics and it was writing to each other from rehab when they hatched the plan that became Crazy Town: a hip-hop band featuring a full instrumental lineup to complement their rapping group, rooted in classic rap-rock miscegenation (like Run-D.M.C.s Rock Box or Public Enemy and Anthraxs collaborative Bring Tha Noize, etc.) Recruiting Doug Faydoedeelay Miller (bass), Rust Epique (guitar), Anthony Trouble Valli (guitar), DJ A.M. (turntables), and James JBJ Bradley J (drums), a former sessioneer who played on the Beastie Boys Check Ya Head album, and Crazy Town was born.The bands debut album, The Gift of Game, was produced by close friend Josh Abraham (Orgy, Coal Chamber). Helping out were special guests KRS-One, dancehall toastmaster Mad Lion, and Dirty Unit. A friend of the group had dropped by while they were recording, liked what he heard, and immediately called up Mad Lion, who offered his services as toaster on the track Hollywood Babylon. Mad Lion took a tape home and played it for KRS-One, who was suitably impressed and in turn volunteered his services for B-Boy 2000. The album spawned a world-wide hit in Butterfly, an ode to the one special woman every man hopes to have by his side someday.