 Crazy Town's 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-hop's lyrical attitude and rhythmic sass with the sonic luv muscle of live rock instrumentation.
Bret Mazur and Seth Binzer grew up in Southern California. Binzer's father was an artist and film-maker. 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 Pain's Danny Boy. He started making beats and cutting tracks early on. 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 wasn't 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 working on other hip-hoppers' projects, for example, 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 Anthrax's 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.
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