Shifty Shellshock, Crazy Town Singer, Dead at 49
Shifty Shellshock, the frontman of rap rock band Crazy Town, has died at 49, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. The musician died at home on Monday (June 24), and the cause of death is still pending investigation.
Shellshock was born Seth Binzer on Aug. 23, 1974. He met Crazy Town co-founder Bret Mazer in 1992, and the band went on to add various members, including Adam Goldstein (better known as DJ AM, who died from an accidental overdose in 2009), Rust Epique, Antonio Lorenzo Valli, James Bradley Jr., among others. The band released its debut album The Gift of Game in November 1999. It peaked at No. 9 on the all-genre Billboard 200 on the chart dated March 3, 2001, and remained on the tally for 34 weeks.
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The set’s first two singles, “Toxic” and “Darkside,” failed to chart, but the third time was the charm for Crazy Town. “Butterfly” — which sampled the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Pretty Little Ditty” — arrived in October 2000 as the album’s third single and climbed to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it held the top spot for two weeks with its catchy chorus: “Come my lady, come come my lady / You’re my butterfly, sugar baby/ Come my lady, you’re my pretty baby/ I’ll make your legs shake, you make me go crazy.”
In all, the track remained on the chart for 23 weeks and is the group’s biggest hit to this day. (The track made Billboard‘s One-Hit Wonders of the 2000s list in 2014; the band did not land another song on the tally during its career.)
Sophomore album Darkhorse was released in November 2002 and debuted at No. 120. It failed to reach any higher, and fell off the chart after one week. The band broke up shortly after.
Binzer was open about his struggles with substance abuse. He appeared on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew in 2008, and VH1’s Sober House from 2009 to 2010.
He is survived by his kids Halo, Gage and Phoenix.
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