Crazy Town: The Sad Story of the Band Behind "Butterfly"

Crazy Town: Whatever happened to the band behind the hit 'Butterfly?"

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Crazy Town is a rap-rock group that shot to popularity in the early 2000’s thanks to their single Butterfly which propelled the group’s debut album to go platinum., The band’s story is full of tragedy and adversity & it really shouldn’t have been surprising since there was a lot foreshadowing even before the band formed. . Today Let’s discuss the history of Crazy Town and whatever happened to the group.

Formed in 1995 by two musicians Bret Mazur and Seth Binzer Mazur would adopt the alias Epic, while Binzer would be known as Shifty Shellshock Both musicians had an introduction to the industry early on in their lives with Binzer’s dad being an art director for Chess Records, working for Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. His father even contribute to the cover art for Crazy Town’s debut album The Gift of Game. & Mazur’s dad meanwhile was a music manager whose clients included Billy Joel and at a young age he would move his family across the country to Los Angeles. Mazur’s father would take his son to recording sessions, where he was introduced to some of the best musicians in the industry but he also saw the dark side of fame recalling to Rolling Stone. “There were a lot of addicts around. There wasn’t nothing mysterious and cool about taking drugs for me.”

Mazur would attend the same san fernando valley high school as ice cube, brad wilk of rage against the machine and house of pain members everlast and dannyboy. At the age of 13 he got his first turntables and began breakdancing. He would earn money DJing at black nightclubs around LA & he would soon start his own production company with a DJ who was double his age This success led Mazur to drive fancy cars, and own his own 24-track studio but wasn’t passionate about mixing albums telling Rolling Stone how artist Sheena Easton forced him to change paths in life recalling

“She was no fun; I wanted to talk to her about Prince, and she wouldn’t say anything,” By 1993 Mazur was done working with Sheena Easton and began working with a hip hop group named Blood of Abraham who collaborated with members of another pop group named Black Eyed Peas. It would be Will I am who introduced Mazur to Binzer.

Binzer meanwhile went through a number of phases in his childhood gravitating towards extreme sports including dirtbiking & skateboarding while later becoming a punk rocker named Romeo and then a breakdancer named Paco while also becoming one of the few whites kids to partake in freestyle rap competitions around LA. Binzer would earn the name Shifty Shellshock for his criminal behavior including shoplifting at an early age telling Rolling Stone “I’ve always been dodgy. When I was younger, I was a shoplifter and then a graffiti artist. When I got older, I was a little shady dealing with women. I’d always be juggling a couple of them. He would go on to explain how he tried to rob a fellow drug dealer who was bad mouthing him and it resulted in Binzer being chased by the police and eventually getting away, resulting in him becoming one of LA’s most wanted. But the police would get their man arresting him at a 7-11 with him recalling to Rolling Stone "we got surrounded by cop cars at 7-Eleven. I was on Fox II News for an extra week, because they couldn’t find one of my friends, so they had my picture with Captured over my face. Binzer would end up serving three months in prison being relegated to the part of the jail typically reserved for murderers. Binzer would tell the LA Times "Until I got caught for everything, I kind of felt like I was this invincible Biggie Smalls bad-ass comic book character. All of a sudden it went from using drugs to being a drug addict, and it turned from robbing people and beating people up because that was the thing to do, to going to jail for it.

Mazdn’t finish my rampage for a couple of days, but he showed me that I had people who were worried and cared about me. Anthony’s this angel who appeared in my life" he'd say.

Following Binzer’s visit to rehab Crazy Town would get another shot at Ozzfest the following year. The band would also ready their follow up single Revolving door, which was in sharp contrast to Butterfly, promoting promiscuity.
Binzer would tell MTV" 'Revolving Door' is about being young, being single, having a great time, and then at the same time being like,