Shifty Shellshock

The frontman of US Crazy Town Seth Binzer has died at the age of 49

Co-founded by Binzer in 1995, the Los Angeles band had a global megahit with their 2000 single Butterfly

Seth Binzer, the lead songster of Los Angeles rap- gemstone band Crazy Town – who had a US No 1 hit with Butterfly in 2001 – has failed aged 49. The LA medical monitor certified that his death took place on 24 June 2024 but gave no cause.

Binzer, also known as Shifty Shellshock, innovated Crazy Town in 1995 alongside Bret Mazur. The band released their debut reader, The Gift of the Game, in 1999.

It originally failed to find success, with two mates failing to chart. The band’s prospects looked dim, particularly after they withdrew from the travelling Ozzfest jubilee in 2000 after Binzer was arrested for throwing a president out of a window while drunk.

still in afterlife 2000, they released a third single, Butterfly, which tried Enough Little song by Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom they had preliminarily voyaged. The song climbed the US maps to reach No 1 the ensuing time; in the UK it peaked at No 3.

The band had been reluctant to release the song as the reader’s first single, they said, because they knew it would come to define them. Binzer said “ A song like Butterfly is a no- brainer, everyone seems to love that no matter how hard they are, it’s veritably radio friendly, the womanish followership loves it and at the same time I suppose we kept our integrity with it. ”

They had made the correct supposition when they voyaged with Ozzfest in 2001, Binzer told Rolling Stone the band had “ a lot to prove ” because of the single – videlicet that they were “ aggressive punk kiddies – a real band and not a pop act ”. nonetheless, they entered mixed reviews and were dismissed as “ the Butterfly boys ”, MTV reported.

They released a alternate reader, Darkhorse, in 2002, which failed to reach the same heights, egging the band to go on hiatus from 2003 to 2007.

In 2002, Binzer banded with Paul Oakenfold on the single Starry Eyed Surprise. In 2004, he released a single reader, Happy Love Sick, under the Shifty Shellshock alias.

The band reformed in 2007; a time latterly, Binzer would share in the VH1 reality show Celebrity Rehab and a followup programme, Sober House, during which he regressed.

In 2015 they released their third reader, The Brimstone Flyweights, which failed to chart. After Mazur left the band in 2017, Binzer renamed the group Crazy Town X, and voyaged until 2023. The band were demurred off a stint that time with nu essence band Hed PE after a fight between their frontman Bobby Reeves and Binzer.

Binzer was born to Rollin Binzer, who directed the 1974 musicale film Ladies and Gentlemen the Rolling monuments, and former model Leslie Brooks. He was raised in Boston and LA and discovered rap by travelling to New York City to buy mail videotapes, where he also embraced skateboarding culture.

Binzer spoke openly about having spent time in jail as a youthful man following incidents including assault with a arm, as well as selling and using medicines and floundering with dependence .

Around the turn of the 2010s, his engagement to British model Jasmine Lennard was marked by allegations of battery and medicine use. In 2022, he was arrested in Los Angeles for driving under the influence.

Binzer’s death follows those of former Crazy Town members Rust Epique, in 2004, and DJ AM, in 2009.