Seth Brooks Binzer, better known as Crazy Town leader Shifty Shellshock, is dead at at 49 years old.
As Variety notes, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s website, the musician died at his home on Monday, June 25. A cause of death has not yet been revealed.
Rap-rock band Crazy Town formed in the mid-1990s and had immediate success with their debut album, 1999’s The Gift Of Game. It was top-10 in the US and it spawned the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Butterfly,” the group’s signature song (that’s based on a sample of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Pretty Little Ditty”). Binzer also featured on Oakenfold’s 2002 song “Starry Eyed Surprise,” a top-10 hit in the UK.
The band broke up following the release of its less successful sophomore album, 2002’s Darkhorse. The group reunited in 2007, though, and in 2015, release their third album, The Brimstone Sluggers. In 2017, following the departure of Bret “Epic” Mazur, the group changed its name to Crazy Town X.
In a 2000 interview, Binzer said of his band’s music, “We’re just having a good time. We’re not like political or anything. I can be very sarcastic just like a little punk, we talk a lot of trash. We have some points, like ‘learn from your mistakes,’ ‘check yourself,’ you know, ‘don’t get taken advantage of.’ Real simple things, nothing too overwhelming.”