Chris Kelly, who has died aged 34, was one half of the American hip hop duo Kris Kross, who enjoyed a florescence on the music scene in the early 1990s; they were also responsible for a short-lived vogue among their teenage contemporaries for wearing clothes back to front.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 11 1978, Chris Kelly was only 13 when he was teamed up with his rap partner Chris Smith (they became known as “Mac Daddy” and “Daddy Mac” respectively) by the producer Jermaine Dupri, who signed them to his So So Def label.
Earlier this year, Kelly explained in an interview that he and his fellow 13 year-old Smith decided to wear their trousers back to front in advance of the release of their first single as a means of making themselves stand out from the crowd: “It was kind of a collective idea. We was all just sitting around thinking of something to do different. It probably could have been Jermaine that said, 'Hey, let’s put our pants on backwards’. I was the first one to do it... We went to the mall and got so much attention. We was like, 'OK, this is it’. And it just went from there.”
Their debut single Jump (1992) duly went to No 1 in the Billboard Hot 100 and to No 2 in Britain; in the same year their debut album, Totally Krossed Out (1992), sold four million copies in the United States; and their follow-up single Warm It Up (also 1992) made it to No 13 in the Billboard Hot 100.
Kris Kross appeared in music videos for Run-DMC and TLC, and performed alongside Michael Jackson on his Dangerous World Tour in 1992-93. They also sang the Rugrats Rap for the Nickelodeon network.
Their second album, Da Bomb (1993), went platinum. But after releasing the third, Young, Rich & Dangerous, in 1996, the duo split up to pursue solo careers, Kelly going on to work as a producer and establishing his own record label.
In early 2013 Kelly revealed that — more than 20 years after first adopting the practice — he was still wearing his trousers back to front. When asked if this was uncomfortable, he replied: “I don’t know. Everybody always ask me that. But you have to understand I’ve been wearing my pants backwards for 21 years... When I wake up that’s how my pants get put on... And you know people today are like, 'Well, I can’t believe you still wear your pants backwards’. Even if I put on a suit, I put my suit pants on backwards. It’s just a way of life for me.”
Chris Kelly was found dead at his home in Atlanta. A drug overdose is suspected, although the cause is not yet known.
Chris Kelly, born August 11 1978, died May 1 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment