| House Of Krazees | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Howse |
| Origin | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Genre(s) | Horrorcore |
| Years active | 1993-1999 2013-present |
| Label(s) | Majik Ninja Entertainment, Retro Horror Muzik, Latnem Intertainment |
| Associated acts | Twiztid Samhein Witch Killaz Zodiac Mprint Triple Threat Halfbreed |
| Members | |
| The R.O.C. Hektic Mr. Bones | |
| Former members | |
| Skrapz (1998-99) Beast (1998) Mr. Vitology (1998) | |
House of Krazees is an American hip hop group from Detroit, Michigan. Known for their horror and Halloween-themed lyrics and wearing masks while performing, House of Krazees members Hektic and Mr. Bones also form the duo Twiztid, while all three members are part of the supergroup Samhein Witch Killaz with Blaze Ya Dead Homie. Additionally, The R.O.C. is also half of the duo Zodiac Mprint with Blaze, and was a former member of the duo Halfbreed. Hektic, Mr. Bones and Blaze form the trio Triple Threat.
House of Krazees self-released two EPs, Home Sweet Home and Home Bound, and an album, Season of the Pumpkin, before signing with Latnem Intertainment. House of Krazees toured in support of Insane Clown Posse's album tour in 1997. During the tour, Hektic and Mr. Bones left House of Krazees following a dispute with The R.O.C., and subsequently, as Monoxide and Jamie Madrox, formed Twiztid, while The R.O.C. revamped House of Krazees as The Howse with the line-up of Beast, Mr. Vitology, Skrapz and The R.O.C., releasing the album Esohpromatem: Welcome To The New Millennium in 1998. The following year, Skrapz and The R.O.C. began performing as a duo under the House of Krazees name, releasing the album The Night They Kame Home, before leaving Latnem the same year to form the duo Halfbreed, releasing two EPs and an album before splitting up.
In 2013, the original line-up of House of Krazees reformed, and while they have not recorded a full LP since 1996, new HOK recordings have appeared on singles and EPs. In 2024, HOK announced they were working on a new album.
History[]
1993: The Creation Of The Group[]
Formed in 1993 by members Big J, E.X.P., and The R.O.C. (standing for Raps On Contact), the House of Krazees originally began as a two man project. When The R.O.C. (a childhood friend of the two rappers), was approached by Big J and E.X.P. to produce their music and be featured as a guest spot rapper, and The R.O.C."\ accepted. The R.O.C. was already in a rap group named Strength Productions, consisting of himself and the members J HO, and The R.O.C.'s cousin Big Father Hightop. They had released a LP in 1992 entitled Rollin With Strength (which had guest features Big J and E.X.P. on it). After Strength Productions finished with the album Rollin With Strength, J Ho left the group to go team up with J MO and created the rap group Krazy Klan (where The R.O.C. would do production for their album DevelopMENTAL). In early 1993, The R.O.C. was approached by Big J and E.X.P. to produce their tracks, and be featured as a guest artist on their not yet named album, "The R.O.C." accepted. After they were done, they realized that they had an entire album together after he ended up doing multiple guest appearances instead of one, he was on every song. The R.O.C. was then asked to join the group, which he accepted, abandoning Strength Productions. As the group had no name, they had decided to take it form a old movie called House of Crazies, modified, the House of Krazees was created.
The House of Krazees had all of their music recorded at Red House Studios. With limited funding, their extended play had poor quality due to them having no investor at the time. As October was coming up, they thought it would be the perfect time to release their EP, but they needed a label to release it on. As they found Scott Chapman (who had also helped The R.O.C. produce the album), he had decided to help create the label Retro Horror Muzik. As again poor funding would be another obstacle, making them limited to how many copies they could print, the group (along with Scott Chapman) came across Walter Stephanenko, who told them he knew much about the music industry, he ended up paying for them to reproduce a few tapes, but then stoped funding for unknown reasons shortly after. Agian looking for another financier, they came across Asylum Records who helped them and decided to print 500 copies of the EP, (Asylum Records only printed 500 copies, because the EP was low quality and not expected to sell any copies). Having someone to put their record in print, the House Of Krazees released their first album on October 1, 1993, Home Sweet Home. They did not sell all 500 copies, as they only sold a portion of that amount. Being upset about this, Asylum Records decided not to put any more of their albums in print. Although this was a downfall, "Big J" claimed "we sold enough to keep up our spirits and have hope".
With the House Of Krazees having a album finally out and for sell, they had songs to perform live. As they were trying to find somewhere to open a show, Detroit rap legend and House Of Krazees inspiration Esham was starting his tour for his new album, titled KKKill The Fetus. With the House Of Krazees seeing a opportunity to get my publicity, they approached Esham and asked him if they could open for him on his tour, and Esham accepted. In October 31, 1993 the House Of Krazees got their first live show opening for Esham on the "KKKill The Fetus Tour". After the show, the House Of Krazees were told that the feedback was great, and the crowd loved them, they had also managed to sell another small portion of their EP "Home Sweet Home". Doing nothing but promoting their album all throughout the rest of 1993, they were gaining a fanbase. They were not one of the most popular rap groups in Detroit right now, but they did have a small fan base and were starting to become somewhat popular.
1994: House Of Krazees Gains Popularity[]
Due to the House Of Krazees not being able to sell all 500 copies of Home Sweet Home, Asylum Records refused to keep publishing their music. Big J and E.X.P. deicided to change their name to Mr. Bones and Hektic. Since they had already promoted Home Sweet Home to its fullest and as best they could (receiving a small fan base in exchange), they had decided to record a new album. 1993, was already over, so in the beginning of 1994 they would start on their new album Return Of The Mad Men. As they were recording, they were on the search for another record label that would publish and produce their next album. As explained by Mr. Bones, "they had searched through many labels to put out this next album. Finally not to long before they finished the record, they found the label "Mazz Musik" who had agreed to produce, publish, and finance the album for them. At the time when they were finished recording "Return Of The Mad Men", Mazz Muzik backed down from the deal before it could be released. Seeing this as another downfall, Homebound was delayed. Scott Chapman (who helped The R.O.C. produce Home Sweet Home and this album) then steped up and agreed to help finance the album, but due to still limited finances, only 200 copies of the album were produced, and before the release the group decided to change the records name to "Home Bound". So on June, 1994, the Houe Of Krazees second album Home Bound was released as another Extended Play.
In order to promote the album, the House Of Krazees saw a need to do shows live, as they only opened up for Esham before. So the House Of Krazees would have clubs and bars agree to let them do shows, and to promote these shows the House Of Krazees would use fliers. This getting a few but not many copies sold, the House Of Krazees needed another way to promote. As the Detroit rapper Esham would release his new album Closed Casket and was going to tour to promote it, the House Of Krazees jumped on this as another chance to promote "Homebound" and asked if they could open for him on some of his shows, as "Esham" agreed. After this was finished, the House Of Krazees managed to sell many more copies of "Homebound" and gained a even larger fan base (though it was not known if they sold all the copies of Homebound, it is said today that many of them were sold for cheap and profits were made). As they were done doing shows with Esham, they decided to work on another album which would be a double album, with a solo track from each member. As they started to work on this album, for unknown reasons Scott Chapman was fired and The R.O.C. became the main producer, and the money used to fund their next album was from what they made off of the shows they did with Esham, and the money from the sold Homebound tapes.
As the group was working on their next album which they decided would be released on October 31st, 1994 (The R.O.C.'s birthday) they decided to name it Season Of The Pumpkin. Mr. Bones wanted to do a solo project, so he got three friends together and created the "Sons Of Midnight" which consisted of Looney Toon, Dark Angel, and DeathLock. It wouldn't take much time at all to finish their first record, which only contained five tracks, with three songs, they would name this album "The Demon Inside", and release it on Mr. Bones own label "Skeleton Records" where Mr. Bones himself would do the album artwork, and the EP would have full production by The R.O.C.). This compiliation album was very limited to how many copies it would produce due to poor funding, and not many were even sold, even after Mr. Bones and the Sons Of Midnight did some shows to promote it. With Mr. Bones seeing no success in his project, he decided not to continue it. As October 31st was nearing, they decided that they didn't have enough songs to release a double album, so they would only release it as a full LP. On October 31st, 1994, the House Of Krazees released their third studio record, and first full length album, Season Of The Pumpkin with a solo track from each member, full production by The R.O.C. and nineteen tracks, and a CD and Cassette version, on "Retro Horror Muzik".
In order to promote this, the House Of Krazees went and did more small time shows, selling some copies. As the House Of Krazees went on to promote their album for the rest of 1994, they went to be featured on "2 Krazy Devils" album Flipped Insanity with the entire House Of Krazees on the track "Back 2 Out Gravez" and The R.O.C. on "Lettin Ya Know". The R.O.C. had also produced some of their tracks for them. As Season Of The Pumpkin was being promoted and gaining the House Of Krazees recognition and expanding their fan base they saw that they were becoming widely known in Detroit, but if they were to get as popular as Esham, Insane Clown Posse or some of the other big acts coming up in Detroit, they would need a manager that would finance all their actions. The House Of Krazees had a fan base, but it was nothing huge, nothing outside of Michigan.
1995: Latnem Intertainment[]
As House Of Krazees went on loonking for a manager to properly finance their first LP, they had went through a lot of people, but found none who were willing to put in enough money to produce as many copies as they wanted and get proper promotion. To make further copies, and give the album more advertisement, all three members engaged in minimum-waged employment, or other hustles, to finance HOK properly. In early 1995, they came across a financer who was willing to fully finance them, only if they signed to his label he created for them Latnem Intertainment, which would mean them signing over the rights to the House of Krazees name, and their music, Walter Stepananko (who turned his back on them when he was supposed to finance Home Sweet Home they accepted the deal. Instead of moving on to work on another album, Walter and the group decided to re-release Season Of The Pumpkin with 3 more tracks. With better funding, Season Of The Pumpkin sold a lot of CDs and cassetes all throughout Michigan, (mainly Detriot) making them one of Detriot's most popular upcoming groups, behind Insane Clown Posse, Kid Rock, and Esham. Though they didn't tour with anyone this time, they still did more small time shows, only this time those small shows were full of people who intended to see them, not just because they were there. It is stated by the members of House Of Krazees, that they did not get paid for this album though, although they did get full financing from Walter.
As the trio went in and hit the studio for their next release, Mr. Bones was twice as busy because he was working on his first full solo LP. As the House Of Krazees decided that they were going to record a EP again instead of a full LP, they also took a different turn in styles in this record, instead of using a more dark horror theme with rock samples, it seemed like a pure "hip-hop" album. They took the song that they did with 2 Krazy Devils in 1994, "Lettin Ya Know" and put it on this EP without 2 Krazie Devils, and also remastered it. Outbreed was a album as said "more about thereselves and what they wanted to do". It also contained a lot of disses to all the other small-time local acts that were "dissing" them at the time. Mr. Bones had finished up his first solo LP which he decided to name Sacrifice. Since if he released on Latnem, Walter would own the rights, he decided to release it on his own made up label called Brain Dead Records. It featured 12 tracks, with Hektic and The R.O.C. on the last song, Insomnia, and full production by The R.O.C. By himself, he did the artwork, managed to produce 500 copies of it, and get little but some promotion on it.
Afterwards, they then finally released the EP they had been working on in May, 1995 with full production from The R.O.C. and named it Outbreed, with 8 tracks, and agian only on cassete. In order to promote this album, the House Of Krazees headlined a small tour throughout Michigan, this was the first time that they had headlined their very own tour. They had a local uupcoming act open up for them, going by the name Eminem, who used the tour to promote his new full-length LP, Infinite. Hektic had met him at a kinkos printing up flyers for Outbreeds tour, and listened to a sample of his music then asked him to join the tour. As the House Of Krazees sold most of their tapes on this tour they had got a lot of bad complaints from their pre-existing fanbase about Outbreed because of it not being dark and horror themed like their previous albums, it was a complete change in direction not only in the beats, but in the theme. Since they decided to do this, Outbreed did not do as well as other previous albums. Regradless, House Of Krazees said nothing about it and continued to promote it, and it still sold most of the copies and extended their fanbase. Many liked this new turn they were taking, and many hated it. It is stated that agian, the House Of Krazees were barely paid anything by Walter. After they had done all this, they continued to promote it throughout the rest of 1995, this was one of their unsuccesfull CDs, but still sold some copies and made profit from the tour. At late 1995, they decided to move on, and work on their next release. This time, it would be R.O.C. with the most busy schedule because he was starting to work on his own full length album.
1996: The Start Of National Exposure[]
As the House Of Krazees was very busy in all working hard on their next full length LP, all of R.O.C.'s extra time would go to his first solo LP, in which he decided to name X-Posed. Spending a lot of time on both these trying to get both of them released, he got a group of other underground Detriot acts to fill guest spots he wanted on his LP. He wanted to get it out sometime before House Of Krazees next album so that it wouldn't stand in the way of his LP making it lack sells. After having financing it himself with all his extra money, he would finally release it in early 1996, on Latnem Intertainment with 14 tracks, the House Of Krazees on the song Intro To My Click, Mr. Bones on the song Outrage and a lot of ofther Detriot acts he gathered up on other songs, including his cousin. Although it did not press more copies than a House Of Krazees tape, it did get somewhat good promotion, with him managing to sell a decent amount of copies in Detroit only. With Spring time coming up, the House Of Krazees was nearly finished, with no guest spots on the album (like all their others). They had stuck with the hip-hop type turn they did with Outbreed although they had a few dark themed songs on it, so it was sort of a mixture of styles, they decided to name it Head Trauma. The awaited album was released Spring of 1996, on cassete (to save money) with a major hit upon both old and new House Of Krazees fans Nosferatu. The House Of Krazees would continue to do non-stop promotion of Head Trauma, leaving a mark all of Michigan, every fan of the underground in the state knew who they were.
After excessive promoting of Head Trauma, in October R.O.C. asked major success rap group Insane Clown Posse if they could join their upcoming annual Hallowicked show, and Insane Clown Posse accepted. Finishing the show, House Of Krazees sold many copies of Head Trauma, and got an even bigger growing fanbase this time it was starting to grow to border states. Not much later afterwards, ICP (Insane Clown Posse) invited House Of Krazees to join the Milenko: All Up In Yo Face Tour, as House Of Krazees accepted. They would open from the tour headliners, Insane Clown Posse along with Myzery, ICP's labelmate. Since Insane Clown Posse was having a lot of trouble with Hollywood Records, the tour was delayed for several months. After Insane Clown Posse signed to Island Records (which was currently in a deal with Deff Jam). The tour then continued on like it was supposed to, and with House Of Krazees doing so much with ICP, rumor had it they were going to try to sign to Psychopathic Records. Soon after this rumor started, for unknown reasons House Of Krazees was pulled off the tour by Walter in early 1997 being unable to finish the second leg of the tour. This, upsetting the three very much, because they had been exposed to many states (consideringly half the United States, and should they had finished the tour, they would of been exposed nationally.)
1997: The Departure Of Two Members Of The House Of Krazees[]
As Insane Clown Posses tour continued on, House Of Krazees returned to Detroit (unpaid) almost becoming known throughout the nation, though they did sell many copies of Head Trauma on the tour. As they came back to Detroit to record their next album in which they named Evolution, where they hyped the name before they even started on it in interviews. In February, they released Collectors Edition '97 (a.k.a. Remix & Rewind) which what a compilation tape put together by their proclaimed "Best Songs" from all their past releases, with three different versions. A little bit later, they were asked to do a song for a upcoming compilation put together of random local Detroit underground acts, called Mob Mentality which House Of Krazees accepted. They did the song Ghost. Afterwards, they changed the name of their album Evolution to Shit To Make Ya Ears Bleed and finished two songs for it, Murder, Murder, Murder, and Scare.
Mr. Bones was starting to work on a second solo record which was going to be a EP, entitled Something Weird, in which was to be released late 1997, several songs were already finished, with full production by The R.O.C. After Hektic and Mr. Bones stated that they were rarely getting paid for what they did, if not at all, they decided to leave Latnem Intertainment. They invited The R.O.C. to leave with them, but he refused, as he didn't want to leave behind what he helped build for so long.
As the original House Of Krazees parted ways, Mr. Bones would go on to become Jamie Madrox and Hektic Monoxide Child, and recruit Psycho C (changing his name to Blaze Ya Dead Homie) to be in a group with them called I.S.I. standing for Infamous Superstars Incorporated, which seemed to take a completely different direction from the dark themed House Of Krazees. They would record a few songs, and then later show the demo tape to Psychopathic Records Joseph Bruce and Alex Abbiss where they would later sign (only) Jamie Madrox and Monoxide Child to Psychopathic Records as Twiztid. Twiztid would go on to release Mostasteless where they would go and ask The R.O.C. if they could use Murder, Murder, Murder for a song on their album, and The R.O.C. accepted only at the conditions that they give him props in the booklet. As they did, they cut his verse out, gave him props in the booklet like he requested and dissed him in other songs.
The R.O.C. rebranded the group as The Howse, with the line-up of Beast, Mr. Vitology, Skrapz and The R.O.C.. All of those members, including him put out the cd Esphormatem and recorded an unifnished LP following Eso, never to be released. Afterwards, this lineup disbanded.
1998: Dispute, and The Night They Kame Home[]
The next line-up consisted of The R.O.C. and Skrapz. They began working on a new album that was originally set to be called "Season Of The Pumpkin 2", but they decided there was no way it could be released by October 31st that year, so they renamed it The Night They Kame Home and released it on CD only. This line-up later renamed itself Halfbreed, and left Latnem to form their own label, Virus Independent.
The original lineup reformed in 2013, and is signed to Twiztid's record label Majik Ninja Entertainment. In 2018, the original line-up albums and EPs by House of Krazees, along with solo recordings by Mr. Bones and The R.O.C. were rissued as the box set 25 Years Of Krazees. The following year, new and previously released recordings were released on the EP Post Apocalyptic Word (2019). In 2024, HOK announced that they were working on a new album.
Discography[]
Line-up 1: The R.O.C., Hektic and Mr. Bones[]
- EPs
- Home Sweet Home (1993)
- Home Bound (1994)
- Outbreed (1995)
- Post Apocalyptic Word (2019)
- LPs
- Season of the Pumpkin (1994)
- Head Trauma (1996)
- Compilations
- Collectors Edition '97 (1997)
- Casket Cutz (2013)
- Box sets
- 25 Years Of Krazees (2018)
Line-up 2: Beast, Mr. Vitology, Skrapz and The R.O.C. (as The Howse)[]
- Esohpromatem: Welcome To The New Millennium (1998)
Line-up 3: The R.O.C. and Skrapz[]
- The Night They Kame Home (1999)