Butterfly singer Shifty Shellshock dies, aged 49

Shifty Shellshock, the frontman of rap-rock band Loopy City, has died aged 49.

The musician was greatest identified for the 2001 single Butterfly, which was a US primary hit, and reached quantity three within the UK.

Born Seth Binzer, he based Loopy City in 1995, and later loved success with DJ Paul Oakenfold on the membership observe Starry Eyed Shock.

Nonetheless, he struggled with dependancy all through his life, addressing his situation on actuality exhibits corresponding to Movie star Rehab and its follow-up, Sober Home.

He was discovered lifeless at his house in Los Angeles on Monday 24 June. A explanation for dying has not but been disclosed.

Born in 1974, Binzer grew up across the music enterprise.

His father Rollin Binzer directed the 1973 live performance movie Women And Gents: The Rolling Stones and designed album covers for Chess Data; whereas his mom, Leslie Brooks, was a mannequin.

He was impressed to make rap music after discovering the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ailing album, and fashioned Loopy City after assembly Bret “Epic” Mazur at a recording session within the early Nineties.

Envisioned as a hip-hop group with a full instrumental backing band, they didn’t get off to a flying begin.

The primary two singles from their debut album The Reward Of The Recreation did not chart, and the group withdrew from the Ozzfest competition in 2000, after Binzer was arrested for throwing a chair out of a window whereas drunk.

Nonetheless, the album additionally contained Butterfly – a laid-back love music, that sampled a riff from the Crimson Scorching Chilli Peppers’ instrumental, Fairly Little Ditty.

Launched in 2001, it grew to become an on the spot hit, thanks largely to Binzer’s indelibly catchy refrain: “Come my woman / Come, come my woman / You are my butterfly / Sugar, child“.

He mentioned the music was written as an counterpoint to the extra chauvinistic lyrics he’d produced beforehand.

“We have been writing songs like Lollipop Porn when there was no girlfriend, and impulsively I used to be on this relationship,” he recalled in Fred Bronson’s Billboard E book Of Quantity One Hits.

“I used to be in love, and he or she was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that this what you’re like?’

“In order that made me provide you with the idea of writing a music to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic music, I used to be going to put in writing one thing candy and good to a lady I cared about.”

Nonetheless, the band have been cautious about releasing the observe as a single, as they anxious it might come to outline them.

“A music like Butterfly is a no brainer,” Binzer mentioned. “Everybody appears to like that [one], irrespective of how onerous they’re.

“It’s very radio pleasant, the feminine viewers loves it and on the similar time I believe we stored our integrity with it.”

His prediction turned out to be appropriate. Loopy City did not match the success of their greatest hit. The following single, Revolving Door, stalled at quantity 23 within the UK, after which they by no means troubled the charts once more.

Loopy City break up up in 2002 after disappointing gross sales for his or her second album, Darkhorse.

Binzer then pursued a solo profession, releasing a solo album, Pleased Love Sick, which discovered reasonable success in Europe.

Throughout this era, he additionally launched Starry Eyed Shock, which reached quantity six within the UK.

He reunited with Mazur for another Loopy City album, The Brimstone Sluggers, in August 2015 earlier than Mazur left for good, and Binzer rebranded the band as Loopy City X.

The musician was open about his drug and alcohol issues, and spoke about spending time in jail as a younger man, following incidents together with assault with a firearm, in addition to promoting medication.

In 2012, he was arrested for home abuse and cocaine possession. In the identical yr, he was additionally taken to hospital after shedding consciousness, and fell right into a coma earlier than recovering.

He was arrested for driving beneath the affect in 2022; and was thrown off a Nu Steel tour final yr after a gig in South Carolina resulted in a bloody on-camera struggle together with his bandmate, Bobby Reeves.

In accordance with Stereogum, the pair later made up and Loopy City performed gigs with Binzer as not too long ago as Could 2024.

The musician is survived by his three youngsters, Halo, Gage and Phoenix.