The Cold Crush Brothers

All Music Guide:

The Cold Crush Brothers were one of the first rap crews to emerge from the Bronx soon after hip-hop's birth in the mid-'70s. Along with Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Grand Wizard Theodore & the Fantastic 5 MCs, and the Funky Four Plus One, these four NYC natives were already well-established long before the Sugarhill Gang made rap a household word with their multi-platinum-selling 12" "Rapper's Delight." In fact, as legend has it, it was a Cold Crush Brothers tape that a pizza-shop worker (and soon-to-be Sugarhill Gang member Big Bank Hank) was rapping to when Sugarhill Records owner Sylvia Robinson heard him in 1979. Instead of telling Robinson who the real artists on the tape were, he gathered some friends who soon became part of the much more successful and well-known Sugarhill Gang.

Founding members Grandmaster Caz, the Almighty KG, Tony Tone, JDL, Easy AD, and DJ Charlie Chase were showmen as well as a skilled tag team of rappers. They practiced and perfected their routines for over a year beginning in 1978 and began performing live, especially at numerous "MC battles" that took place at that time. One of these battles was caught on tape in 1981 and released in 1991 on a CD titled Afrika Bambaataa Presents Hip-Hop Funk Dance Classics, Vol. 1. It, along with the Cold Crush Brothers' Live in 82 album, epitomizes hip-hop before it became the commercial monster it was in the 1990s. The simple party-flavored rhymes hark back to a more innocent time when MC stood for Master of Ceremonies, DJs actually did something other than scratch over a DAT tape, and the only references to killing were metaphors. In 1982 they appeared in the legendary hip-hop film Wild Style as well as put out the excellent 12" "The Weekend." The Cold Crush Brothers never released a proper full-length album but did release a number of influential singles on the Tuff City label, including "Fresh, Wild, Fly and Bold." Most of these singles are collected on 1995's Fresh, Wild, Fly & Bold. They broke up in 1986, but reappeared on Terminator X's second solo album, Super Bad.

Wikipedia:

The Cold Crush Brothers is an American hip hop group that formed in 1979 in the Bronx, New York City, New York, alongside other early hip hop acts.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

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History[edit]

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The Cold Crush brothers formed as a group in 1981. DJ Tony Tone was originally a member of The Brothers Disco featuring DJ Breakout, DJ Baron and the original Funky Four emcees featuring the first female emcee Sha-Rock, KK Rockwell, Keith Keith and Rahiem (who later joined Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five) DJ Charlie Chase was first the DJ for the Furious Five for a very short time in 1979 after the Furious Five and Grandmaster Flash had disputes and Flash disbanded from the Furious Five. Then in 1981 DJ Tony Tone joined forces with DJ Charlie Chase and Easy AD left his partner Donald D (Of Ice Tee's group Rhyme Syndicate)and they disbanded breaking up the duo they called The Asalaam Brothers and joined the Cold Crush Brothers. The original lineup consisted of the founder, The Original DJ Tony Tone,Supreme Easy A.D., DJ Charlie Chase, Whipper Whip, Mr. Tee, and Dot-A-Rock. Eventually, Whipper Whip and Dot-A-Rock would leave the Cold Crush Brothers and joined the Fantastic Five and DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore, which they considered to be a more established group at the time. The Fantastic Five was originally the "L" Brothers, which consisted of DJ Mean Gene, DJ Cordio, DJ Grand Wizard Theodore, MC Smiley, Master Rob, the Original Kevie Kev and sometimes Busy Bee Starski.

They were especially known for their memorable routines which included harmonies, melodies and stage-stomping performances. The Cold Crush Brothers set the standard for emceeing. They became known as "the Rolling Stones of hip hop". Because of the attention they began to attract, many groups would try to battle them to gain street credibility and for Hip Hop supremacy. This would lead to a fierce and well known rivalry with The Fantastic Five, culminating in a lyrical battle between the groups on July 3, 1981. The grand prize was $1000 cash. The Fantastic Five won the battle but the Cold Crush Brothers won the war. After the Historical battle tape began circulation in the street the people clearly thought that the Cold Crush Brothers won the battle. That put and end to the Fantastic Five and established the Cold Crush Brothers as the best Hip Hop group .

The Cold Crush Brothers began to release records commercially. The first single was "Weekend" on Elite Records was release in the fall of 1982. It was a party and dance record that related to everyday working people and Families go thought Monday-Friday. The Cold Crush Four Mcee's would say in harmony the days of the week and then each one of would take one day describe that weekday and what could happen. Example Monday The train was late you heartly eat and you wished you stay in bed. The recording described ways to have fun on the weekends.

Their second single to be released in the fall of 1983 "Punk Rock Rap" on Epic Records licensees for UK CBS Associated records over seas and in the United State on Tuff City Records and distributed by CBS Records. This was the first time in Hip Hop History that and independent Hip Hop record label and a major record company like CBS worked together. "Punk Rock Rap" was the first Hip Hop / Rap recording to fuse Hip Hop and rock together and breaking the color barrier Hip Hop. The recording in fuse the sound of Hip Hop/rap and Rock to the white youth in America and around the world. The Cold Crush Brother Punk Rock Rap was so widely popular that at the time a new a up coming Hip Hop artist sample the phrase, "Oh My God!" for his now Hip Hop classic. "The Show". single released in 1985 Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick with D.J. Barry Bee and D.J. Chill Will better knew as the Get Fresh Crew's.

The Cold Crush Brothers most successful Cold Crush single to date is "Fresh, Wild, Fly & Bold", released in 1984, which sold 16,000 units in its first week of release back in the early 80's that was a big deal. A distribution dispute between Tuff City Records and Profile Records hindered the sales of the single with the most potential of reaching gold status.

The Cold Crush Brothers toured all five boroughs of New York City and as far as Boston before commercially-released records. Their popularity was strengthened by the sales of their live performances that were recorded on cassette by Tape Master (Elvis Moreno). If recording industry were able to count the tapes sale from that time before reocrd was made The brothers would be multi-platinum group with gold and platinum awards for sure from every country. These Cold Crush Brothers live prefromences /shows were taped and distributed worldwide via word-of-mouth promotion and mail out to people every were also men and women serving in the armed forces around the world. The Cold Crush Brothers were featured in the first 1982 movie Wild Style, the seminal work depicting Hip Hop Culture. In the movie, the Cold Crush Brothers was featured in a number of scenes, The most notable was that featuring the Cold Crush Brothers' face off against their arch-nemesis, the Fantastic Five in the classic basketball court sence. The aonther scene was the Battle a the Dixie Club where the brothers flex their mceeing / rap muscle, once again showing the world why they are considered one of best HipHop/Rap groups of all times. A year after the movie was released, the Cold Crush Brothers took Hip Hop abroad with tour dates in Japan and Europe.

The Cold Crush Brothers became involved in one of hip hop's most historic moments when Joey Robinson, son of Sugar Hill Records founder Sylvia Robinson, happened to hear part-time club bouncer and former manager of Cold Crush brothers member Grandmaster Caz Big Bank Hank rapping to a tape of Cold Crush Brothers while working at a pizzeria in New Jersey. Robinson informed Hank that he was forming a group called the Sugar Hill Gang and asked if Hank would like to join. Hank accepted, although he was not an MC. Hank went to Grandmaster Caz and asked him for some rhymes. Caz laid his rhyme books on the bed and said, "Take whatever you want," with the understanding that Hank would compensate Caz at a later time. Caz's lyrics landed in a song by the Sugar Hill Gang called "Rapper's Delight". The song became a huge hit in 1979 and was the first hip hop single to land on the Top 40 charts. Caz never received any credit or compensation for the rhymes that he contributed.

Another memorable moment of contribution of The Cold Crush Brothers was that they started the earliest foreign markets. The Cold Crush Brothers took 25 MCs, DJs, breakers, and bombers to Tokyo, Japan in 1983. This was one of the earliest foreign markets for hip hop other than La Belle, France. Although they had linguistic and cultural barriers, the Wild Style tour was a big success. Right after this, the Cold Crush Brothers were able to gain a CBS records, through the Tuff City Label. They were the first crew to do so.

Recent[edit]

Rapper Jay-Z's 2001 single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" uses the Cold Crush Brothers as an example of the music industry's exploitation of artists: "Industry shady; it need to be taken over / Label owners hate me; I'm raisin' the status quo up / I'm overchargin' niggaz for what they did to the Cold Crush / Pay us like you owe us for all the years that you hoed us."

October 2002, Member Money Ray died. The Cold Crush Brothers still performs across the United States.

In the year 2008, The Wild Style Movie single feat the "Cold Crush Brothers". "At the Dixie" was Ranked at number 77 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop

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