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 recognized 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 monitor Starry Eyed Shock.

Nevertheless, he struggled with habit all through his life, addressing his situation on actuality reveals equivalent to Movie star Rehab and its follow-up, Sober Home.

He was discovered useless at his residence in Los Angeles on Monday 24 June. A reason behind demise 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 Girls And Gents: The Rolling Stones and designed album covers for Chess Information; 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 pageant in 2000, after Binzer was arrested for throwing a chair out of a window whereas drunk.

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

Launched in 2001, it grew to become an immediate 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 tune 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 swiftly 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 she or he 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 tune to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic tune, I used to be going to jot down one thing candy and good to a lady I cared about.”

Nevertheless, the band have been cautious about releasing the monitor as a single, as they frightened it might come to outline them.

“A tune 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 identical time I feel we stored our integrity with it.”

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

Loopy City cut 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, Joyful Love Sick, which discovered average success in Europe.

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

He reunited with Mazur for yet one more 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 medicine.

In 2012, he was arrested for home abuse and cocaine possession. In the identical 12 months, he was additionally taken to hospital after dropping 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 Metallic tour final 12 months after a gig in South Carolina led to a bloody on-camera battle along with his bandmate, Bobby Reeves.

Based on Stereogum, the pair later made up and Loopy City performed gigs with Binzer as just lately as Could 2024.

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