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COLD
CRUSH BROS. DISCOGRAPHY bY
HUTMAKER JDL |
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Troy
L.- Your first record was
Weekend how did that happen? J.D.L.-
The brother that produced it is Arthur Armstrong and his label
was Elite records. We met him when he opened the first Estacy garage on
172nd st. and Jerome ave. It was very large and being that it
was a garage the acoustics were very good. I don’t know if the rent
there was high or not however he closed that one and opened up the one
on Mc Combs road, which in a way was better cause it was sectioned off
you know like dance floor, bar, lounge area and a room where you took
flicks and stuff. The record Weekend was written by Caz and it was
original a routine but none of us was feeling it so we never did it in
any shows, it looked good on paper but when we rehearsed it did not have
that kick that we were looking for. We had and still got a lot of
routines that we never did, it’s the same thing like when you make a
album, if the album has 17 tracks on it you pick from like 24 to 30
tracks. Some times the other tracks got used later
and sometimes they got shelved its just like that when we did our
routines.
Original Armstrong wanted us to do a subject record, I remember
him saying something like I want yall to do a song like a disco rocket
going to the moon and we was like “what you got to be crazy”. So Caz
was like I got something I can transform into a record and he flipped
the weekend routine into a record.
The experience in the studio
was hellifide and we just embraced it. It was an honor in itself for him
to pick us up. There were other groups that had potential but he picked
us. The whole experience was very memorable to us. I mean it was
recorded in a state of the art studio in Brooklyn on President street.
It cost $150 an hour. The engineer was great and it was his first time
recording a rap record. So we were real serious in recording it and at
the same time we had so much fun bugging out in the studio in between
takes I mean with the engineer and with Armstrong. Everybody was
laughing and enjoying the whole vibe. Even though Armstrong didn’t let
us do us on the ad-libs he
wanted to play it safe and we understood it. And for us to leave the
session with a tape to go home and listen to it and let our friends and
family check it was a
feeling like yeah yall were finally here! Troy-
How did the Bronx feel about Punk Rock Rap as opposed to the
Village in Manhattan? Also what clubs did you do in the Village or next
to the Village that really appreciated the music? J.D.L.-
Well at the time when the idea came that we should do a punk rock
rap song, we had just signed with Tuff city records and they had a
distribution deal with C.B.S. records. We wanted to do what we were
known for, our hard core fly-ass routines,. but also at the same time we
were frequenting the Village punk rock clubs like Danceateria, Club
Negril, Lime Light, The World, S.O.B.’s, Peppermint Lounge, Area, Mud
Club, Earth’s Edge and the Ritz. You know going there and getting the
V.I.P. treatment, spinning and getting on the mic. Then a few promoters
started booking us at these clubs. Along with break dancers and graffiti
artist who would show case their talent on canvas. Plus the punk rock
world was interacting with the hip hop world because our culture and
there’s were free spirited and dressed and danced the way we wanted to
and not follow society’s so called standards so you can say punk rock
is hip hop’s cousin and vice versa. We had at times been dressing the
part wearing leather spike chains, taking the braids out the middle of
our heads and spray dying it different colors rocking the boots and all
kinds of accessories. The Gap was already bridging, we were already
playing records like “Numbers, Same As It Ever Was , Cavern, Hey
Mickey and Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight” in the Bronx parties so when the
suggestion came up at a meeting with the C.E.O. of Tuff City and us, we
tinkered with it. Kay Gee came up with the melody. Troy
L. Why did you only do
a piece of a video for Punk Rock Rap but not a whole video? J.D.L.
Tuff City had put most of their budget money into Spoonie Gee and
Davy DMX. We were supposed
to finish the video, however the C.E.O. had claimed
that there was no more money left. The video was shot inside Tony
Crush’s (Tony Tone) mother’s house and outside across the street in
the Bronx. I like to go on record and say that Tuff City couldn’t take
us to the level that a group like ours needed to be taken to. Why? They
were too hung up on Spoonie and Davy DMX, lest had they put into us what
they had put into them, Cold Crush would have been the biggest hip-hop
conglomerate in the Mother Fuckin’ world!
AND THAT’S AN UNDERSTATEMENT! Troy
L. How did the
Heartbreakers cut come about? J.D.L.
Heartbreakers um…. That song came about at a time where we all
had a lot of women a lot of groupies and a lot of female friends. We
were being played around with by these women. The women was going with
one then choosing the other. A lot of our feelings were being played
with. Troy
L. Did you ever do a
routine live for Fresh, Wild, Fly and Bold before it became a record?
Why were you and the fellas upset to make it a record. Were you ever
about to make a video for this cut. J.D.L.
Naw before we recorded it we were just practicing the routine
to be put in our routine line up for later. We were at a deadline
for putting out a single we spoke and debated about it and then took a
vote. Chase broke down how the beats would go and we went and iced it in
one session put 2 remixes together. A Charlie Chase mix and another
voice enhancement joint that was virtually another whole song also.
However the way this remix was hooked up it introduced us one by one and
we used it as a intro entrance to our stage show which we was highly
known for. To be honest with you that was our over the top joint. See
that was us more then any of those other cuts. Only problem the record
company put all there budget money into Spoonie Gee and Davy DMX and
left the change for us to scramble with and by the time it was really
starting to kick off we were trying to get off the label and so they
pulled back. The company didn’t market us at all and on top of that
they threatened to take or name from us (can you imagine that). So
that’s what Jay-Z meant when he said “I’m overcharging the
industry for what they did to the Cold Crush”. But we were still
getting mad bookings. There were no talks about a video and it was
probably because the company (Tuff City) was crying broke! Troy
L. Was there any
animosity between the Cold Crush and Fantastic Five, when the cut was in
the making for Terminator X of Public Enemy? What was it like working
with X, was Flavor Flav and Chuck D there? How did X approach you and
the crew to work with him? J.D.L.
Ever since the events that had lead to that famous battle against
them, there has always been animosity between us and them. We both as
groups know what that animosity is. To them the animosity is that in
their hearts they think that they are better than us and that they
should go in the books as legendary and not as just another group that
was out back in the days. Grand Wizard Theodore is hands down legendary,
Fantastic is not! To us the animosity is that they won that battle but
did not do better than us that night and being that that was the only
loss on our record it haunts us. Every single time we played with them
after that or was in an M.C. contest especially if they was in it we
busted their asses and left them in the dust and put the truth in there
hearts that they can’t see the Cold Crush 4 on no level whatsoever!
However making Style Wild (which is the name of the cut) we were much
older and mature about it and was really trying to come up with a hit. We also did a cut on a
Dougie Fresh album with the Furious 5, D.J. Holly Wood and Love Bug
Starski. Also did back ground on KRS1 Throw Down single. Also a cut with
C+C music factory. We never did any R&B callabo’s
O.C. has a single that Treach,
Fearless and Cold Crush called “Bitches”, they mad hot and if
remixed with a hot beat it could pop off right now!!
We
had about 20 some odd songs we recorded but never put out and a lot of
them were banging too! Troy
L. Thank you very much
J.D.L. peace
Peace
to my man Jayquan ONE
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Caz penned the lyrics and Chase laid down the tracks. We didn’t let
hardly no one listen to the song while we were recording it. Being that
it was so experimental. When we finished recording it we had 3 regular
mixes and one bonus track that was like another whole song cause it had
our voices enhanced by a vocorder synthesizer. The “oh my God” that
Dougie Fresh samples on the “Show” comes from the beginning of
“Punk rock rap”. It was Caz’s girl at the time that did the voice.
Doug really liked it, in fact he use to do the whole song with his mouth
at his shows. We were happy with the song and eager to see how the
hip-hop and punk rock world would accept it. I personally liked it
better than all the singles we put out because the beat was up tempo.
Towards the last 2 minutes of the song I would go crazy on stage and
freestyle the hell out of it. 
So we
turned Heartbreakers for a while and came out with the song to back it
up! The re-mix we did on that called Heartbreakers party mix was the
better song. How ever the original version had Chase and Tone M.C.ing on
it and that was fly.
Kay
Gee and Kev got into it one time during the rehearsals we were having
before going into the studio. It was just ego’s clashing so we let
them both blow off steam and we all got back to work. Terminator X was
only in the studio one time and he does not speak he nods his head,
shakes your hand but does not talk to anyone but Chuck D. As a matter of
fact Chuck D hooked the whole thing up. We had a Co-op apartment in
Manhattan and he had one in the next building, so one night hanging out
in front Chuck D rolls up in the Jeep and we kick it and he tells us
“do yall want to make a joint on Terminator X’s album with
Fantastic”?
Troy
L. from Harlem the GRANT PROJECTS