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Thursday, May 2, 2013
Music Chris Kelly of Kris Kross dead at age 34
Posted By Jeff Hahne on Thu, May 2, 2013 at 10:41 AM
Chris Kelly, one half of the hip-hop duo Kris Kross, died last night at age 34. He was found unresponsive in his home and pronounced dead at Atlanta Medical Center. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that his death is being investigated as a drug overdose.
- Rex Features
Admit it. If you heard that news late last night, you may have - even for a brief moment - considered wearing some clothes backwards today as a tribute.
...sdrawkcab yrots siht etirw dluohs I ebyaM
Kris Kross hit it big in the 1990s with their pop-rap crossover hit, "Jump," from the 1992 album Totally Krossed Out. At the time, Kelly, aka "Mac Daddy," was 13 years old. His cohort, Chris "Daddy Mac" Smith, was 12. The album reached number one, sold four million copies and landed the group a spot as the opening act on Michael Jackson's tour.
The duo also sparked an immediate trend. Much like Psy and his "imaginary horse dance" last year, "Jump" had people everywhere wearing backwards clothing and/or doing the dance. You know the dance - pants slung low and knees alternately raised back and forth.
Sure, the band had other hits from the album - "Warm It Up" and "I Missed the Bus" - but neither was as big as "Jump." They released other albums, too, but those failed to reach the bar set by their debut and the duo split up soon after. Kelly and Smith reunited earlier this year for the So So Def 20th Anniversary party.
Last night, Deftones - who recently dealt with the death of their own band member, founding bassist Chi Cheng - paid tribute to Kelly by performing their own charged-up version of "Jump" at a concert in St. Louis.
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