‘Butterfly’ Singer Shifty Shellshock Dead at 49

Crazy Town singer Shifty Shellshock, who made the enduring rap-rock hit “Butterfly,” has died. He was 49. Los Angeles County Medical Examiner records show Shellshock, a.k.a. Seth Binzer, died at home on June 24, with no cause disclosed. Shellshock first formed a rap-rock band called the Brimstone Sluggers with then-producer Bret “Epic” Mazur in the mid-1990s; will.i.am introduced the pair during a recording session for his early group Atban Klann. Brimstone Sluggers expanded their lineup and changed their name to Crazy Town in 1999 before releasing their debut album, The Gift of Game, on Columbia Records. That album made little impact until the band later released their song “Butterfly” as a single in 2000. Built around a Red Hot Chili Peppers sample and an earworm chorus written by Shellshock, it eventually reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, the only chart-topping hit of the nü-metal era.

“Butterfly” also made Crazy Town one-hit wonders, though — none of their songs afterward hit the Hot 100, and their 2002 follow-up album, Darkhorse, peaked at No. 120. They broke up in 2003. As a solo artist, Shellshock guested on producer Paul Oakenfold’s minor hit “Starry Eyed Surprise” in 2002 and released a solo album, Happy Love Sick, in 2004. Shellshock later appeared on the first and second seasons of Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew for a cocaine addiction and on two seasons of the follow-up show Sober House.

After reforming in 2007, Crazy Town released the album The Brimstone Sluggers in 2015 and continued to tour. Shellshock made headlines last year for getting in a fight with Crazy Town guitarist Bobby Reeves that got the band kicked off the Nu-Metal Madness 2 tour. (Jared Gomes, singer of coheadliners (hed)p.e., said Shellshock “needs help” afterward.) The legacy of “Butterfly” continues to endure, though — last year, pop-rock singer Gayle interpolated the song for her contribution to the Barbie soundtrack, “butterflies.”

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