(Wikipedia)Kris Kross was an American rap duo of the 1990's comprising Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly and Chris "Daddy Mac"...
(Wikipedia)Kris Kross was an American rap duo of the 1990's comprising Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly and Chris "Daddy Mac" Smith. The duo are best known for their hit 1992 song "Jump", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and was certified double platinum as a single. Kris Kross was also noted for their unique fashion style, which consisted of wearing their clothing backwards.
Atlanta natives Kelly (born August 11, 1978) and Smith (born January 10, 1979) were childhood friends, discovered in 1990 by 18-year-old Jermaine Dupri at an Atlanta shopping mall. Dupri thought the two "looked like a rap group"and proceeded to groom them as such.
Their Dupri-produced debut album, Totally Krossed Out, was released in 1992 and sold four million copies in the US. It included the hit single "Jump", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks.
The duo landed a spot on Michael Jackson's 1992 Dangerous World Tour, as well as a cameo appearance on Jackson's "Jam" music video. The music videos from their own album also experienced major success. The video for "Jump", directed by filmmaker Rich Murray went to No. 1 on MTV and sold over 100,000 copies as a vhs 'video single' and the video for their followup single "Warm It Up", also directed by Murray won a Billboard video award for "Best New Artist". In addition to this, they also made appearances in the music videos for Run-D.M.C.'s "Down with the King" and TLC's "Hat 2 Da Back". They were also featured in an episode of A Different World, and the closing musical act on 29 May 1992 episode of In Living Color.
In 1992, a video game directed by Denis Dyack was released starring the pair titled Kris Kross: Make My Video. It was released on the Sega CD system, and consisted of the player editing together the group's music videos to a few of their hit songs—using portions of the original music videos, stock footage, and general video animation effects. Players were prompted before each edit session to make sure to have certain footage compiled into the video. The game was released only in the United States to poor sales figures and dismal reviews. It was ranked 18th on Electronic Gaming Monthly's list of the "20 Worst Games of All Time"
Kris Kross made a cameo appearance in Ted Demme's 1993 film Who's the Man?, which starred Ed Lover and Doctor Dré of Yo! MTV Raps fame.
Their second album, Da Bomb (1993), was certified platinum, and spawned the hit "Alright", although it failed to match their earlier success. Most of their songs had been directed at rivals Da Youngstas, Illegal and Another Bad Creation. A third album, Young, Rich & Dangerous, was released in early 1996 and was certified gold. It spawned the two hits "Tonite's tha Night" and "Live and Die for Hip Hop".
Presently, Chris Kelly runs his own indie label, C.CO. Records, which is based in Atlanta and focuses on developing underground hip-hop and R&B acts. Though rumors had been circulating that he was suffering from cancer, Kelly has gone on the record as saying he has alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss.
Chris Smith also works in music; he has completed an album of original material titled Urbane Expressions, which has not yet been released. Smith has worked on a book of the same name, also not yet released.
In 2010, "Jump" was included in the dancing-based video game Just Dance 2 for Nintendo Wii.
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