Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Crash Course Pod. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Ash Toney, and today we're talking about two kids who
Speaker 1: turned the music world and their clothes completely inside out.
Speaker 1: We're going back to nineteen ninety two, the year of
Speaker 1: the Mac Daddy and the Daddy Mac. We're talking about Crisscross.
Speaker 1: So buckle up and let's get started. At just seventeen,
Speaker 1: not seventeen, twelve years old and thirteen years old, Chris
Speaker 1: Kelly and Chris Smith didn't just have a hit song.
Speaker 1: They had a global movement. But what happens when the
Speaker 1: gimmick fades and the spotlight moves on.
Speaker 2: Today we're looking.
Speaker 1: At the metack meteoric rise of one of the youngest
Speaker 1: acts and the youngest rap duo to ever tap Billboard
Speaker 1: Hot one hundred, the genius of a young Jermaine Dupree,
Speaker 1: and the sobering reality of life after the jump.
Speaker 2: Let's dive in now.
Speaker 1: Every great music story has a discovery movement. For criss Cross,
Speaker 1: it was the Greenbrier Mall in Atlanta in nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: A nineteen year old aspiring producer named Jermaine Dupris saw
Speaker 1: two kids with undeniable it factor. Even looking for a
Speaker 1: record deal. They were just hanging out at the mall
Speaker 1: as teens did in the nineties. Dupriest saw the potential
Speaker 1: to create a kid hop duo that actually had street credibility.
Speaker 1: He signed them to his new label, So So Deaf,
Speaker 1: and then went to work.
Speaker 2: What did he go to work on?
Speaker 1: They needed a hook, not just a musical one, but
Speaker 1: a visual one. That's where the backward Clothes came in.
Speaker 1: It was a simple, genius bit of branding that made
Speaker 1: them instantly recognizable in that flashy, iconic in TV era.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety two, they released Jump. It wasn't just
Speaker 1: a hit, it was a wrecking ball. I remember I
Speaker 1: was born in ninety one, but I remember the song
Speaker 1: Jump vividly.
Speaker 2: It was everywhere.
Speaker 1: Interesting. The adults around me even liked it.
Speaker 2: It stayed at.
Speaker 1: Number one on Billboard Hot one hundred for eight weeks.
Speaker 1: To put that in perspective, that was the longest run
Speaker 1: at number one for any single in years at a time.
Speaker 1: It was the longest running lull sorry, guys. It was
Speaker 1: the longest number one running single since Black or White
Speaker 1: by Michael Jackson. I think that Jump didn't work just
Speaker 1: because of the kids.
Speaker 2: It was the production.
Speaker 1: Jermaine de presampled the Ohio Players' funky worm, giving it
Speaker 1: a high pitch, infectious whistle that you could hear from
Speaker 1: a mile away if you know, you know, I tried
Speaker 1: to just do it on the spot. It also SAMs
Speaker 1: samples the Jackson fives I Want You Back, the uh
Speaker 1: huh and the beach structure. No no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no, I know, wait no, I just start
Speaker 1: saying Romeo, uh huh. Anyways, take my word for it
Speaker 1: is sample uh huh and the beach structure of I
Speaker 1: Want You Back. They weren't just cute kids. They were
Speaker 1: performing on the Dangerous World tour with Michael Jackson, and
Speaker 1: rumor has it that Michael Jackson like took a liking
Speaker 1: to them. I guess we could say they were friends
Speaker 1: in the industry. Also, the kids Crisscross were everywhere from
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live to their own video game. Do we
Speaker 1: remember what jump sounds like? I hope I don't get copywritten,
Speaker 1: but are we in favor of a little bit of
Speaker 1: a snippet.
Speaker 2: That's what I was trying to do with my mouth. Anyways,
Speaker 2: moving on.
Speaker 1: In our Backstreet boys and Dojucat episodes we talked about
Speaker 1: mathematical pop and viral hooks.
Speaker 2: If you haven't heard.
Speaker 1: Either of those episodes, go listen to them after this one. Well,
Speaker 1: Crisscross was the ninety two version of a viral sensation,
Speaker 1: and they also had viral hooks and kind of like
Speaker 1: an equation for their success. But unlike a TikTok dance today,
Speaker 1: they had to maintain that momentum through physical touring and
Speaker 1: massive me appearances. Now Here is the crash course lesson.
Speaker 1: The industry is notoriously notorious. Sorry, I just had to
Speaker 1: say that difficult for child stars. As the boys started
Speaker 1: to enter their mid teens, they tried to pivot. In
Speaker 1: ninety three they released The Bomb, and with that they
Speaker 1: traded the kid image for a harder sound. It sold well,
Speaker 1: platinum in fact, but it didn't have the cultural earthquake
Speaker 1: effect of the first record. You know, Bottling up that
Speaker 1: would you say, Flash in a pan of Jump was
Speaker 1: going to be difficult anyway. Like I said about mathematical
Speaker 1: pop and the other episodes, Jump just has this formula
Speaker 1: which makes it in this disputably a viral song. I'm
Speaker 1: sure it will go viral within the next like year
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. Especially after this episode Anyways, by
Speaker 1: their third album, Young, Rich and Dangerous in ninety six,
Speaker 1: the landscape of hip hop had changed. The gimmick of
Speaker 1: backwards clothes was gone, and they were trying to be
Speaker 1: taken seriously as adult rappers. This is where many artists
Speaker 1: hit a wall. When your brand is built on being young,
Speaker 1: what do you do when you grow up? And that's
Speaker 1: exactly what they had to figure out. I was looking
Speaker 1: at some reddit at a reddit thread for Crisscross.
Speaker 2: Let's do you guys mind if we take a look
Speaker 2: at it.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look together. So the reddit thread is,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on Crisscross and our slash nineties
Speaker 1: hip hop? If you wanted to find it yourself? Anyways,
Speaker 1: someone said they had their place pop rap for sure,
Speaker 1: but they had an infectious sound and birthed a bit
Speaker 1: of a movement of child rap acts. They also had
Speaker 1: grown as men wearing their clothes backwards in the nineties
Speaker 1: Strange times.
Speaker 2: Another one.
Speaker 1: I recently listened to all three of their albums in
Speaker 1: one session, and I have to say I had missed
Speaker 1: out on a lot of good tracks.
Speaker 2: Rip mac Daddy.
Speaker 1: Someone else said, don't try to compare them to another
Speaker 1: bad little fat. I'm a bad little fat. It just
Speaker 1: something that you never had. I make you jump, jump,
Speaker 1: wiggle and shake your rump, all right? Uh, Young Rich
Speaker 1: and Dangerous album was fire. Young Rich and Dangerous was
Speaker 1: highly underrated someone else Those are two different comments. So
Speaker 1: Young Rich and Dangerous. A lot of people liked that album.
Speaker 1: Someone said, can't lie. I loved them as a kid.
Speaker 1: They had a lot of fans wearing their gear backwards.
Speaker 1: Jermaine dupre had a knack of creating stars during that era.
Speaker 1: Even after that era, wasn't he involved or had his
Speaker 1: hand in bow Wow? We need to do a Jermaine
Speaker 1: Dupris episode and a bow Wow episode.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned anyways, I missed the bus.
Speaker 1: A lot of people like that song. I missed the bus.
Speaker 2: I missed the bus, and I missed the bus.
Speaker 1: I missed the bus and that's something I would never,
Speaker 1: never ever do again.
Speaker 2: How does it go? All I remember is.
Speaker 1: I was up, he was up, but I laid back down,
Speaker 1: thinking not get chilled till the time came around, and
Speaker 1: he did. He did for a little too long because
Speaker 1: when I woke up, Yo, the bus was gone. I
Speaker 1: almost broke my neck trying to get out the door,
Speaker 1: and I chased the bus to my feet. Whistle something
Speaker 1: something in the trail, the trial, something some something.
Speaker 2: I no noth I missed my buss again. I missed
Speaker 2: my bus.
Speaker 1: I remember that song. I don't know how I remember
Speaker 1: these from being a child literally was born in ninety one.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I remember this stuff. Someone else said,
Speaker 1: without Crisscross, there's no June twenty seven beat, and without
Speaker 1: June twenty seven choptain Screw doesn't become a major thing.
Speaker 1: Someone said, hum, every album they got, they got better.
Speaker 1: Young Rich and Dangerous is very slept on, close to
Speaker 1: classic album. So I think I like stuff of all Off.
Speaker 1: All their albums. Jump is a classic, The Bomb and
Speaker 1: All Right featuring super Cat were solid tracks, and the
Speaker 1: third album had some bangers. To Nights the Night and
Speaker 1: Live and Die For hip Hop still sound great today.
Speaker 1: Young Rich and Dangerous is the consensus. A lot of
Speaker 1: people say that it's slept on, So maybe take out
Speaker 1: your pens, take out your pans, and write down that
Speaker 1: album by Chris Cross, Young Rich and Dangerous.
Speaker 2: So let's continue.
Speaker 1: Well, the Crisscross story has a tragic final chapter. In
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, the duo reunited for the Soco Deaf twentieth
Speaker 1: Anniversary concert and they performed Jump Close Backwards and for
Speaker 1: a moment, the.
Speaker 2: Magic was back.
Speaker 1: But just three months later, Chris Kelly the mag Daddy
Speaker 1: passed away at the age of thirty four. I'm thirty
Speaker 1: four today, right now, that's so yeah, as someone who's
Speaker 1: the same age. That actually is more of a tragedy
Speaker 1: than some might think of.
Speaker 2: Anyways.
Speaker 1: The rumor is that Chris Kelly's death was attributed to
Speaker 1: an overdose, and I don't know if that's true or not,
Speaker 1: but regardless, it's a stark reminder of the pressures and
Speaker 1: the dark side of the music industry, especially for those
Speaker 1: who find massive fame before they even reach high school.
Speaker 1: We can take away something from this. Crisscross's legacy isn't
Speaker 1: just a funny nineties trend. It's a story about the
Speaker 1: power of branding, the brilliance of Atlanta's hip hop scene,
Speaker 1: and the human cost of being larger than life. At
Speaker 1: twelve years old, Chris Smith continues to honor Kelly's legacy today,
Speaker 1: reminding us that even when the music stops, the of
Speaker 1: the Chris to Chris partnership with Real Let's take a
Speaker 1: look at some songs that they have. Let's see here,
Speaker 1: so if we look back at Young Rich and Dangerous,
Speaker 1: since that seems to be a slept on album. It
Speaker 1: was their final studio album and it's widely considered their
Speaker 1: most mature work, leaning heavily into the socio death Atlanta sound.
Speaker 1: So we have the biggest hit from the album, which
Speaker 1: is Tonight's The Night. It's a smooth, mid tempo track
Speaker 1: that sample Phase Oh's writing high. It spent weeks at
Speaker 1: number one on Hot Rap Songs chart on the Hot
Speaker 1: Rap Songs Chart and showed their growth from the heigh
Speaker 1: energy jump. Then we have Live and Die for hip Hop,
Speaker 1: which is an absolute classic for nineties heads. It features
Speaker 1: Aliyah on backing vocals The Brat and Jamaine Depris. It's
Speaker 1: a tribute to the culture and has a very soulful,
Speaker 1: laid back vibe. Also Young Rich and Dangerous, the title
Speaker 1: track is a high energy anthem that defines the era.
Speaker 2: It features Big Group.
Speaker 1: And De Brat and serves as their coming of age statement.
Speaker 1: We also have Money, Power and Fame, which is a
Speaker 1: standout track produced by the duo themselves Crisscross. It samples
Speaker 1: ll cooj's I Need Love and highlights their perspective on
Speaker 1: the industry as they were transitioning into adulthood. And then
Speaker 1: we have the Streets An't Right, And it showed a
Speaker 1: much grittier side of the duo. It fames, It samples
Speaker 1: the romantics talking in your sleep and Notorious Pig's warning
Speaker 1: And that's your crash course on Crisscross. Tune in to
Speaker 1: the next episode