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Back in 1992, The R.O.C. and his cousin Evol formed "Strength Productions" and released one tape called "Rollin' With Strength" which featured J-Ho (Lavel), J-Mo (Anybody Killa), Big J (Jamie Madrox) and EXP (Monoxide Child). That year J-Ho left the group because it wasn't getting anywhere and J-Mo went along with him to form The Krazy Klan.
Evol left and went solo. The R.O.C., Big J, and EXP also left and formed a group called "The House Of Krazees". They started recording and worked with Scott Chapman who produced the groups' debut "Home Sweet Home". It was only available locally and limited to 500 copies. HOK released it independantly on their label Retro Horror Music and it was distributed by Asylum. The tape sold OK for a debut. All the money being made was saved and invested in the group. In 1994 they went back into the studio along with Scott Chapman for their second release "Home Bound". This album sold alot more then Home Sweet Home, mainly because they did a tour with Esham in support of it. At the time, Esham was the biggest name in the Detroit underground scene so this was the push HOK needed.
Also in 1994 they ditched Scott Chapman, Big J became "Mr. Bones", EXP became Hektic and The R.O.C. began doing all the production for HOK. R.O.C.'s dark Halloween-ish beats brought out the best in them and "Season Of The Pumpkin" was released locally. SOTP was a concept album about Halloween. It was only put out on tape and was limited. Knowing they had a great record on their hands, they searched for a label to invest in it and get it promoted more. Walter Stepanenko, a friend at the time offered to put it out on his label, Latnem Intertainment which he was trying to get off the ground. He invested the money and it was re-released a year later on cassette as well as CD. The only difference between the original and re-issue is that the metal samples they used for "Horror Story", "Drug Addict" and "Unconcious" were cut out due to illegal copy right issues. That year Mr. Bones and his crew "The Sons Of Midnight" (Dark Angel, Death Lock, Looney Tune) released a single called "The Demon Inside" on Bones' independent label, Skeleton
Records. It didn't sell at all.
They went back into the studio
in 1995 and released an EP. called "Out Breed". The album dropped the Halloween-ish sounds and focused more on regular hip hop and was also used to shoot back at the "haters". It was also released on tape and CD. They went on tour with Eminem as the opener in support of it and gained alot of new fans and supporters including Jam Rag Magazine who did an interview with them. Almost immediately making Out Breed, HOK started work on their next full length entitled "Head Trauma". It was pure horror core with more of the hip hop style they displayed on Out Breed. The R.O.C. also hit the studio and produced his full length solo called "X-Posure" which featured HOK on the track "Intro To My Click" and Mr. Bones and Ragz (YUG) on "Outrage". Bones also once again put out a solo, this time a full length one called "Sacrifice". The tape was dope and had alot of horror movie samples lacing the tracks with incredible production by The ROC. He also worked on his follow up directly after it "Something Weird" which never came out because of lack of money.
They went on tour in support of Head Trauma and soon after joined Insane Clown Posse for their 1996 Hallowicked Halloween Show with KGP. In 1997 they continued touring in support of the album, this time on The House Of Horrors tour with ICP. The crowds soon began chanting "HOK! HOK!" before they hit the stage. Impressed by this, the popularity of HOK and their ability to rock a crowd, ICP asked them to sign to Psychopathic. They denied because of their friendship with Walter.
They released a remix album that year called "Collectors Edition" aka "Remix And Rewind" and began working on their next release, a double album called "The Evolution". A few tracks were recorded, most noteable, "Murder Murder Murder". They contributed a track to a Detroit rap compilation called "Mob Mentality" entitled "Ghost" and it would be the last song they ever made. Walter and Latnem didn't do shit to help HOK evolve and the group wasn't getting paid at all. Hectik, who changed his name to The Monoxide Child and Mr. Bones, who changed his to Jamie Madrox split. ROC decided to stay on Latnem. Monoxide and Madrox formed ISI (International Superstars Incorporated) with a few homies such as Big Blaze and produced some songs under the name. They passed the demo onto ICP and Violent J specifically was impressed with their evolution and saw they possessed the talent to become well known rappers. J also gave them the name "Twiztid" because of their fucked up rhymes and addiction to weed. Twiztid started showing up on ICP tour dates, coming from behind the crowd onto the stage in hoodies in 1998 and even showed up to an episode of The Howard Stern show with the clowns.
They were introduced as Psychopathic's newest act and ICP did all they could to promote them, including putting them in their "Hokus Pokus" video, sending flyers to their fan club and advertising their upcoming debut "Mostasteless" inside the Shockumentary video. The album came out, despite many delays and because of poor distribution was only available in Michigan a! nd surro unding areas. It was dark murder music kind of along the lines of early Bushwick Bill.
Twiztid toured with ICP
and became juggalo fan favorites. Roadrunner Records approached them to re-release Mostasteless but because of differences they had with Roadrunner, they went with Island instead. The re-release was put out in 1999 minus 6 tracks and replaced with 5 new ones and available nation wide. It sold close to almost 500,000 copies. Now that they were well established they began putting out more and more material for the juggalos. Twiztid followed Mostasteless up with a compilation entitled The Cryptic Collection which was a compilation of various early material and out takes. On Halloween of 2000 they released their second LP "Freekshow" along side ICP's "Bizzar Bizaar" albums. The next year they joined ICP, Blaze and Marz for the super group Dark Lotus which released "Tales From The Lotus Pod" on Psychopathic. It was distributed by Select-O-Hits (not Island like everyone thinks) and sold over 200,000 copies. During touring in support of the album, they started work on their next CD which was an album full of rock and roll - Twiztid style. It was called "Black Majik" but was scrapped because of juggalos reacting negatively towards the concept. Twiztid even figured "This project is taking forever and the juggalos haven't had a new Twiztid album in awhile". They recorded some new RAP songs, took some of the songs made for Black Majik and compiled it onto an EP called "Mirror Mirror" which was released in 2002.
Twiztid at this point is working on their new LP called "The Green Book". They've released a track from it called "Tha World Iz Hell" on Twiztid.com and have already began a tour with Bone Thugs and Harmony in support of it. It's being released in April on Psychopathic.
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