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House of Pain Information
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'House of Pain' was a Irish-influenced Rap group who released three albums in the early to mid 90's before lead singer Everlast decided to pursue his solo career again.
Members
* Erik '"Everlast"' Schrody Vocals
* Dan '"Danny Boy"' O™Conner Vocals
* Leor '"DJ Lethal"' Dimant DJ, Producer
History
Everlast's failure and House of Pain's rise to stardom
Erik 'Everlast' Schrody was a teenaged hip-hop enthusiast, and his career started as a protégé of pioneering West Coast rapper Ice-T, who brought him into his "Rhyme Syndicate" fraternity. Everlast was signed to Sire/Warner Bros. and released the solo album Forever Everlasting in 1990. It was not a commercial success, but when he and friends Dan 'Danny Boy' O™Connor and Leor 'DJ Lethal' Dimant signed to Tommy Boy Records, House of Pain's 1992 self-titled group effort went multi-platinum off the hit single "Jump Around".
Fashioning themselves as rowdy Irish-American hooligans (Dimant was actually of Latvian heritage), they toured with various rap and alternative-rock bands after their breakthrough. They participated, along with several other rap acts, on the influential rock-rap collaborative Judgment Night movie soundtrack of 1993.
Sophomore Albums and decline in popularity
Their 1994 effort, Same As It Ever Was, went gold with minimal airplay. Like Cypress Hill (who, with House of Pain were a part of the loosely affiliated Soul Assassins posse), they found Urban Radio airplay an increasingly closed path; the trio abruptly broke up in 1996 during the release of their third album, Truth Crushed To Earth Shall Rise Again, which featured guest appearances by Brand Nubian's Sadat X, as well as rappers Divine Styler and Cockni O'Dire.
Split, solo success and current affairs
From this point on, the status of the group would seem to be in the past tense, though the members would continue their careers separately. Ironically, Everlast would finally get multi-platinum solo fame in 1998, when his folk-& blues-inflected Whitey Ford Sings the Blues album hit the charts; in 2000, a feud with Detroit rapper Eminem coincided with the gold-selling Eat At Whitey's, which had songs like "Black Jesus" and "Black Coffee", and featured a collaboration with Carlos Santana. Meanwhile, DJ Lethal became a founding member of Limp Bizkit.
After the sale of the Tommy Boy Records™ catalog of master tapes to Warner Bros. Music, Everlast left the label, signed with Island/Def Jam, and released the solo LP White Trash Beautiful in 2004.
Recently, Rhino Records, a subdivision of Warner Music, has released a hits collection, Shamrocks & Shenanigans, with singles from Everlast™s early solo days, the House of Pain and his post-group solo efforts. Recently released from Island, Everlast is recording for a new LP effort, due sometime in 2006.
House of Pain's impact on the hip-hop world
House of Pain was a pioneering group in furthering racial diversity within hip-hop's ranks. It is observed, however, that with notable exceptions (i.e., Eminem, Kid Rock, Bubba Sparxx), many newer white rap acts find themselves in a defacto Alternative-Rock world that commercial radio is indifferent to (see MC Paul Barman, Company Flow, Insane Clown Posse, High and Mighty, Cage, Smut Peddlers, El-P, Kottonmouth Kings, Aesop Rock). Thus in some social circles, ˜white rap™ has almost become a distinctive alternative subgenre on its own.
Discography
Albums
*House of Pain (Fine Malt Lyrics) (1992)
*Same As It Ever Was (1994)
*Truth Crushed To Earth Shall Rise Again (1996)
*Shamrocks & Shenanigans [Best Of incl. Everlast solo efforts] (2004)
EPs and Singles
*Jump Around (single) (1992)
*Who's the man? (single) (1993)
*Shamrocks & Shenanigans (single) (1994)
*On Point (single) (1994)
*Legend/Word Is Bond (EP) (1994)
*Pass The Jinn (single) (1996)
*Fed Up (single) (1996)
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