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House of Pain was an Irish-American -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



HISTORY


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 together with Helmet , 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 Guru, 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 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 , Paul Wall , Bubba Sparxx ), many newer white rap acts find themselves in a de facto Alternative-Rock world that commercial radio is indifferent to (see MC Paul Barman , Company Flow , 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



EPs and Singles



OTHER CELTIC HIP HOP ARTISTS



TRIVIA

  • House of Pain was also the name of a level in the Computer Game '' Doom '', which was nearly coincidentally released around the same year the single ''Jump Around'' was released.

  • House of Pain is a phrase that Jim Cramer frequently uses on his televised show '' Mad Money '' to describe the situation of a person who has bought a stock that dropped substantially in value.

  • House of Pain was also used to describe the Houston Astrodome during NFL games played by the Houston Oilers. This was during the days that Warren Moon was the quarterback, and the Oilers defense was a force to be reckoned with. The Oilers since moved to Tennesse, and were briefly known as the Tennessee Oilers before changing their name to the Tennessee Titans.

  • Jump Around is played at Angel Stadium during Los Angeles Angels home Baseball games whenever the team's mascot, the Rally Monkey , appears on the stadium video screens. The Rally Monkey, as one might guess, jumps around.

  • Jump Around is also played at every University Of Wisconsin home football game between the third and fourth quarter. When the song plays the students basically jump around.

  • House of Pain was used in the H.G. Wells story "The Island of Dr. Moreau" to describe the laboratory in which Dr. Moreau conducted his experiments. In a speech to the island's inhabitant, Dr. Moreau warns that those who "break the law go back to the House of Pain," a phrase that can be heard at the beginning of some versions of "Shamrocks and Shenanigans".

  • House of Pain is also the name of the Carisbrook stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand .

  • The song "Jump Around" was used in Adam Sandler's movie Happy Gilmore .

  • The song "Shamrocks and Shenanigans" was used in the movie Daredevil , in the bar sequence that introduces Bullseye .



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