For years bands have mixed and blended different genres of music together to develop a style they can call their own. But no other band currently blends hip hop and comedy as well or with as much success as Sudden Death.
"I grew up listening to rap music and I've always loved comedy. So when I started writing my own music it seemed like a natural thing to do to mix the two" says front man Tom "Devo Spice" Rockwell. "I'm not a gangster. I didn't grow up in the hood, or anything like that. So if I tried to write about stuff like that it just wouldn't work. I've always enjoyed making people laugh so I figured I would try to do that with my music."
Rockwell formed the group in 1986 with two of his friends and the group existed as a trio until 1990 when Rockwell took the lead and several additional people joined. The current line up consists of Rockwell who does the majority of the lyrics, music, and vocals, Steve "Piles" Fernino who does additional vocals and engineering, Thom "Professor Pastronomy" Uliasz who helps out with music and additional vocals, and Jeff "Bozhead" Cots who helps out with vocals and does some additional writing for the band.
Sudden Death was introduced to the public in 1990 when Dr. Demento played "I'm Bored" on his nationally syndicated show of comedy music. The band broke through in 1998 when "South Park Junkie" spent two weeks atop the Funny Five countdown. Since then Sudden Death has become one of the most requested artists on the show. "He writes some of the funniest rap lyrics I've ever heard" says Dr. Demento.
In 2002 Sudden Death teamed up with fellow comedy musician The Great Luke Ski and recorded a song called "Peter Parker"- a parody of "Peter Piper" by Run-DMC. The song went on to become the number one most requested song of the year on The Dr. Demento Show. It is also featured on 2003's Dr. Demento Basement Tapes compilation along with another Sudden Death song called "Dead Rappers."
"Dead Rappers" was another hit for the band in 2002 and is featured on the band's fifth independently released album Fatal Accident Zone. A critic for Torpedo Magazine writes "The high point, in my humble-yet-published-in-this-magazine opinion, is 'Dead Rappers,' an incredibly funny rant about how hip hop artists continue releasing albums despite the minor handicap of being deceased ('I got some advice for those who hate Eminem, don't kill him cuz then you'll never get rid of him.')
Although the band deals only in rap music most of Sudden Death's fans are not your regular rap fans. "We have our share of rap fans," says Rockwell, "but the majority of our fans are people who otherwise don't listen to rap at all." This is due not only to the comedy aspect of the music, but also the topics covered in the songs. Most rappers write about drugs, guns, gangs, pimps, and violence. Sudden Death prefers to make fun of the people who write about drugs, guns, gangs, pimps, and violence, as well as Trekkies, ex-roommates, tv shows, bad drivers, celebrities, men, women, and most of all themselves.
Sudden Death has a policy of "anything for a laugh", but the band tries to keep the content of their songs relatively clean. They feel that there are enough comedians and rappers who produce R and X rated material. Sudden Death likes to stay in the PG and PG-13 realm so as not to restrict their audience too much. They perform regularly at science fiction and comedy conventions which are usually all ages events so they like to keep their material appropriate for such venues.
Sudden Death's web site- www.suddendeath.org- is designed, programmed, and maintained by the band's front man Tom Rockwell who is a multimedia developer by day. He has even begun work on a Sudden Death video game.
"I love this stuff" says Rockwell. "I'm going to keep doing it till the day I die. Or at least until my asthma gets so bad that I can't rap anymore."
Sudden Death is currently working on songs for a new album and already have a new hit on their hands. A song called “Ozzman” about Ozzy Osbourne and his family was the sixth most requested song of 2003 on The Dr. Demento Show.
Source: http://www.suddendeath.org
