Hip Hop Be Bop

Bronx natives, The Cold Crush Brothers, were Founded in 1978 by the Original DJ Tony Tone (Angelo King) and honed their skills alongside Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force, Funky Four, etc. They grew to be a force on the rap scene and were well known for their synchronized routines.

DJ Tony Tone was originally a member of The Brothers Disco alongside DJ Breakout and DJ Baron with the original Funky Four. Easy A.D. (Adrian Harris) was in a group called The Asalaam Brothers with his partner Donald D but parted ways to join Cold Crush. The original members were Tony Tone, Easy A.D., DJ Charlie Chase (Carlos Mandes) (Also a temporary DJ for the Furious Five), Prince Whipper Whip (James Whipper), Mr. Tee and Dot-A-Rock (Darryl Mason) (R.I.P.). They were joined by Almighty K.G. (Kenneth Pounder) formerly of the Cheeba Crew and Grandmaster Caz (Curtis Fisher) and J.D.L. (Jerry Dee Lewis) aka The Notorious Two after Whipper Whip and Dot-A-Rock left to join rival group, The Fantastic Five. Money Ray (Eric Hoskins) (R.I.P.) would also be added in the late eighties.

Cold Crush battled their rivals, The Fantastic Five, on many occasions, most notably Harlem World 1981. They battled for a $1000 grand prize and Fantastic Five came out on top but after a bootleg tape of the battle circulated public opinion grew in favour of Cold Crush. DJ Charlie Chase also released the battle on vinyl via Slammin’ Records in 1998 but the original sound and feel was lost after he recreated the beats to make them more prominent. The groups battled again on the basketball court in a staged routine for the cult hip hop movie, Wild Style.

Moving on and all this history culminated in the debut release from Cold Crush Brothers called Weekend released on Tuff City/CBS. Their second single was influenced by the punk rock scene which was sweeping through New York at the time and was one of the first to fuse punk with rap. It was simply titled Punk Rock Rap and featured the line ‘Oh my God…’ which was later sampled on Doug E. Fresh’s The Show.

Following their releases on Tuff City/CBS they released two more singles on Tuff City independently, Heartbreakers and their most successful track Fresh, Wild, Fly and Bold.

Although the group never released an album, 1988 saw the release of Feel The Horns followed by the European only release of the album Troopers. It was released as the Cold Crush Brothers but was actually Kay Gee The All and DJ Tony Crush, a point which was corrected on the 2006 US release.

Grandmaster Caz can now be found as a regular tour guide on the Hush Hip Hop Tours in New York City.