My portion of the biography will go from where Barak's history of HOK left … Read Full Bio ↴My portion of the biography will go from where Barak's history of HOK left off. Also, just to add a little to the begining pre-HOK stuff. The ROC (Raps On Contact) was doing a demo before the "Rollin' With Strength" tape, and rumor has it he was even working with Mike E Clark for a few songs for this demo. I seriously doubt anyone will ever hear anything from it, but hey it's worth mentioning.

After House of Krazees disbanded due to internal problems involving money, The ROC decided to take his music in a new direction. He gathered up a few friends/local rappers and created a group called The Howse, they're style was still wicked but very different from the eerie tales of HOK. The Howse consisted of Mr. Vitology (AKA Armageddon), The Beast & The Black Widow. They only released a handful of samplers and a full length album called "Esohpromatem" (Metamorphose Backwards). Rumor has it there is an unreleased Howse album out there, but untill there is proof we will never know. The Beast is currently Morpheus of The Indigenous Tribe & The Black Widow is now known as Mizz Korona (she has been around the detroit rap scene for a grip with a bunch of different names, she was also the woman in the parking lot rapping in 8 Mile). The Howse split up for unknown reasons.

The ROC linked up Skrapz, they knew each back in the day from the 2 Krazie Devils project (he was "Crazie" in 2KD). ROC changed his name to Sol and The House of Krazees were reborn. What better way to reintroduce The House of Krazees into the bloodstream of the detroit wicked scene than a sequel to the most well known of the original HOK albums? They began work on Season of The Pumpkin 2 in 1999. Due to problems in the pressing of the album and just straight up not wanting to be rushed the album could not come out on Halloween as planned. They decided to change the name of the album to "The Night They Kame Home" because quite frankly December is not The Season of The Pumpkin. Interesting little fact, the way that Madness & Prozak (Bedlam) met is threw HOK. Madness was the hype man for HOK during the TNTKH shows (running around the stage crazy with a chainsaw) and Prozak was a body guard for them. After this they were planning another album when something happend and they felt they had had enough of Walter's antics. They also had decided that they needed a direction change, something new. So they jumped ship and became HaLFBrEEd.

Virus Independent was created as the new venue for HaLFBrEEd. They also signed Bedlam & F.R.eeze (an old friend of skrapz who was in the group "Demigodz" with his brother Seziure) to the lable. The first sampler was sent out in late 99' to members of the Virus Indy fan club "The Plague." It contained an intro, an outro, "Locked In Bedlam" by Bedlam & "In Our Blood" by HaLFBrEEd. HaLFBrEEd released there first album, which was originally only supposed to be a Maxi Single "Serial Killaz." The album was also re-issued with a new intro in 2000. After doing "Serial Killaz" they got an offer from Siccmade Muzic (which if you don't know is Brotha Lynch Hung's lable who is a nationwide distributed artist, so this meant big things). They dropped "KontamiNATION" on Siccmade and were even featured on the soundtrack of Brotha Lynch Hung's movie "Now Eat!" After realizing that the lable wasnt really doing anything promotion wise or distribution wise for them, they dropped off Siccmade. They wanted to give the old school fans some of that real HaLFBrEEd evilness for halloween and Rage of The Plague was born. Sadly this short EP would turn out to be the last real HaLFBrEEd album. I'm not really sure what happend after Rage of The Plague, but things took a not so wicked turn.

Add F.R.eeze & Subtract the Wickedness to/from HaLFBrEEd and you have the Level Jumpers. Level Jumper were born as a bonus track (Introduction) on F.R.eeze's "The Raw Album." On F.R.'s album they come raw and pretty hard. They since then have changed the approach somewhat, and they dropped 2 samplers to show the fans what it would really be like. It was alot more experimental, and "purified." That's there style Purified Hip Hop. Sol didn't really do much rapping on Level Jumpers first release "Simply Complx" but he did produce it in its entirety. Around the time "Simply Complx" dropped Sol dropped his first solo in quite some time under the name Sol46. "Wormholes" had a very futuristic feel to it, its quite the listen. Fast forward a year or so and it was time for LJ to drop a new album. They didn't feel it was time for an all new Level Jumpers album, so they took a bunch of the pre-simply complx tracks and threw on a few new ones aswell and boom "The Red Pyramid" was concieved. I believe LJ started with a gimmick about some sort of Secret Society, because its mentioned all over The Red Pyramid, but who knows. Sol rapped alot more on " The Red Pyramid."

Back to HaLFBrEEd for a second, pretty soon after The Red Pyramid dropped a few unreleased/unfinished HaLFBrEEd tracks surfaced and were floating aroung the internet all shitty ass quality on a bootlegg album called "Killaz of The World." I'm pretty sure when Sol & Skrapz they were pretty mad, but they saw an opportunity to end HaLFBrEEd once and for all. They dropped "The End" in 2002. It was a sort of best of album, but with a bunch of rare/unreleased and alternate cuts. There are alternate versions of "Die Girl", "Critical Impact" and there is wicked ass alternate of "The Gallery" (which I personally think would of fit on Rage of The Plague alot fuckin' better than that hip hop version). The first run of "The End" had a misprinted tracklisting (due to all tracks not being able to fit on the cd itself). The actual album only has 17 tracks, the back says 20 (Kaoz, Disray & HaLFBrEEd were taken off because they are on "KontamiNATION" which is still in print via Siccmade Muzic).

This brings us to basically the present. The fans of Virus Independent have been wanting Skrapz & F.R.eeze to do solo's again for awhile now. They both decide its time to deliever, Skrapz begin's work on "The 12 Step Program" his first solo ever. F.R.eeze has had a sequel to "The Raw Album..." recorded 10 times over now, but his attempt at a solo evolves when he meets 3 local DJ's who are up and coming. Mr. Pickles, Picture Tone & Second Hand. F.R.eeze changes his name to "Dialtone" for the group project and "The Formless Figures" are formed. They release a self titled album (with features from both Sol & Skrapz). F.R. is supposedly going to finally release "The Raw Album...Leslie Swisher" and he is working on a brand new solo as "DialTone" called "A Four Track Mind." The Formless Figures crew have alot going on actually, the DJ's (with the ocasional help from DialTone) are working on two mostly instrumental albums called "Cosmic Handshakes...As The Mood Sways" & "Cosmic Handshakes...The Sinking Ship" and DialTone is also writing a book entitled "His Name Is Arthur..."

Sol on the other hand has since left Virus Indy and has gone back to that ole wicked shit. The ROC was reborn when Twiztid asked him to join them on "The Green Book Tour" and since then ROC has been at both of Twiztid's Fright Fest's. HOK has played sets at both of them. It's almost like the old days again. At Fright Fest 04' The ROC dropped his newest album a collection of unreleased shit/left over tracks from 95 to 03. "Bits & Pieces Vol. 1" was originally only intended for the collectors but that shit is selling like a hotcakes! ROC is currently working on a full length solo called "Oh Hell No."

Voices
The R.O.C. Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

1999 and the stakes is high.
Our options have come down
to either we do or we die.
We need You now more than ever.
Pull out all of the strife in the church,
get us together.
Is time running out?
I can't say I do know.

We have one day less
than we did yesterday.
So it's up to us to unite,
You wanna fight the power?
You need the power to fight.

And can we sing with one voice,
if we all love the same God?
Can we agree to disagree?
And so we cry with one voice
to the only God in all the universe-
who holds us in His hands.

No more time
for us to bicker and complain,
If we're called by the same name,
there's nowhere for us to lay the blame,
except for ourselves.
And if we died to our old selves
we've come alive as God's flesh,
that makes us family.
Deeper than death,
but we don't act so tight
when there's a back to bite.
Are we less like a family, and
more like a fistfight?

Are we there, but not quite
are hypocrites children of light?

Overall Meaning

The R.O.C's song Voices speaks to the urgency of unity within the Christian community, emphasizing the need to come together and align towards a common goal. The lyrics begin by acknowledging that the stakes have never been higher, alluding to a sense of impending crisis. The call to action is clear - to overcome the strife within the church and band together to fight for a greater purpose. The song questions whether there is enough time left for the Christian community to overcome its differences and become a force for good. The only way to achieve this, according to the lyrics, is by uniting with one voice and acknowledging the supreme authority of a single God who holds us in his hands. This unity can only be achieved through a deeper understanding of ourselves and through recognizing our connection with a higher power.

The song concludes by noting that there is no longer any time left to bicker and complain about our differences. Instead, we must embrace our shared identity as members of the same spiritual family, and recognize the power of the God who guides us. The questions posed throughout the song are challenging: are we truly acting as a family, or are we more like surface-level allies? Are we hypocritical in our actions, or have we truly embraced the light of God? Ultimately, the song asks the listener to consider what it means to be a part of a larger spiritual community, and to understand that we must work together to overcome our differences and attain a higher spiritual goal.

Line by Line Meaning

1999 and the stakes is high.
The current situation we face is very challenging and requires us to take action.

Our options have come down to either we do or we die.
We are left with only two choices, to take action or face the consequences of inaction.

We need You now more than ever. Pull out all of the strife in the church, get us together.
We require divine intervention to resolve the conflicts in the church and unite us together.

Is time running out? I can't say I do know. We have one day less than we did yesterday.
We may not have much time left as each day passes by bringing us closer to an uncertain future.

So it's up to us to unite, You wanna fight the power? You need the power to fight.
We must come together and form a unified front to combat the challenges we face, as this is the only way to overcome them.

And can we sing with one voice, if we all love the same God? Can we agree to disagree? And so we cry with one voice to the only God in all the universe- who holds us in His hands.
We should be able to put aside our differences and come together as one, praising God with a single voice that unites us as His children.

No more time for us to bicker and complain, If we're called by the same name, there's nowhere for us to lay the blame, except for ourselves.
We must stop wasting time arguing and finding faults, accepting our responsibilities and taking action instead of blaming others.

And if we died to our old selves we've come alive as God's flesh, that makes us family. Deeper than death, but we don't act so tight when there's a back to bite.
By shedding our old selves and embracing God, we become part of His family, which is a bond even stronger than death. However, we often fail to act as a tight-knit family, especially in times of conflict.

Are we less like a family, and more like a fistfight? Are we there, but not quite are hypocrites children of light?
Instead of being a loving family, do we resemble a violent brawl? Despite our claims of being children of light, are we actually hypocrites who do not practice what we preach?

Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS

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