House of Krazees is a Detroit horrorcore hip-hop group formed in 1992 by The R.O.C., EXP (later Hektic, and eventually Monoxide) and Big J (later Mr. Bones and eventually Jamie Madrox). They recorded and self-released two EPs--Home Sweet Home and Homebound, under the label Retro Horror Musik before signing with Latnem and releasing their first full length LP, Season of the Pumpkin. The group was distinguished by wearing pumpkin masks, rapping exclusively about horror-themed topics, with elements of social commentary (\"Pigskinnas\" tackles police brutality and racism), and heavily sample-laden music that assembled musique concrete blocks out of funk, soul and heavy metal records. The group's musical and lyrical approach won favor from local rappers Eminem (especially \"Murder, Murder, Murder\", which allegedly influenced his storytelling style) and Insane Clown Posse, who added HOK to their national Great Milenko tour in 1997.
By this time, HOK had released three EPs and two full length LPs, and were preparing a third LP, and Latnem released a compilation of previously unreleased remixes, previously released songs and a new song called \"The House\" under the name Collector's Edition '97, which advertised the title of the next HOK album as being Evolution. However, Hektic and Mr. Bones had gotten into a dispute with The R.O.C. and House of Krazees broke up during the ICP tour. Hektic and Mr. Bones changed their stagenames to Monoxide (after his cigarette habit) and Jamie Madrox (after the Marvel Comics character) and signed with Psychopathic Records, ICP's label, under the name Twiztid, releasing their debut in 1998, Mostasteless.
The R.O.C. reformed HOK under the name The Howse, recording Esohpromatem: Welcome To The New Millennium with new members Beast, Mr.Vitology and Skrapz (formerly of 2 Krazy Devils) in 1998, but it sold poorly, as did the last House of Krazees album, The Night They Kame Home, which featured a lineup consisting of only R.O.C. and Skrapz, who subsequently formed the group Halfbreed.
Twiztid became nationally successful on Psychopathic Records, and eventually left in 2013 to form the new label Majik Ninja Entertainment. R.O.C. resolved his differences with Twiztid and did some collaborations with Psychopathic (including serving as the hype man of Blaze Ya Dead Homie, formerly of 2 Krazy Devils), as well as recording with Twiztid, House of Krazees did not initially reform. R.O.C, Twiztid and Blaze Ya Dead Homie formed the supergroup Samhein Witch Killaz, while R.O.C. and Blaze formed another duo called Zodiac Mprint (which released the EP Ride the Stars in 2016). There would not be a new House of Krazees recording until Twiztid's mixtape A New Nightmare, which contains the song \"Monstrosity\", credited to House of Krazees. The same year, the restrospective HOK compilation Casket Cutz was released. Majik Ninja Entertainment reissued House of Krazees' albums as well as solo recordings by Mr. Bones in a box set in 2018, followed by the 2019 EP Post Apocalyptic Word, consisting of almost entirely new recordings, plus the full version of \"Murder, Murder, Murder\", which only previously appeared on compilations (including Casket Cutz and the bootleg Evolution). House of Krazees' official releases have all been reissued nationally by Majik Ninja as limited edition vinyl records, with the exception of The Night They Kame Home and the compilation Collector's Edition '97.
Collector's Edition '97 has several rare remixes, plus the exclusive song \"The House\", along with some classic HOK cuts from their main discography, making it a perfect sampler of the group's catalog for newcomers.
