The Gift of Game
1999 studio album by Crazy Town
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The Gift of Game is the debut studio album by the American rap rock band Crazy Town. It was released on November 9, 1999, in the US by Columbia Records.[2] The album yielded the band its biggest hit with "Butterfly" which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100[3] on March 24, 2001.
| The Gift of Game | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 9, 1999 | |||
| Recorded | 1999 | |||
| Studio | Westlake (Los Angeles) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 45:17 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Josh Abraham | |||
| Crazy Town chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Gift of Game | ||||
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Worldwide the album sold more than 2.5 million units,[4] with more than 1.6 million in the US alone.[5]
Background
As Crazy Town refused to cede their official website to Columbia Records (as per a contract clause), the record label barred the group from advertising it on the album's artwork.[6] The band circumvented the ban by adding a last-minute outro to the album, titled after the website (www.crazytown.com), and in which the URL is repeating multiple times.[6]
The girl licking the lollipop on the cover of the album is a fictional character created by Crazy Town, known as "Little Lolita". Both the album title and the picture of Little Lolita are based on lyrics from the song "Lollipop Porn". The album cover was designed by co-lead singer Shifty Shellshock's father and uncle.[7] A song titled "Lolita" later appeared on Shellshock's solo album Happy Love Sick and her image reappears on Crazy Town's third album The Brimstone Sluggers.
Composition
Reception
Steve Huey at AllMusic described the album as "similar to many other rap-inflected alternative metal albums in that it concentrates on sound over structure, creating macho, aggressive grooves with grinding, noisily textured guitars and the underlying feel of squared-off hip-hop beats". Huey argued that despite signs of Limp Bizkit's "juvenile humor", the album "shows promise".[9] April Long of NME criticized the album for its generic guitar riffs, and containing "some of the most Neanderthal lyrics ever written".[10]
About the album's lyrics, Shifty Shellshock said: "We're just having a good time. We're not like political or anything. I can be very sarcastic just like a little punk, we talk a lot of trash. We have some points, like 'learn from your mistakes', 'check yourself', you know, 'don't get taken advantage of'. Real simple things, nothing too overwhelming".[16] In 2025, Rae Lemeshow-Barooshian of Loudwire included the album in her list of "the top 50 nu-metal albums of all time".[17]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Intro" | Shifty Shellshock, Doug Miller | 0:25 |
| 2. | "Toxic" | Shellshock, Miller, Bret Mazur | 2:48 |
| 3. | "Think Fast" (featuring Dirty Unit) | Shellshock, Mazur, Miller, Rust Epique, Torshawn Roland, Percy Washington | 3:52 |
| 4. | "Darkside" | Shellshock, Mazur | 3:52 |
| 5. | "Black Cloud" (featuring Jay Gordon) | Shellshock, Mazur, Miller, Epique, Gordon, Bernard Williams | 5:02 |
| 6. | "Butterfly" (sampled Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Pretty Little Ditty") | Shellshock, Mazur, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, John Frusciante | 3:36 |
| 7. | "Only When I'm Drunk" (Tha Alkaholiks cover) | Tash, J-Ro, E-Swift | 2:47 |
| 8. | "Hollywood Babylon" (featuring Mad Lion) | Shellshock, Mazur, Mad Lion | 4:23 |
| 9. | "Face the Music" | Shellshock, Mazur | 3:24 |
| 10. | "Lollipop Porn" | Shellshock, Mazur, Nicole Lorenzo | 3:54 |
| 11. | "Revolving Door" | Shellshock, Mazur | 3:40 |
| 12. | "Players (Only Love You When They're Playing)" (featuring Jenny Sipprelle) | Shellshock, Mazur, Williams, Anthony Valli | 4:13 |
| 13. | "B-Boy 2000" (featuring KRS-One) | Shellshock, Mazur, KRS-One, Williams, Valli, Miller, Epique | 4:27 |
| 14. | "Outro www.crazytown.com" | 1:19 | |
| 32. | "Untitled Hidden Track" | 0:50 |
- Tracks 15 to 31 are blank, and are each 5 seconds in length.
Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[44] | Gold | 35,000^ |
| Canada (Music Canada)[45] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
| Finland (Musiikkituottajat)[46] | Gold | 20,933[46] |
| Germany (BVMI)[47] | Gold | 150,000^ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[48] | Gold | 7,500^ |
| Norway (IFPI Norway)[49] | Gold | 10,000‡ |
| Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[50] | Gold | 25,000^ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[51] | Gold | 100,000* |
| United States (RIAA)[52] | Platinum | 1,600,000[5] |
|
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [53] |
US Alt. [53] |
US Main. [53] |
AUS [54] |
NLD [55] |
NZL [56] |
FIN [57] |
GER [58] |
SWI [59] |
UK [60] |
SWE [61] |
NOR [62] | |||
| 1999 | "Toxic" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 2000 | "Darkside" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Butterfly" | 1 | 1 | 21 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 2001 | "Revolving Door" | — | — | — | 76[63] | 71 | — | 19 | 26 | 43 | 23 | 46 | — | |
| "—" denotes a single that didn't chart | ||||||||||||||
Personnel
Crazy Town
- Epic – vocals; keyboards
- Shifty Shellshock – vocals
- Rust Epique – guitars
- Anthony Valli – guitars
- Doug Miller – bass
- DJ AM – turntables
- James Bradley Jr. – drums
Additional personnel
- Troy Van Leeuwen – guitars on "Darkside"
- Jay Gordon – keyboards on "Darkside", refrain in "Black Cloud"
- Stephen Costantino – guitars on "Revolving Door" and "Hollywood Babylon"
- KRS-One