House Of Pain Essays - Everlast, Danny Boy, , Term Papers

House Of Pain Built to Last An informational article on Erik Schrody (a.k.a. Everlast) With his group, House of Pain Erik Schrody made a name for himself Everlast and a mess of his life. Now, after a near fatal heart attack and with a new hit album, he climbs back into the ring. Erik Schrody has a thin, Abe Lincoln-like beard, a piercing stare, and a b-boy like swagger. Around his neck hangs a pendent that spells out Everlast in gold diamondsa tag the 29 year old has answered to since before his days as the front MC of House Of Pain the same moniker that now adorns his powerful solo departure, Whitey Ford sings the Blues. His arms and body are covered with his own personal graffiti of various tattoos. He is a large man who is both sharp and personable but also aware of his intimidating reputation. This beat began a year ago, the day Schrody completed Whitey Ford, the collection of hard-edged hip-hop and brooding blues and folk tunes that he knew would redefine him. It was that very evening when Schrodys chest began to tighten. After more than five hours of Schrody laboring to breathe, his co-producer and friend John Gamble asked him whether he needed to go to the hospital. Unaware that his aorta had torn and that his heart was drowning in blood, Schrody sai d no; Gamble called for an ambulance anyway. Miraculously Schrody didnt suffer his massive heart attack until after hed been wheeled into the emergency room. Schrody has had a heart condition since he was born. When he awoke three days later he had an artificial valve clicking in his chest. Schrody saw his mother and father, who divorced bitterly when he was young, at his bedside and thats when he realized how bad his condition was. It makes sense that Schrodys music is as complex and contradictory as he is able to draw from diverse genres without sacrificing any of their authority in the process. How else to explain the old school of Money (Dollar Bill), just a track away from the pensive, dark folk of the hit Whats Its Like? or Ends,a guitar-strummed blues-and-rap morality play? It is for that track that Schrody will head to Las Vegas to shoot Whitey Fords second video. Two years ago Schrody had converted to Islam, so certainly, Schrodys heart attack wasnt his only life altering experience of the last few years. There was his transformation from Irish-Catholic punk to devout Muslim as he says It makes me able to look at myself and say, OK, Im making progress in life, he says. Ive had my heydays of debauchery. Then there was the breakup of his long-time relationship, which he chronicles in Whitey Ford in The Letter and Seven Days. Not to mention the dismantling of House of Pain with their drunken Irish frat-boy reputation and Schrodys decision two years ago to stop drinking. He now has a desire to settle down with an educated woman. Its as if the posture he has struck all these years is in a standoff with the perspective that a near-death experience has given him, each waiting for the other to blink. His parents moved to San Fernando Valley from Hempstead, Long Island, when Schrody was a child, and has remained there to this day. His sister and her three children live a block away from where Schrody and his mother live. People always say, You live with your mom? says Schrody. I say, No my mom lives with me. . It was here in the Valley that Schrody, after a nasty spilt with his former label over handling of his first solo album, started with his pals Daniel Danny Boy OConner and Leor DJ Lethal DiMant. When House of Pain sent out the demo for Jump Around, Schrody says, the group had a record deal within weeks. What followed on the heels of Jump Around was a platinum album, expensive spending and a variety of brushes with the law mostly weapons possession. At one point when DJ Lethal was doing production on the debut of Everlasts tour mate, Sugar Ray, Schrody wasnt almost able to help because of the