Chris Kelly, one-half of ‘90s rap group Kris Kross, has died. Kelly was found unresponsive in his Atlanta home on Wednesday evening. The Fulton County Police believe Kelly’s death may have been the result of a drug overdose, though it won’t know for sure until after performing an autopsy scheduled for Thursday morning. Kelly was 34.
Best known for their briefly trendsetting baggy, backwards clothes and for the single “Jump”—which spent eight weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1992—Kris Kross consisted of Chris “Mac Daddy” Kelly and Chris “Daddy Mac” Smith. The duo was discovered in an Atlanta shopping mall by a then-18-year-old Jermaine Dupri. He produced the group’s debut, Totally Krossed Out, which topped the Billboard 200 for two weeks, and sat on the charts for about 65 weeks total. To date, the record has sold 4 million copies and spawned four singles: “Jump,” “It’s A Shame,” “I Missed The Bus,” and “Warm It Up.” The duo also performed the “Rugrats Rap” for Nickelodeon, a track that was used frequently on the channel in 1994, but wasn’t released commercially until 1998.
“Jump” was remarkable for its relative success: At the time it topped the charts, it was only the eleventh song to have ever topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks, dating back to the chart’s launch in 1958. It was also the first rap song to top the charts for that long. It’s also notable that, at the time the song was recorded, Kelly and Smith were a mere 12 and 13 years old, respectively. The video for the song was also a huge hit, selling 100,000 copies on VHS.