Krossed Out

Music news announced the death of one of Kris Kross's two Chrises this morning.  Chris Kelly, 34, was found unresponsive in his Atlanta home yesterday (the suspected cause is drug overdose).

Chris, MJ, and Chris - now only one remains...

Reactions to Kelly's death today elicited a wave early 90's nostalgia.  I was no exception - the one-hit wonders' one hit was 1992's Jump.  The song pitches me back to 6th grade, and my first middle school dance.  I'm standing awkwardly along the gym wall in the vicinity of boys I really wasn't friends with, to at least not be standing alone.  At 11, I played with Transformers while my cooler peers listened to music with the Parental Advisory warning: they knew what O.P.P. stood for.  The moment I best remember most is when Jump started playing.  The other boys went wild, everyone (else) knew the lyrics.  Their mid-step pause to cry out to each other Kelly's "wiggity-wiggity-wiggity-wack" line.  It was like that song cemented their secret fraternity I'd never be apart of.  I attempted a lame Running Man on the outskirts of their circle and certainly just embarrassed myself.

Looking back twenty years and seeing that little boy, it's so sad to think how his story would one day end.