The friendship of
Atlanta, Georgia, natives James Christopher Kelly (August 11, 1978 – May 1, 2013) and Christopher Smith (born January 10, 1979), began in first grade. The duo was discovered at Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta in 1990 by then-18-year-old
Jermaine Dupri. According to Dupri, Kelly and Smith were not pursuing a record deal and were not rappers or musicians when he met them. He was impressed with their style, and Kris Kross became the first artists signed to Dupri's
So So Def label.
1992: Totally Krossed Out Along with Dupri, the two signed a deal with
Ruffhouse Records and recorded their debut album
Totally Krossed Out. Entirely produced by Dupri,
Totally Krossed Out was released on March 31, 1992, and sold four million copies in the U.S. It included the hit single "
Jump", which topped the
Billboard Hot 100 and held that position for eight weeks. The music videos from the album also experienced major success. The video for "Jump", directed by filmmaker Rich Murray, went to No. 1 on
MTV and sold over 100,000 copies as a VHS video single. The video for their follow-up single, "
Warm It Up", also directed by Murray, won a
Billboard video award for "Best New Artist", and got to No. 14 the same year as "Jump". Writes
The New York Daily News' Jim Farber: "Together, that was enough to propel the duo's debut album,
Totally Krossed Out, to multi-platinum status." A video game starring the pair, titled
Kris Kross: Make My Video, was released in 1992 on the
Sega CD system. It consisted of the players editing together the group's music videos for a few of their hit songs using portions of the original music videos,
stock footage, and general video animation effects. Players were prompted before each editing session to make sure to have certain footage compiled into the video. It was ranked 18th on
Electronic Gaming Monthly's list of the "20 Worst Games of All Time". Kris Kross made a
cameo appearance in
Ted Demme's film ''
Who's the Man? (1993), which starred rapper Ed Lover and radio personality Doctor Dré of Yo! MTV Raps'' fame. Kris Kross were also part of the promotional campaign for
Sprite in 1993 of which they recorded an exclusive rap, a promotional photoshoot, and a commercial for the brand.
1993: Da Bomb The duo's second album,
Da Bomb (1993), was
certified platinum and spawned the hits "Alright", a
diss track directed at rivals
Da Youngstas that featured
Super Cat, and "I'm Real" and "Da Bomb", featuring
Da Brat, whom Smith had discovered.
1996: Young, Rich & Dangerous A third album,
Young, Rich & Dangerous, was released in early 1996 and was
certified gold. It spawned the two hits "
Tonite's tha Night" and "
Live and Die for Hip Hop".
Education Both members of Kris Kross went to
Woodward Academy in
College Park, Georgia. Kelly studied mix-engineering, and founded C Connection Records. Smith studied marketing and business management and founded One Life Entertainment, Inc.
2013: Final show Kris Kross' last performance was in their hometown at the
Fox Theatre for
So So Def's 20th Anniversary concert on February 23, 2013. ==Death of Chris Kelly==