i was asked to write something about myself for the upcoming joint custody event on saturday. all of these suck…

statement #1:
Cruse’s self-titled debut album was released in 1984 as a six track “mini-LP” on Island Records. In the album notes he describes himself as a “pencil thin… disentangled… six-foot vegetarian”. The album includes the song “World a Music” which was to be sampled by Damian Marley on his 2005 hit, “Welcome to Jamrock”. The album was recorded with and produced by Sly and Robbie, with whom he also toured internationally along with Yellowman and Half Pint. By 1988, however, Cruse had effectively disappeared from the music scene following lukewarm reactions to his intermittent releases.

In 1994, Cruse released the song which would become his signature. Adopting his nickname from the song title, Cruse would become known as the “Hotstepper”, from the Patois for a man on the run from the law.

statement #2:
Cruse daylights as a visual effects artist for CSI:NY. It’s only in recent months that he’s discovered that he’s better at compositing…in most areas of artistic merit. Creation from scratch is not something he does well. In his twilights he’s a collector, a researcher, a cut copy paster, and an assembler. Those talents he’s applied to projections at clubs in Hollywood and Atlanta, stories he’s written, and to music or mixtapes.

statement #3:
Cruse likes to start on the nose and then usually loses most everyone as he travels to a darker and increasingly bizarre place. He hates it when people are too aware of what their tendencies are and then talk about them. Or when they talk about something they hate. Or when they say they hate something that Cruse already said he hated.

statement #4:
Cruse finally dealt with the strange fruit of his sexuality as he started work on this project. That is, he warmed it up to body temperature, coated it in Vaseline, and ate it.

statement #5:
Cruse gets paid to use computers for art at work, but he knows everyone’s better than him with a brush. So he used tools and materials that you wouldn’t really know if he was good at, and was good at them. Whatever, you don’t know. He gets off on information overload, and wrote all the text that decorates the left side of the piece. Most of it means something, most of it is gibberish. His partner didn’t like the spray drops (neither did Cruse), and whitewashed them away. Cruse burned out the giant word STOLEN because it’s an empty, overused word and he hates bold text that takes the place of imagery. He likes text as imagery. He didn’t write “goodbye” either.

statement #6:
Cruse’s first purchase was the cassette single “Hazard” by Richard Marx. He then bought a CD player and spent 2 weeks worth of allowance on Ace of Base “The Sign” and the import CD single by Crash Test Dummies “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.” In the 5th grade, he sat up every night next to the radio until 10pm to hear the “Top 5 at 10″ and taped it. At the end of the show, he would call in to tell them the names of all 5 songs, but never got through and never won. He just recently found the tapes and has been into nostalgia - like totally hardcore man - ever since.

look at the joint custody blog for more information on the process / event. it was mentioned on flavorpill so it’s ok to come if you’re a hipster.

Links:

• the hazard music video, which is still awesome
• and crash test dummies
• and also soul asylum, which was terrifying when i was little.