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Colonel Baumgardner
Midget Tossing
Corey
"Kooky" Raymond Rothchild III
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To understand the global entertainment machine that is 2HYPE, one must trace its history back to the beginning at the 4-H Camp in Cedar Rapids in 1992. This is the locale that brought together the "original" members of 2HYPE: Eddie B., Simon, Logan, Ricky, and Corey. All of these guys were counselors at the camp, and coincidently were assigned to the same cabin. It was not too long before magic began to happen in that cabin, since you can only shove so much raw talent into one cabin before something gives. On June 18th, 1992 in the middle of the night, a very strange thing happened. Eddie B.'s temperature mysteriously jumped to 105 degree Fahrenheit. With a temperature so high, Eddie B. was delirius. And with that delirium he began to sing with the voice of an angel. A voice so heavenly and so infectious, that the rest of the guys that were in the cabin were left with no alternative but to join in. The boys' harmony carried next door to Mr. Daniel Baumgardner's cabin at approximately 2:34 AM. Mr. Baumgardner was the kind, older camp director. Baumgardner, having attended Indian Mountian State University for six years, left with a keen ear for musical ability as well as a degree in Physical Education. Needless to say, Baumgardner awoke to the melodious, quasi-divine barrage that would later be named 2HYPE. Baumgardner scurried next door to see if he was losing his mind or was he hearing the greatest thing since Wonder Bread. Well, let's just say that Danny Boy was not in need of psychological help. But rather Baumgardner found himself at a fork in the road that led to his future. On one had he had found the perfect combination of young, fit boys' voices to cause him to gain an erection. Baumgardner has repeatedly stated that, "It was the boys' voices and not their scantily clad, firm bodies that caused my penis to become engorged with blood, which in most instances would be a direct sign of sexual arousal." In a decision, that he made in "0.000000001 seconds", Baumgardner decided to return to his cabin, grab his hunting rifle, and then he returned to the boys cabin. At this point, Baumgardner forcibly loaded the boys into the back of a van, but not before instructing them to load a large tub of ice into the back, which Eddie B. was put in to lower his temperature before he became a vegetable. Intially, the group was quite reluctant to Baumgardner's ramblings about fame and fortune. But when the group proceeded to the Riverside motel (Room 23), Baumgardner persuaded the group with a 27 and a half continuous hours of talk. After convincing the boys, the next task was to name the group. Everyone threw in their two cents, but ultimately in was Simon who stumbled upon the name as he explained in an earlier interview with the Lubeck Daily News. "We were just sitting around and I just say, 'We are just too hype. I mean it.' And that was that. But it was Eddie's idea to substitute 'too' for the number two. That's what gives us our edge." With a name established, 2HYPE emerged from room 223 on June 19th, and set out to conquer the musical world from coast to coast. The first stop on this musical crusade was a nationwide tour of county fairs. It was on this tour when 2HYPE began writing for their self-titled debut album. Unfortunately for the group, Corey got pulled into the dark underworld of county fairs. A dark underworld filled with booze, cheap women, and midget tossing. It was not too long before Corey's obsessions led to problems with performance. His timing was off, his speech was slurred, and Simon put it the best when he said, "Frankly, he just didn't look pretty anymore." Many nights, Corey would disappear from sight, only to be found face down in a pool of his alcohol induced vomit with a pair of an abnormally large panties on his head. Enough was enough, and on November 14, 1992 Corey was kicked out of the group, and the release of the album was put on hold. 2HYPE was always envisioned as a five peg wheel of singing and dancing ferocity, and without Corey the group was lacking its intial pizzazz. The group launched a large, nationwide search of every flea market, highway rest area, bar mitzvah, and local talent show to find the young man who would join them. But rather than finding the new member at any of the aforementioned places, it was at a massage parlor in Chinatown where Colonel Baumgardner (as he liked to be called after Corey's dismissal) found Tony. The Colonel could immeditely see Tony's "enormously large" amount of talent, even without seeing him sing a note or dance one step. Once the group met Tony, 2HYPE was back and better than ever. They immediately his the studio to redo all of the tracks, and on January 1, 1993 "2HYPE" was released worldwide. Unfortunately for the group, their timing was off, and the album was released during the surge in "alternative" music. Ricky said it best, "Our sound is just TOO HYPE. I think it just scared people, that's how good it was." Although the album only sold 11,653 copies stateside, the album went absolutely berzerk on the charts in Scandinavia. With 2HYPE such a phenomonon in Europe, Colonel Baumgardner that the group could really benefit from an extended tour in Europe. And with that, 2HYPE went European and left the United States. This move turned out to be a great one. Everything the boys did turned to gold as if they had the Midas touch. Everything was perfect, until tragedy hit 2HYPE head-on in the form of a motorcycle accident. Anyone who knows Logan knows that he has a deep love for motorcycles, a love so deep that it almost took his life on the Autobahn in 1997. The recording of "2HYPE, 2NITE" was postponed. Logan broke both of his legs, along with most of the other bones in his body. Logan sustained injuries that pawn shop proprietor Drake Fontana described as, "Pretty bogus." When asked about what he thought Logan's future with 2HYPE, Fontana said, "That singin and dancin hootenany the boy was doing is done. Game, set, match. He best be learning a marketable trade like welding or masonry." Most "average" boy group members would have given up after hearing such a promenient figure as Fontana's statements, and just aimed for a series of acting roles in cheap b-movies on Cinemax. But not Logan, especially not Logan after his botched suicide attempt with an overdose of diet pills. After having his stomach pumped, Logan had a renewed outlook on life and his future wtih 2HYPE. He was determined to regain the old Logan, and improve it ten fold. As Sammy Haggar put it, "There's only one way to rock." For Logan that one way was full steam ahead. With an enormous amount of hard work Logan was back in the dance studio within 12 months learning the steps for the video for "F.U.N. (Freakin' You Nastay)". After ruling the European scene for five years, the group began to have conflict with Colonel Baumgardner over the direction 2HYPE should take next. The Colonel insisted that they should stick to the European market for at least six more years. The group on the other hand felt the dire urge to try to take on the US shores once more. The rise in the boy group acts that succeeded in the US were growing every day, and 2HYPE felt like they had gotten the shaft. After all they had been five years ahead of their time, and they wanted their piece of the profit pie. And with this difference in ideologies, it was only a matter of time before Colonel Baumgardner and 2HYPE went their seperate ways. In addition to the direction differences, there were also allegations that Colonel Baumgardner was stealing personally items from the guys such as toothbrushes, dentures, underwear, and stuffed animals, which he then sold to the group's fans commonly known as 2HYPERS. For the second time in their existence, 2HYPE was on the prowl for a replacement. Only this time it was a managerial position that needed to be filled. The group found its replacement in used car salesman "Kooky" Raymond Rothchild III. Rothchild brought a sense of youthfulness and determination to the group that had been missing for quite some time. With Rothchild at the helm, 2HYPE was on the verge of taking America by storm. 2HYPE immediately dove into work on their newest album "Evolution". Ricky felt that the group, "is ready to do well. We paid really good people to write our songs. We should get a lot of credit from the songs. I'm excited. Totally." And credit was exactly what they got. With the release of "Evolution", 2HYPE was finally getting the respect from American fans and critics. Here are some of the comments critics had of "Evolution": "When I listen to it, it doesn't make my ears bleed." -Vince Falcon, The Lubeck Daily News "It's musical salvation." -Time "It drives my boyfriend's hamster into a frenzy." -Monte Fury, Belpre City Schools Monthly "I'm not saying I have, but I'd kill for them. Over and over." -Suzie Norris, a 6th grader in Mrs. Wallach's class, in her essay "2HYPE is the Right Type of Music for Girls Between the Ages of 5-17," "It's the kind of music that makes you want to take fifty bucks out of your dad's wallet, go buy the cheapest loving you can find down at the docks, and just have an old fashioned good time." -Bryan Starkley, Trashy Trailer Tramps Biweekly "If you're a middle aged man and you like 'jailbait', pop 'Evolution' in. They'll flock to you. Word." -Rick Simms, The Poon-Tang Brigade "This CD is absolutely super." -Clyde LeMasters, Garbageman "Lyrical wizardry." -Stephen Hawking, Genius "If you could capture heaven on a CD, then it would be this." -Rich Konkle, Brazen Hussy Magazine
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