2 Skinnee J's

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2 Skinnee J's is the name of a musical band, sometimes characterized as nerdcore hip hop or rap metal (although one of their songs is, in fact, entitled "Friends Don't Let Friends Listen to Rap Metal"). Individuals from in and around the area of Columbia University formed the band. It was founded in February 1991 by a pair of college friends going by stage names Special J and Rabbi J-Slim; the name of the group is derived from the letters in their names and their similar girths. In May 1995 J-Slim left the band (he now works for the Children's Television Workshop), as did the guitarist, Joey Viturbo. Not long after, most of the horn section disbanded to attend graduate school. There followed a chaotic summer in which J-Slim's spot was filled by J. Jonah Jamison, but Jamison was replaced in September 1995 with the addition of former accordianist J Guevara. 1997 marked the release of the band's first album, Sing, Earthboy, Sing!, with vocals by both Special J and J Guevara. The album was released by the band's then label, the indie Dolphins vs. Unicorns, and contained an early draft of the song "Mind Trick", which would later appear in a more polished form on $upermercado. As of 2003, when the group went on hiatus, 2 Skinnee J's consisted of:

Special J (MC)
J Guevara (MC)
Mikey B (drums)
Eddie Eyeball (bass guitar)
Lance Rockworthy (guitar)
Stevie Spice (trombone, keyboards)

One of their most famous and influential songs was "Riot Nrrrd" (1998), which would later appear in the movie Never Been Kissed (1999). (The term "riot nrrrd", a pun on "riot grrrl", was first used in Douglas Coupland's Microserfs, to describe someone wearing "Dockers and Gap pocket-T". Whether the name of the song was a deliberate reference to the book is unclear.) Riot Nrrrd, along with several other songs on their first full-length album, $upermercado (1998), would later cause MC Frontalot to include them in his list of nerdcore rappers. The album mostly featured playful, nerdy songs about such subjects as Pluto and Star Wars.

Another of their most famous songs was "718," a reference to the eponymous area code shared by The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn, the four outer boroughs of New York City. This song was also on the 1998 Supermercado album.

In 2001, their third album, Volumizer, was finally released after a two-year delay. The tenor was perhaps a bit less intellectual and a bit more serious than $upermercado, but the overall trend remained playful and light. That changed somewhat in 2003 with Sexy Karate, which had a slightly angrier, more political tone.

In March 2003, following the release of Sexy Karate, the band announced in their ["farewell newsletter"] that they were soon beginning what they described as an "indefinite hiatus." However, in a 2005 post on the band's official webpage, Stumpy Johnson announced a reunion show on July 18, 2005, the two-year anniversary of the group's final live performance. A small series of shows throughout the northeastern United States was later announced; however, the band confirmed that these were merely "reunion shows" and were not meant to be interpreted as a sign that the band had officially reformed. Stevie Spice has not taken part in any of the reunion shows.

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