Draft:The Hard Corps (band)

The Hard Corps (THC) is an American rock band, founded in January 1990 in Nashville, Tennnessee, that plays rap rock and rap metal.

Their debut single “Hard Corps” made MTV history as the first video added to both the Yo! MTV Raps and Headbangers Ball playlists. Their debut album Def Before Dishonor was produced by Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay and Grammy award-winner Phil Nicolo.

During its original run, the bi-racial band paired rappers and a DJ with metal musicians and gained comparisons to Run-DMC and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" collaboration and Public Enemy and Anthrax’s version of “Bring The Noise," among other early rap rock collaborations.

The lineup teams rappers Ronzo "The Beast" Cartwright and Bob “Deputy Dirty Bob” Samuels and DJ Terry “Major Kutt” Hayes with rock musicians Kelly “Machine Gun Kelly” Butler (bass), Kenny “Maestro K.O.” Owens (drums), and Kevin “Rev-Kev” Reinen (guitar).

Band Formation
Butler came from Mr. Zero, a Nashville rap punk band. Cartwright and Samuels were in rap group, The Vice, while Hayes was a local DJ. They became friends while working together at the same audio company. Cartwright told The Scene (Nashville) that the group initially struggled to find common ground between rap and metal but found it in "beats with more pocket... a fat, tight, chunky beat”.

The Tennesseean’s Robert K. Oermann interpreted The Hard Corps military stage gear as representing “the battlefield against prejudice and misunderstanding” which placed them on “the frontline of a new musical style." "We're about doing the right thing and we have something to say," Butler told Oermann. “We address certain issues and we cross certain barriers, including race, but that's not our main focus. Just by being who we are and doing what we do is a message in itself."

Within a year of forming, the band caught industry attention at the Nashville Music Association's Extravaganza, and a deal with Interscope Records followed. In the December 1991 issue of Music Row, Brian Mansfield speculated that it was "the biggest pop deal ever for a Nashville band (a reported $2 million plus for two albums)."

Def Before Dishonor
The album was released on Oct. 15, 1991. Songs included covers of AC/DC’s "Back in Black" and War’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends” as well as party jam “Let’s Go” (which samples drums from James Brown"s "Funky Drummer" ) and message songs “Crime Don’t Pay” and “Three Blind Mice.” Billboard praised the band's ability to "rap and scratch out a fearsome metal hip-hop fusion."

In 2023, producer Shawn Franklin remastered the tracks on Def Before Dishonor. THC has announced a full reissue slated for 2024.

The band toured with Primus, Fishbone, 24-7 Spyz, and Ice T & Body Count. Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot praised the Hard Corps as "fun to watch" in a November 9, 1991 review of an opening gig for Primus and Fishbone.''

However, by the spring of 1992, THC split with their management, label, and booking agency and returned to Nashville to regroup.

That summer, four of the six THC members – Cartwright, Hayes, Butler, and Owens – enlisted Ludichrist and Scatterbrain guitarist Glen Cummings to play a handful of outstanding live dates. The provisional line-up immediately geled, and they renamed themselves Stone Deep. Stone Deep reformed in 2022.