ONYX TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM, COLD CASE FILES: UNSOLVED MURDERS, AUGUST 19TH ON ONYX RECORDS/ICELAND MUSIC GROUP

After conquering Hollywood, hip-hop’s original rebels, ONYX – Fredro Starr, Sonny Seeza, Sticky Fingaz – return on the scene, emerging from their musical vaults with a new album, Cold Case Files: Unsolved Murders, a 16-track collection of previously unreleased songs executive produced by the members of Onyx and Omar “Iceman” Sharif for Ice Man Music Group (IMMG).  “It’s a culmination of all the years,” explains Fredro. A cold case is a murder that gets cold and people forget about it. Years later, with new evidence they bring it out. This is us coming back after all the years with murderous tracks. This is a throwback for hard-core Onyx fans across the world!”
 
The collection features underground singles, lost studio recordings sessions from the group’s first three albums and features appearances from Method Man, deceased Onyx member X1 (Sticky Fingaz’s brother), and Gang Green. 
 
According to the group, revisiting these sessions also serves as a tribute to fallen soldiers Jam Master Jay, X1 and Big DS, all Onyx affiliates who have passed on in the last five years some of which are still unsolved murders. “I remember when we shot the video with those guys in the Isuzu Rodeo jeep,” recalls Fredro of one of the songs, “I’ll Murda U.” “Listening puts me right back there.” Sticky Fingaz adds, “I listen to Cold Case File and say, ‘Damn, why didn’t we put that out before?'”
 
Sonee‘s young brother and frequent guest Hussein was the one who archived much of this lost material. Sonee, who served as Album Supervisor, states, “Some of these songs are so raw that you’ll hearing the original mix. We kept it authentic to the period when they were recorded.  Hussein was our biggest fan when we were in the studio recording and kept all our classics that never made it into albums in the Onyx vault; so when it came to making the album, he had tracks we didn’t even know existed on everything from cassettes, DATS, CDs and 2 inch studio reels.” Fredro adds, “It’s kinda bugged out to deal with this new technology too, ’cause back in the days, we was puttin’ shit on DATs, cassettes, and it still sounds good.  This is classic vintage Onyx.  When you listen to this album you gonna feel like you in the ’90’s.”
 
Despite going back as much as 15 years, the songs from Cold Case Files are still very resonant today. “Mad World” for instance, features socio-political verses in the classic uncontainable Onyx delivery, with a chorus stating that the “streets are worse than jail.” Although recorded in 1997, the lyrics remain relevant to our times. Fredro deduces, “War has not stopped. America has been in war for 20 years. When we did our first album, my friends were just coming from Desert Storm. Today we’re still at war so the lyrics are still current. Sean Bell getting shot in the streets is the same injustice as Yusef Hawkins. Ain’t nothing changed.”
 
Touching upon issues like these might seem controversial to the Hollywood careers of Fredro Starr (Clockers, Sunset Park, The Wire) and Sticky Fingaz (In Too Deep, Next Friday, Blade: The Series), but both MCs feel bound to fulfill their duties to listeners and fans. “We always got flack for what we said on records, for being too thugged out. I went to one network meeting that was playing my music, it was crazy. It’s just self-expression,” defends Fredro, whose career has thrived in both music and film. With songs like “Wilin’, Wilin’,” “I’ll Murder U” and “See U In Hell Pt. 2,” Onyx remain loyal to the themes and energy that made them stars in the first place. “You can’t stop the voice of the ghetto,” stamps Fredro.
 
The voice of Onyx has no plans of stopping. Cold Case Files sets the stage for the group’s next studio album, Black Rock, planned for 2009 and a series called 100 Men featuring new members of the Onyx Music family. “Black Rock is a hybrid album – Rock influenced with Hip Hop underneath it.  It’s us repping for the rebels of the world, the rebels of the street who Onyx represents. It’s a where hip-hop meets the mosh pit,” denotes Fredro Starr. “Slam was the song that crossed us over, it was like a rock n’ roll record and we never really went down the rock & roll/hip-hop lane. We always kinda steered away from it and now we’re gonna do a whole album inspired by that sound.” explains Sticky Fingaz.
 
Mentored by Jam Master Jay, championed by a cult of hardcore Hip Hop fans, and embraced by Hollywood with acting careers, Sticky Fingaz, Fredro Starr and Sonnee Seeza remain true to their original mantra of hard beats, hard rhymes and a pioneering street demeanor fused together in classic music. After five charting albums:  Bacdafucup (Def Jam 1993), All We Got Iz Us (Def Jam, 1995), Shut ‘Em Down (Def Jam, 1998), Bacdafucup Pt. II (Onyx Records/Koch International), Triggernometry (Onyx Records – D3/Rivera 2003) and classic singles “Slam,” “Bacdafucup,” “Last Dayz” between 1993 and 2003, amidst solo careers, Onyx unveils Cold Case Files: Unsolved Murders on August 19, 2008 on Iceman Music Group/Koch Records.
 
Omar “Ice Man” Sharif, founder and CEO of Ice Man Music Group (IMMG) who has executive produced five Onyx albums and three of their solo albums adds, “Onyx like Ice Man Media Group is a multi-media.  We have our hands in everything from music, to film, television, and even fashion.  Fredro, Sticky, and Sonee, have over 5 million fans world-wide who are waiting for their return.  We just got back from Bulgaria, Russia, South America, and China and no matter where we go across the world, it’s a mosh pit once Onyx hits the mic. I have never seen hip-hop group rock arenas with the raw energy and magnetism of Onyx. They’re more than just a hip-hop group, they’re stars, icons!” He adds, “IMMG is about capturing the rawness of the early 90’s by doing deals with such artists like AZ and ONYX who aren’t gimmicky.  Pure, uncut, raw hip-hop and that’s what you should expect to hear from Ice Man Music Group and you can’t get any rawer than Onyx.”
 
About Ice Man Music Group, Inc. (IMMG)
 
Founded by Omar “Ice Man” Sharif, Ice Man Music Group (IMMG) distributed by Koch Entertainment (parent distributor for Koch Records) dedicates itself to raw original hip-hop and includes Spider Loc, AZ, ONYX (Fredro Starr, Sticky Fingaz, Sonee Seeza),  DJ Absolut and new artists Young Hustel and Bad Luck.  Under IMMG  is a coalition of labels: Onyx Records Presents 100 Mad Niggaz With Gunz. Baymacc, Onyx Records,Quiet Money, Addicted 4 Life, and many more to come.