Guilty Pleasures: The Insane Clown Posse
This is the first time I’ve decided that instead of defending an album I’m going to defend an artists entire career. For this first one I’m going to defend the one, the only… Insane Clown Posse. This is in part inspired by my recent Saint Mort Show Guest Sean Dunne, director of American Juggalo (Video is NSFW) – http://vimeo.com/29589320
Where does one begin when discussing the gruesome two-some of poorly reviewed albums, bad publicity and consistently ranked as the worst rappers and/or musicians of all time. Well I’m here to say this is a gross over-statement.
Let’s start with talking Juggalos. I think much of the hate for Insane Clown Posse comes from hatred of the Juggalos. You may be asking, What is a Juggalo? Well according to the song ‘What is a Juggalo’ they can be anything including my favorite ‘a fucking lunatic/somebody with a rope tied around his dick/then he jumps out a ten story window/Ahhhhhhhh. oh’. While the song is comedic and vulgar the point is simple, a Juggalo is anyone with ‘clown love’ or simply a fan of the band.
Juggalo’s are like negative press lightening rods. Sometimes they’re throwing rocks at Tila Tequila or having Juggalo funerals. The media shows you the most negative aspects of being an Insane Clown Posse fan, to the point that they’ve been examined as a potential gang/terrorist threat. What they don’t talk about are the straight edge Juggalos, the ones that are doctors or the ones like Tony Hartman and Dave Biscella who created the hilarious web-series Juggalohio. At the end of the day, Juggalos are a community of outcasts who connect to music, love it or hate it they’re no different than the punk kids in the 80’s (just with shittier ‘uniforms’ aka face paint).
To be fair Tony and Dave aren’t exactly Juggalos. In the word’s of Tony Hartman “We appreciate the Juggalo community without being Juggalos. We set out to make a funny show involving Juggalos that wasn’t just a bunch of Juggalo jokes. A majority of the Juggalos have been extremely supportive of what we did and understood that there are funny elements to their lifestyles that leads to good comedy. But I think they enjoy being in on a joke instead of exploited.”
Furthermore in my interview Sean Dunne on this week’s Saint Mort Show he discusses how there is an incredible feeling of community. People focus on the violent and hateful nature of ICP lyrics (which are typically written in jest) and the occasional bad press and ignore the positive elements of their community that I discussed earlier.
Regardless most people who hate Insane Clown Posse have only know them through internet memes and negative press (towards both Juggalos and the band). The group began in Detroit in the early 90’s and quickly became one of the most well known groups in the area. Using horror movies and circus metaphors the group quickly sold out shows and built up a strong following with their first albums Carnival of Carnage and The Ringmaster. Next came the massively successful independently released Riddle Box.
While Shaggy2Dope and Violent J are pretty awful rappers, they’re not the all time worst. I mean honestly, let’s take a look at some of the lyrics from Lil’ Wayne who is supposed to be one of the ‘hottest MCs of All time” and tell me his lyrics are worse than ICP’s.
Let’s play a game, tell me which lyrics are Lil’ Wayne and which are Insane Clown Posse.
A) “Fuck you with a pool stick/Make you swallow two dicks”
B) “But then I escaped to the ghetto zone/Started a crew of my own, motherfucker, I’m not alone”
C) “Who was you with when you got tattooed/And who was you trippin with when you did them mushrooms”
D) “I told her back it up like burp, burp/I made that ass jump like jerp, jerp”
If you said that A and D where Insane Clown Posse, you’d be wrong. Those are both lyrics by Lil Wayne a MULTIPLE award winning rap artist and was constantly listed as one of the ‘hottest MCs in the game’.
If you honestly want to tell me that B and C are ANY worse than A and D you’re an asshole. What’s more offensive to me is that Insane Clown Posse is for the most part dicking around, they’re two guys who love horror movies, cheap soda and dick & fart jokes. It could literally be Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith under that make-up.
My first exposure to Insane Clown Posse came in 1997 when I saw the music video for Halls of Illusion on the box. I was instantly hooked into this bizarre ‘horror-core hip-hop’. While a bunch of people act like they always hated Insane Clown Posse, I can’t remember many kids in my middle school who didn’t buy Great Milenko and learn the words to songs like Hokus Pokus and The Neden Game. Sure, I was the same generation that made Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and KoRn huge… but have you listened to those albums recently? They’re all incredible albums in their own right. In fact in a recent list of 1001 albums to hear before you die Korn and Kid Rock each had one album and Limp Bizkit had two. Point is haters are gonna hate.
I know that Insane Clown Posse isn’t for everyone, fuck they’re barely for me. What bugs me is that people never gave them a fair shot. They got their biggest exposure with their song Miracles released last year. It became an instant viral success and a point of mockery that didn’t really disappear until Rebecca Black’s Friday came in.
What people don’t talk about is that Bang! Pow! Boom! (the album Miracles appeared on) was the best reviewed album in their career averaging a 3-star review. People jump on lyrics like “Fucking Magnets? How do they work” but what is the song trying to say. The song is about how incredible the world is and how we completely ignore the little victories and miracles in the world. Watch the video below of an indie rock group covering the song only removing the curses and the few references to Jugglaos. The fact is the song is beautiful.
Insane Clown Posse aren’t lyrical geniuses. I’ll never say that. I won’t even say they’re great philosophers or above average rappers. But they’re victims of the internet’s on going desire to hate on a target in mass hordes. Insane clown Posse is just your average rap group with a sometimes off putting wrapping paper. But they mean a lot to some people and I will always respect them for that.
Maybe one day the ICP hate will end. I believe it will. In fact I’m a firm believer in Miracles.
When he’s not defending bad movies and music Matt is hosting Saint Mort Show, tweeting throughout the day and reading his blog.
