Insane Clown Posse

Ah, ICP. What would I do without them?

Now, you may wonder why I say that. Well, if it wasn't for ICP, I wouldn'tve discovered NWA, Lifer's Group, Cykosis, and other such musicians I love. And don't get me wrong, I completely understand why many detest this duo. What with their "Miracles" video and all. Many people consider that they are not underground anymore. They still are, they just have been getting media attention recently. ICP has great rapping skills. They're also funny and entertaining. I have read Violent J's autobiography, and I can tell you that ICP are not fake gangsters. They had a difficult life in poverty. And Violent J.. Did you know he was molested as a child? Didn't think so. ICP even had their own gang, Inner City Posse. If an ICP hater listened to the early works, when they were known as Inner City Posse, they might like it.

And I don't exclusively listen to ICP either. I'm a huge Genesis, Beatles, and Nirvana fan. I love a lot of stuff. ICP is one of them, and I suggest you give 'em a second chance.

ICP by themselves are not a bad rap group and once in a blue moon I enjoy listening to them for the sake of nostalgia. I think they went to crap after the Jokers cards were finished and their fans are the most ignorant excuses of human beings. They claim to be "Underground" yet haven't been underground since the riddle box came out and they started seeking out a way to get signed by major labels like SONY for example (This is factual information by the way). Also, ISLAND records is an associate of Def Jam which in turn is a major label by itself so you can't help but wonder what ICP means when they tell their fans they are "underground". Underground artists be it rap or any other genre of music don't sell platinum albums, that is just ass backwards. I think ICP should go back to focusing on its "Dark Carnival" and the try to maintain the sound they had during the days of the ring master and riddlebox. Milenko and Jake Jackyl is also a notable point in their career but afterwards, something changed with ICP. The fans were bigger in numbers, yet less intelligent/mature and people started to get just a liiiitle bit obsessive. I can't count how many "Juggalos" I meat that claim to be hardcore yet don't own rare releases such as the original Tunnel of love cassette or the great pandolum let alone the phat or wack sampler, Inner City Posse's basement cuts, or Dog Beats. Downloading is one thing but being an avid collector of memorabilia is an entirely different story. I think ICP's fans need to be put in check these days.

Hello folks, it's your local hatemonger again, irionman, and this time I am here to review the Insane Clown Posse, or ICP for short. I had a private message the other day requesting that I put my reviews in a better format, so you guys can follow them better. (Or pick and choose what you want to read), so here it goes.

Name: The name, Insane Clown Posse, is absolutely outrageous. No, I do not say that in a good way either. (from now on, I will say icp) Who would want to be known as a duo of insane clowns anyway? Honestly, the way I see it, it started out as a few teenagers who wanted to start a rap duo. From that, I can see how the name started. The name sounds like something a teenager would make up. I don't see the name being thought about for too long, but rather being said on accident and sticking. There are many horrible names out there, Passenger of Shit and Vomitory come to mind, but those bands are at least, in my mind, better than this duo. ICP claim to come up from "humble" beginnings, and being from inner city Detroit, I don't doubt that. My problem comes when they claim to be inspiring other people, but that will come for the fans section of this interview.

Fans: Now this is the part that will piss off the fans, so if you like this group, listen up. ICP calls their fans Juggalos and Juggalettes. Why would a fan want to call their fans something so stupid? Honestly, why would a single band want to call their fans anything other than fans? Genres have dubs for their fans, like metalhead for example, but when bands start naming their fans, that is going a bit too far. Now, you would think that any normal person would not want to be called that, but then again, if you have ever witnessed the musical atrocity in act, you would know that at least 70 percent of the fans are not normal. Most of the fans, and this will really start to piss people off, are the local outcasts. They are the people who you see standing away from a crowd, with their earphones on, giving angry looks to people who walk by. When I was in school, they were the kids who stood underneath stairwells listening to their music in little pods. They would be standing really close to each other, but they would not be talking with each other. Then, the thing I found annoying, they would break out into some little song and dance routine after classes. (They would always sing the song Chicken Huntin').

The fans often refer to themselves as "The Family" and have an acronym that goes MMFWCL. Now, if you have ever seen a youtube video for any song that this band has ever made, you will see that acronym. It stands for Much Mother Fuckin Wicked Clown Love. Come on people, why would you want to parade around with "The Family" and tell people you are a bunch of wicked clowns. (Yes, they do paint their faces often, and when they are in groups like this, it's really a site to see.) First off, if you are truly wanting to be a family, start off by getting a respectable title. For one, if you walk into any type of job interview with painted faces, you will be laughed out of the place. Also, why would you want to hang around people who are obviously a group of outcasts. If you take 1000 outcast kids and group them together, you get a mob of outcast kids. That's all you get. They will act like a gang with mob mentality. Then, throw in a pair of insane singers to the mix, and you have something fairly dangerous. I'm not saying that ICP fans are more dangerous than the general public.....wait, yes I am. ICP fans are known to for vandalism and theft. (Don't believe me, look it up on any news site.) Go to inner city Detroit. Drive under the bridges. I can guarantee that you will find either MMFWCL or ICP painted on 50 percent of them. Hell, I even found that painted on bridges in Kansas.

Style:ICP pioneered a genre. Some will disagree, but I don't care. Normally, I would say that this is a respectable feature about the band, but then again, I don't find anything good about a genre called Terrorcore. ICP prides themselves on their terror based songs. They will rap about murder, rape, torture, Hell (as a punishment), and other weird disfigurements. Every single song, except maybe 5, are terror based. (Terror + carnival that is) When a band makes nothing but this type of music, what type of following do you think they will have. (Read the above paragraph for that one) I'm not going to go too in depth on this one, because it basically speaks for themselves. I do not appreciate any band that tries to either scare their fans, scare other people, or promote violence. 'Nuff said.

Final Words: From Dog Beats to Bang Pow Boom, ICP has been the epitome of crap. I have only heard ONE single song of theirs that I enjoy, and that song is Pass Me By. I believe that the song has a good message to it, and I also believe that it shows a bit more of what the two actually are. That sounds cheesy, but I believe it to be true. The song takes a break from the terror crap and actually seems a bit more heart felt, a bit closer to home. But that is only one song, and cannot make up for an entire terrible musical career. In fact, ICP's label, Psychopathic Records, is a joke in itself. It contains bands and artists that follow the lyrical style and musical style of ICP, and trust me, the music does not get any better with different bands. (Same crap, different person scenario.) I am going to stop myself here before I start writing a book on this band. I give this duo a 2/100. The 2 is out of my personal liking and respect to the song I mentioned before.