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Hallowicked, a word that has become infused with underground music for the past decade. The word defines the month in which wickedness and underground music leak out from the floor boards to take over the mainstream music industry. This one time every year audiences who are not associated with hardcore rap music (Horrorcore, Gangster Rap, Wickedshit, Acid Rap) get a glimpse into the realm of those who live it all year long. Hallowicked was started in 1994 by Psychopathic Records to offer a showcase of there music for the legends of fans of the label throughout the World. The event was a one night stand of Detroit rap group, The Insane Clown Posse on Halloween night in there hometown. The event took place at the Majestic Theater in Detroit, the event was a huge success as it was completely sold out. After the show a ritual was started as members of the Psychopathic Records staff gave out to the fans leaving the venue, a tape. The Tape contained a copy of the song Dead Pumpkins. This ritual would continue each and every year that the event took place as a sort of Thank you to the fans who had stuck with the music for the entire year.
Due to the success of the first annual Hallowicked, the next year in 1995 the event would take place again, with the same reason, to honor those who made the wicked sounds of the Insane Clown Posse there life's. At this point in the Insane Clown Posses career, they had achieved a level of success not often seen with a group of this genre, they were signed artists to Jive Records and there record sales were at an all time high. Banking on this the group decided to expand Hallowicked, the event would now take place on two nights, October 30th and 31st again in the capital city of underground music, Detroit. The Insane Clown Posse invited relatively unknown label mate, Mystical to perform at the event. The group continued the tradition started at the first Hallowicked by offering a tape to the myriad of fans at the two night showcase. The single was Mr. Rotten Treats.
Following the goal of making the event bigger and better every year the event was expanded to a tour, The Hallowicked Clown Tour. The tour would feature other underground wicked sounding artists including KGB, The House of Krazees, and Wolfpac. The event would pass through Texas, Kansas, and Missouri before coming to a complete halt. The tour was scheduled for two nights in St. Louis with the first night passing without incident. However, on the second night Violent J of The Insane Clown Posse attempted to stage dive from atop speaker equipment set up for the groups performance however as he flew through the air he quickly realized that there was nobody there to catch him. Violent J fell straight to the ground breaking his collarbone and being taken fro the venue unconscious. Due to the accident the group had to postpone the tour until Violent J could heal, the tour finally finished on December 14th in Detroit, Michigan. The tradition again continued this year in any case, The Witches and Warlocks cassette was released for the 1996, Hallowicked Clown Tour.
With the group at the penicle of its career after the release of The Great Milenko and the release of the documentary, Shockumentary, The year came to its climax as it was once again time for Hallowicked. Hallowicked had been scaled back in 1997 to a conservative two night stand one night in Toledo, Ohio and the second night of course in Detroit Michigan on October 31st. The show featured opening act The House of Krazees, the group that would soon be named Twiztid. The single that was released was a remix of a song entitled Mr. Johnson's Head.
1998's Hallowicked reverted back to its previous ways, as the event was expanded to a tour again, with dates passing through Milwaukee on October 26th, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit and finally coming to an end on October 31st in St. Louis. The odd thing about the announced dates was that for the first time Hallowicked wouldn't be in Detroit on Halloween night, instead it would be in Missouri. This tour featured GWAR, Twiztid, and Myzery. The single for 1998 was a collaboration cd featuring Twiztid and Kottonmouth Kings, entitled Pumpkin Carvers.
Reverting back to there earlier trend Psychopathic records announced that Hallowicked 1999 would again be in Detroit on its most important night, Halloween. There was three dates for this years event all in Detroit, October 29th 30th and 31st. The dates would feature Twiztid and The Pimps. The idea was to give out 1,000 singles of Sleepwalker every night however by the time the second night had finished the cds were completely gone and the singles weren't available for night three.
The year 2000 had arrived and despite all the speculation, everyone was still alive. On October 30th and 31st Psychopathic Records would hold Hallowicked on Devils Nite October 30th, and then again on October 31st both in Detroit. The prices were outrageous for most as the tickets went for $100. The groups performing were Icp, Twiztid, Psychopathic Rydas, Blaze and Abk, Esham & Mastamind of legendary horrorcore group NATAS. The single for this year actually wasn't a single at all. Instead, Psychopathic went all out and gave each attendee a Hallowicked Box Set featuring Bizzar, Bizaar, Twiztid's Freekshow, the hallowicked Ep, a t shirt, a Flier and a Sticker.
2001's Hallowicked was a one night stand in Detroit, Michigan featuring Icp, Twiztid, Blaze and Abk, and the show was opened by Dark Lotus. The Ep released for 2001 consisted of Icp's "Every Halloween", Twiztid's "Waited Till Halloween" and Blaze featuring Abk on "Children of the Wasteland."
In 2002 Hallowicked was back to two nights in Detroit again. The two nights featured a different lineup for each event. Icp, Blaze, Esham, Zug Izland, also Wolf and The Ninjas in Action were featured on October 30ths while Icp, Twiztid, and Abk performed on October 31st. The EP for 2002 featured Violent J and Esham on Silence of the Hams and Blaze remade an Icp track with his version of Dead Body Man 2002.
Detroit Michigan was again the site for 2003's Hallowicked. The event took place just after the completion of the highly successful Wicked Wonka Tour. The lineup was Insane Clown Posse, Bone Thugs N Harmony, The Kottonmouth Kings, and underground favorite Tech N9ne. Arguably the best lineup the event had ever seen. The single released was entitled Thug Pit. Thug pit featured each participant in the event Bone Thugs, Kmk, Tech N9ne, and Icp. Controversy arose however when Esham decided to jump on a verse of the song. Tech N9ne had been working closely with Eminem and D12 for his album and was trying to develop a stronger relationship with the infamous artist. Esham had at this point a long running beef with D12 and decided to take the time to diss the rival crew, more specifically Eminem. Tech N9ne took offense to this and began to publically denounce Eshams diss.
On October 31st of 2004 Psychopathic Records again fresh off a tour held Hallowicked in Detroit, Michigan. The lineup featured touring mates The Filthee Immigrants, Esham, Abk, and West Coast hip hop legend Mack 10. The event ended briefly through Insane Clown Posse's set as the crowd began rushing the stage, and destroying the set, Equipment was stolen, Props were destroyed and the DPD cleared house as a myriad of cops came in to end the riot. The album for this event was Murda Cloak featuring Anybody Killa.
The next year, things went a little bit better. 2005 featured the return of a Hallowicked Tour. The event passed through St. Louis, Cleveland, Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis and ending on the 31st in Detroit. The tour featured a lineup of Project: Deadman, Vanilla Ice, the Axe Murder Boyz, and Blue Monkey Sideshow. The hallowicked cd was only released in Detroit, it was entitled Wicked Hellaween and it was Mike E. Clark's return to Psychopathic production.
What will the future hold for Hallowicked and its long running tradition? Keep posted every October to find out!
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