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Vice.com releases MASSIVE article on ICP / Juggalo Day!

When I woke up this morning, the first thing that was sent to me was a MASSIVE article on the Insane Clown Posse by VICE.  Going through the article, you’ll see that it covers ICP’s negative coverage in the media, Juggalos and the FBI gang label, how crisp and coordinated the supporting clowns have to be during an ICP show, J and Shaggy’s optimism for the city of Detroit, life growing up for the both of them, and TONS more.  This is a HUGE article, and will take you a bit to get through.  But seriously, it’s well worth the read.

Check out an excerpt of the first few paragraphs from Vice.com:

Detroit’s historic Masonic Temple reeked of pot, sweat, flat soda, and Speed Stick deodorant on the night of February 21. The funk of the juggalo had choked the air of the venue that—thanks to its gold ceilings and red carpets—looked like it should have been hosting a performance of Swan Lake, instead of white rappers in clown makeup.

There’s always a twisted tent revival vibe to Insane Clown Posse’s shows, but Juggalo Day was another beast altogether. This year, the free annual hometown show, which is put on to collect canned goods for a collection of food banks, resembled Blade‘s bloodbath rave, if you exchanged the fake blood for Faygo Moon Mist. Rapturous ICP fans writhed together in their soda sacrament, yelping “whoop whoop,” while Violent J, Shaggy 2 Dope, and their brood of cryptic clown dancers ran circles around the stage with the kind of swagger you can only learn in America’s worst public schools.

To people outside of the culture, the scene at Juggalo Day was an embarrassment at best, and dangerous at worst. The FBI currently classifies juggalos as a national gang. And after 26 years of releasing albums and going on international tours, ICP is just as divisive today as they were when the now-defunct Blender magazine named them the worst band in history. Even though the juggalo family has never been bigger or stronger, there is little appreciation for the artistry behind their music or the supportive nature of the culture they created. And so, they soldier on, making music for their hordes of obsessed fans outside of the mainstream.

As such, the group quietly released their latest album, The Marvelous Missing Link: The Lost Version,this week. And despite it breaking the top 10 of the iTunes hip-hop albums chart, there were no reviews on Pitchfork.com or short profiles in the last pages of the New Yorker. When the band gets any press at all, it’s usually terrible and diminutive. Every legitimate rap music critic I asked to talk about ICP refused to comment for this story because the band was, in one writer’s words, “irrelevant.” Not to mention, nearly everynews outlet—including this one—has sent a reporter down to events like Juggalo Day to gawk at the freaks and depict the band and its followers as imbeciles.

Now sit back, get a cup of coffee, and check out the rest of the article here:

Tears of a Clown: The American Nightmare that created the Insane Clown Posse @ Vice.com

Give it a read and let us know what you think in the comments below!

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    Faygoluvers Comments

  1. Mr.Bitches

    Mr.Bitches

    Comment posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2015 08:59 am GMT -5 at 8:59 am

    Its funny people say ICP is Irrelevant,Even tho they been around 20 years.sold 10 million albums,Have there own festival and record Label for 10+years.And are STILL dropping new music and doing shows

  2. Blacklisted MC

    Blacklisted MC

    Comment posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2015 11:09 am GMT -5 at 11:09 am

    a great informative (relatively) unbiased article

  3. JuggaloSk8r

    JuggaloSk8r

    Comment posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2015 11:47 am GMT -5 at 11:47 am

    Yeah, because ICP are as irrelevant as the earth’s atmosphere. Great article I thought.

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