“So we’re gonna open some new doors, kick some new flavor and show we don’t have to rely on our regular bag of tricks. We’re looking forward to the challenge and providing something new and innovative and unexpected. We can’t wait for people to come and think they’re gonna see the same old thing and then, boom!, the death pop.”

FBI casts shadow on Juggalos
ICP’s latest tour, of course, comes amid the specter of its battle with the FBI, which began last year when the agency announced its gang designation for the Juggalos. That led partly to ICP’s ouster from the Royal Oak Music Theatre for last year’s Hallowicked show and has resulted in other booking challenges as well as negatively impacting the group’s merchandise sales.

The Bloomfield Hills-based law firm Hertz Schram PC has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit on behalf of ICP and its Psychopathic Records company seeking documents related to the gang classification. A trial date is set for next March. The firm also has been talking to Juggalos who feel their civil rights have been infringed upon by the designation in preparation for another suit asking for the fans to be removed from the list.

“The whole thing is absurd,” says attorney Howard Hertz, who says the firm has “gotten thousands of responses” from Juggalos and is “weeding through them to come up with a handful of plaintiffs” to move the second suit forward. “We’re not ready to file yet,” Hertz says, “but it’s getting close.”

For his part, Violent J says he tries “to keep my mind off it, honestly.”

“It bums me out, and I get winded when I think of the challenge,” he says. “But we’re fighting it. They’re gonna have to do their researching in trying to prove the Juggalos are a gang, but that scares me, what they’re going to find to say. I don’t know what to expect.”

Nevertheless, he’s buoyed by the support ICP has received.

“People are on our side, especially the clubs and places we’ve been coming for years,” Violent J says. “They know that’s (wrong). It’s so ridiculously stupid. I expect (the FBI) to say something like, ‘You misunderstood what we mean. We’re just saying (the Juggalos) behave LIKE gangs … but to make you happy we’ll take your name off the list.’ They’ll try to talk their way out of it like that.

“It’s so dumb and ridiculous and untrue that they’re gonna have to do something like that.”

While the legal wrangling continues, the duo is staying focused on its music. “The Mighty Death Pop,” which was released in three different versions last August, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Top Independent Albums chart. ICP plans to make videos for at least 10 of the album’s tracks and recently released the fifth — for “Where’s God?” a lament that’s self-evident from the title.

“I’m sure everyone will say God has a plan, but tell that to someone who just lost a loved one to some unfair tragedy,” says Violent J, who has two adolescent children. “God has a plan? F— that plan if it involves losing your daughter or something. Everybody, unfortunately, feels that way at some point, just … where’s God, y’know?”

The video, interestingly, depicts Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope in monks’ robes, carrying large crosses past scenes of death, drug use, poverty and other tragedies. Their religious beliefs have always factored into their music, but the “Where’s God” clip is the most explicit expression of faith they’ve made to date.

“I personally believe in God. God gives people hope,” says Violent J, who was raised Catholic. “People seem to make a big deal out of the fact that we’re religious; some people say we’re far more religious than we really are. So with everybody pointing the religious finger at us, we figured we might as well address it and put it front and center.

“It’s something else different to do at this stage of the game. We don’t have all the answers. We’re not educated in religion. We can’t sit here like a priest or a preacher; I haven’t read the Bible myself. But we believe in God, yes. We say it in the song — we still believe and we need him here and all that. But we can’t explain why he’s not there to help.”