Interesting thoughts. I know that J never really saw eye to eye with The ROC. He simply said that he always felt the guy was whining about everything.  

One of my favorite parts in the Violent J book was where Madrox comes out of some restaurant bathroom covered in entirely bright orange clothes. Like even orange socks. And everyone started laughing and they all were having a good time. But ROC was acting like it was fucked up to be laughing. Like a downer. Who knows, though? I just thought it was a funny little bit.

“The Night They Kame Home” is one of my favorite HOK tracks, despite it not being with Bonez and Hektik. 

It would have been way different, fo sho. With the power of Mike E. Clark and The Clowns behind them, it could have been just as successful. But never Twiztid. 

Old Mr Dangerous said
One of my favorite parts in the Violent J book was where Madrox comes out of some restaurant bathroom covered in entirely bright orange clothes. Like even orange socks. And everyone started laughing and they all were having a good time. But ROC was acting like it was fucked up to be laughing. Like a downer. Who knows, though? I just thought it was a funny little bit.  

Shaggy slapped Jamie in the face with a bag of shit and he laughed that off like it was a joke too. Something tells me that he didn’t really find it all that funny. I can see where R.O.C. would be coming from.

Mezzd said
Great question. I think Madrox and Monoxide, whether it’s as Twiztid or with Blaze as I.S.I., find success no matter what. They’re all super talented and were on their way up.

Halfbreed would have been sick with the late-nineties and early-aughts Psychopathic production though. That said, who knows if ROC would have meshed with ICP? If Halfbreed saw success with Psychopathic at that stage, there is a chance they don’t go do the “conscious-hiphop” Level Jumpers thing. Or, maybe they do it anyway because that’s where the music was naturally going. If that was the case, I don’t see Psychopathic keeping Level Jumpers in 2001 lol.  

I think Level Jumpers came to be because Skrapz and Freeze were getting out of horror rap and getting into backpacker/indie hip hop that was pretty popular at the time. Freeze is actually still making great music under the name Blair French that can be found on Spotify, he also put out a very underrated vinyl-only release called Formless Figures. It’s on some abstract hip-hop shit, but it’s really good and I wish it would be put on streaming services.

I’m not sure if The ROC would have followed that route without them, although obviously that’s something you would have to ask him about. The ROC, Skrapz and Freeze were just as talented as Twiztid and Blaze, but just didn’t have the promotional machine or professional level studio access that Twiztid and Blaze had.

Either way I look very fondly on those days, I wouldn’t miss a ROC show in the Detroit area.

Pigg said
A couple of things:

 

If halfbreed had signed to Psy they wouldn’t be halfbreed. They would have gotten a new name and a new look just like J did with every person he’s signed (sans myzery)

 

I think people are vastly underestimating how important luck and chance are when it comes to being successful in the music business. It doesn’t matter how talented or how hard someone works. If the luck ain’t there, they aren’t going anywhere.  

Definitely agree with the luck and chance thing, along with other variables like industry support, promotional efforts and having a cool video/song (especially in that era).

HalfBreed had the gimmick, they just needed the promotion and machine. The name was great and the visual presentation was awesome too…. It really is one of the biggest “what ifs” from that era in Psychopathic.

its a interesting what if, another is what if psy had signed bedlam instead of AMB. From what i heard joe was going to sign Bedlam but Madrox threatened that if he did twiztid would leave because he has some personal issues with curt(madness) so that cancelled that and they decided to do the contest to find a new signee