At the end of this post, I'll present you with a little gift of the video that led to my writing about this group. I hope you'll be as amused with it as I was. First, let's explore the Dark Carnival and the slack-jawed scions that gave us this mad crazy knowledge in a little more detail. Grab some Faygo and listen up, yo. It's 'bout to get real deep on y'all. Knowledge dropping today comes from Insane Clown Posse, or ICP, as in-the-know juggalos call them.
Have I just lost you? Are you feeling disoriented by that last bit of lingo I threw at you? Well allow me to open your minds to a whole new universe you'll wish didn't really exist.
This dandy pairing of lyrical expectorate is called "Violent J" and "Shaggy 2 Dope", and together they form ICP.
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| BFF necklaces, bro. |
These ringing a bell for anyone? No? Well don't let the juggalos hear you disrespectin' like that.
'Juggalos' is what you're supposed to call ICP fans. They prefer that to jughead, imbecile, or cretin. Even if you don't recognize any of those songs, you likely have seen the Mark of the
You can see him in lots of places if you look:
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| On T-shirts |
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| On Cars |
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| On Necklaces |
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| On Tattoos |
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| And of course, On Caskets |
And if that last picture isn't sad enough for you, here's something to bring a tear of indignation to your eye: ICP has sold over 6.5 million albums, putting them among America's 1-percenters. Sigh.
Early on in the band's history, the fat one, Violent J, had a dream about some crazy carnies. The band decided to use the dream to spin some elaborate mythology about evil jokers involving what seems to be some modified version of a Tarot card deck. They call it the Dark Carnival. It would all be kind of adorable if it had come from a couple of 9-year olds like it sounds. But it didn't. It's just regular growed-up imbecility. And the juggalos eat that stuff up, yo. 'Cause that stuff is like, deep. And dark, you know what I'm sayin'?
They had been spinning this mythology since their 1992 debut album, Carnival of Carnage. Each album explained a new card in the deck, or something like that. It all built toward a final card explanation on their 2002 album, The Wraith: Shangri-La. The BIG REVEAL was that the Dark Carnival is nothing more than an allegory for the awesomeness of God, heaven and hell. The album, by the way, included tracks like Murder Rap, Get Ya Wicked On, and Cotton Candy & Popsicles. And fans were like, "Huh? Well, I guess as long as y'all still rap about killin' and sexin' and gettin' drank, I can get down with Posse Jesus."
ICP continue to make music, including the song Miracles. As described by Violent J hisself on their website [completely sic'd]:
Without any further ado, let's take a look at the video (language is a bit rough, so make sure the boss or kids aren't walking by).
Early on in the band's history, the fat one, Violent J, had a dream about some crazy carnies. The band decided to use the dream to spin some elaborate mythology about evil jokers involving what seems to be some modified version of a Tarot card deck. They call it the Dark Carnival. It would all be kind of adorable if it had come from a couple of 9-year olds like it sounds. But it didn't. It's just regular growed-up imbecility. And the juggalos eat that stuff up, yo. 'Cause that stuff is like, deep. And dark, you know what I'm sayin'?
They had been spinning this mythology since their 1992 debut album, Carnival of Carnage. Each album explained a new card in the deck, or something like that. It all built toward a final card explanation on their 2002 album, The Wraith: Shangri-La. The BIG REVEAL was that the Dark Carnival is nothing more than an allegory for the awesomeness of God, heaven and hell. The album, by the way, included tracks like Murder Rap, Get Ya Wicked On, and Cotton Candy & Popsicles. And fans were like, "Huh? Well, I guess as long as y'all still rap about killin' and sexin' and gettin' drank, I can get down with Posse Jesus."
ICP continue to make music, including the song Miracles. As described by Violent J hisself on their website [completely sic'd]:
"This song points out some of every day's biggest and best miracles and suggests that you take the time to peep some of them out and re-evaluate what your seeing here. Because the truth is right here on this earth, in every day life there is some pretty f***in' fantastic s*** poppin' off...We understand if your not feeling it though. We know it's way different and all that. But if you can open your mind enough to see a miracle out of a lightning bug, than maybe you can open your mind enough to dig this song."
Without any further ado, let's take a look at the video (language is a bit rough, so make sure the boss or kids aren't walking by).
Magic everywhere in this bitch.
It's all around and you don't even know it. I'm suprised you didn't know that.
ReplyDeletep.s. where can I gets me some casket decals?
Fo Real!
I remember the moment like it was yesterday. A tent in the Kuwaiti desert, just about a million degrees, blowing sand everywhere, and nothing outside the camp but hardpan tabletop and these crazy dinosaur-looking lizards as far as the eye could see. We'd all just come back from some acclimatization training or other, and had a few hours to kill. Everyone was miserable, and decent ways to kill time were few and far between. Some guys tried to sleep, some played cards. A couple of really motivated troopers were doing situps at the far end of the tent.
ReplyDeleteThat's when I locked eyes with private Burton. The smallest guy in the platoon by about 40 pounds, he hand long-for-military emo-lookin' hair, and perpetual set of darkish rings around his eyes. He was scrawny and anemic looking, with a chest that was sort of concave. I'd noticed him during pre-deployment training; he was the one who would take off at a dead sprint at the beginning of multi-mile runs before being found stopped, sometimes supine, along the side of the trail, gasping for breath like a carp in late-stage asphyxia. I'd sometimes hypothesize that he was in the early stages of some sort of cardio-pulmonary crisis, and wondered if he was ok. He also had that uneasy lack of muzzle discipline that meant he was always pointing his rifle at you, or at his fire team, or at himself, which made everyone a little nervous. We'd never spoken before now.
From three cots away, he called to me. "Hey," he said, in a soft, high, prepubescent sort of voice, "you like ICP??"
I raised an eyebrow. ICP, I surmised, was a military acronym I'd not heard before. "no," he corrected, "Insane Clown Posse. Badass." He said it with a sort of reverence, of holy awe. I said I was not familiar with them, and asked if they were a favorite of his. "Fuckin' A," he said "They sing about evil clowns 'n shit." He smiled. Then he began to cough. And cough. And cough. I edged away.
I still didn't know much about ICP, but I knew that when the war started I was going to be as far away from Private Burton as I could possibly be.
Because you're wondering, I've attached a picture of the above-referenced lizard.
http://www.dreamstime.com/lizard-thumb10694723.jpg
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ReplyDeleteThis. This is the perfect comment for this story.
ReplyDelete