Evlkitty has gotten me hooked on these guys.
Over-the-top-rude, silly, twisted…and yet, any time I try and shrug them off as prepubescent-minded, insignificant attention-whores I keep coming back to colonel Kurtz’ observation: “We train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won’t allow them to write “fuck” on their airplanes because it’s obscene!” And all of a sudden they’re making a lot of sense. And I don’t quite know how to feel about that.
Prepubescent-minded, insignificant attention whores, about whom I can’t believe people are still talking.
Ick.
They are one of the few rap groups I enjoy. I’m not sure that they have a higher meaning but “I stab people” is one of the songs that goes through my head randomly.
I don’t think their music is really any good, but there’s something I admire about their over-the-top ridiculousness and the weird Dark Carnival mythology they invented. I see them more as some odd performance art group rather than a musical group. In other words, the theatre of ICP intrigues me, even if I don’t particularly enjoy it.
Juggalos (ICP fans) are one of the few subculture groups that I flat out can not stand. My kid sister dated one a few years ago, and I wound up meeting most of the locals. One or two were decent folks, but the rest had this really weird racist/brutal/drugged out thing going on that really rubbed me the wrong way. And, to a man, they had the worst tattoos I have ever seen, many of which they gave themselves with a home tattoo gun while tripping on acid.
Maybe this is just the near-by population of juggalos, but nothing I have seen has convinced me of that.
They used to make me laugh. Probably will again if I listen to them again.
Just thinking about them and the Juggalo culture makes me irrationally furious.
They consist on one mildly clever MC, Violent J and one of the worst MCs to ever pick up a mic, Shaggy 2 Dope. Sometimes they are undeniably funny, and sometimes just…horrible. For my tastes Twiztid is very similar and much, much better.
Let’s not even talk about the bulk of the fan base. Suffice it to say that they were responsible for having my favorite record store kicked out of it’s old location due to an instore appearance of the aforementioned worst MC in the history of rap, Shaggy 2 Dope.
Unoriginal, laughable scary-clown schtick with an irritating subculture, okay-but-not-good music which is not at all helped by extra-laughable moralising and religious tedium.
I quote from the Wikipedia page on their theology, for your edutainment:
If you really want to weep for humanity, Google “Juggalo baby funeral.”
FWIW, ICP themselves are totally anti-racist, but yeah, they do appeal to a lot of lowest common denominator types.
Personally, I like them. They’re funny and sometimes even clever, and if nothing else the clown/carnival/circus shtick is original.
I thought that they were already forgotten, wadded up and tossed in the pop culture trashcan (as they should be).
Every bit as relevent as Rick Springfield, or the Fat Boys, or CrazyTown, or…
…Rick Astley?
CrazyTown! Holy hell, I haven’t thought about them in a long time. That “Butterfly” song was everywhere for a year or so about a decade ago. I think I even heard my mom humming it once.
But otherwise, I agree with you completely. ICP had (has?) a ridiculously vocal, but ridiculously small) group of fans. They’re not relevant anymore and it’s arguable that they were ever relevant outside their dedicated fanbase.
You want a life? Dig up the Frontline episode “The Merchants of Cool.” They seriously make the case that ICP would take over the world.
I hate that song so much because it samples Pretty Little Ditty by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and when that song came out I met tons of people who thought that they wrote the music.
Anyway, the whole ICP still being popular amazes me. They were big when I was in high school back in 1995, but it seems that every white kid under the age of 19 that works at the grocery store by my house has a Psychopathic hoodie or shirt on while chasing carts and I still see tons of cars with Psychopathic logo stickers on the windows.
They’re extremely overrated, and only appear to be so terrible because the level of devotion their fans give them is so disproportionate to their talent.
You don’t know what’s terrible!
Thanks for the opening there.
I once deeply offended a co-worker, who was a big fan of The Rock, by confusing juggalos and jabronis.
So it appears that, in the lower pantheon of pop culture, ICP ranks signficantly below pro-wrestling. Make of that what you will.
Actually, ICP has a long history within pro wresting and even have their own wrestling promotion. Seriously.
Well duh. 
Juggalos are essentially the bottom of the pop culture barrel. Christ, furries can look down on juggalos with impunity.
Of course, they may end up getting their asses kicked. But it’s the one shining moment where they are not at the complete bottom of the geek hierarchy.