Carnival Of Carnage | 1992 |
Ringmaster | 1994 |
Riddle Box | 1995 |
The Great Milenko | 1997 |
Forgotten Freshness | 1998 |
The Amazing Jeckel Brothers | 1999 |
Bizaar/Bizzar | 2000 |
You know, I'm probably asking for it by reviewing the Insane Clown Posse. The problem is that they're basically only two types of people - those who think the band is completely talentless and those who dress up in clown make up every day and insist that you call them by some "gangsta" name. I'm neither of those. It's true that while they can't pretend to be musicians and their rapping skills are barely competent at best, they can turn out an entertaining track or three. Their early albums, Carnival Of Carnage and Ringmaster were independently produced and released in Detroit. They moved on to Jive records for Riddle Box, which flopped and sent them back to the minor. Then, by some weird twist of fate, Hollywood Records (owned by Disney) picked them up to record and release The Great Milenko, but pulled the album 6 hours after it was released, making the group instant stars. Island records re-released the album and it went gold. The Amazing Jeckel Brothers was the follow up, and it amazingly debuted at number 3 on the Billboard charts with no support from MTV or radio. The group consists of Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, who rap (clumsily) about chopping people's heads off and drinking Faygo. Most of the group's actual music comes from producer Mike E. Clark, who can write a good, catchy beat every now and then.
--Philip Maddox
Site maintainer's note: Is this page gonna turn out like the comments on Mark Prindle's Ballbreaker review or what? :)
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COMMENTS
[email protected] (Scott Pryor)
ICP ROXX U ANUS!!!!
LUV,
Pixii
u little bitch
dont diss on icp
juggulos will kill u for that shit
eat shit and die!
[email protected] (Alan Downton)
what bad reviews . such low scores. i havent heard much but what i heard sucked. ICP can suck eminems dick.
ICP kicks ass !
They rock in concert.
I'm a juggalo for life ! !
~Tyffani~
hey mutha fackos quit playa hatein on icp just becuse it's raining dimondsthe wickid clowz will never diejuggalo for life mutha facko
What the fuck is your problem dissing icp like that on your lil bitch ass site. You dont know shit so dont try to pretend you do. Go eat dick.
Im down for life.
ICP rocks they have the best talent ever by any band I've heard
dont diss icp, what the fuck is wrong with you ? youre just jealous because your favorite rapper sucks cock and you know it! ICP will always be better than eminem, dont hate because you cant rap, you fuckin heartless bastards!!!
stupid bitch dissing icp like that i dont knock anybodys elses music so they sure as hell better not talk shit about mine you obviously dont like them cause your heads so far stuck up your ass its hard to hear things correctly up there oh and for your information i dont dress up in clown make up every day or go by some 'gansta' name but im down for life JUGGALOS!
i'm hardcore! i do know these guys are the whacked out stona's!
how dear you diss us juggalos and juggaletts you are the means person a
live dont diss the icps,abk.and stuff.
icps great milenko went platinum yo
hi don't diss icp there so cool
Hi y'all. I'm not a huge ICP fan, but they still kick major ass. Although if y'all wanna listen to some kick ass awesome music listen to DEATH METAL. Have fun
Miranda
I first saw this ICP bullshit on some website and I thought it was some kind of stupid cartoon for those angsty Goth kiddies. Out of curiosity, I typed it into google and I find out that this is some kind of a musical group. Well on first impression, I thought that this was some loser Cooper wannabes and I listened to some of your songs and I found out that I was right.
I don't know what is worse ... the fact that they ripped Alice Cooper's style or the fact that they can't even do a good job with it. Gosh ... insane clowns? Come on that is so cliché. I wonder what message that they supposedly deliver to the world with each album? As far as I can tell, they are a bunch of assholes who unsuccessfully glorify violence. Of course, their rap is just all phoney and do not have any substance. I suppose that they only attract people with their violence. It is not a wonder why they sell ICP merchandise at Hot Topic even though it is rap. They are both meant for mindless losers who follow the media and think they are strange and unique for enjoying violence depicted in art. Well, I would hardly call ICP's stuff violent, gruesome or crazy and I agree that their rap is crap and it is not art at all. Not only do they insult music, they insult the English language on their website. Here are some examples of how their existence insults English:
1) Having crappy lyrics
2) Witless usage of language ..."Mad Props"(Positive Feedback)...what purpose does the use of the phrase "Mad Props" serve if you are going to have the formal explanation in brackets?
and
3) using net speak on your site. "Who R ICP?" My goodness ... by easing your fingers of not typing out two extra characters, you sacrifice your dignity and prove that you are indeed assholes.
They should sacrifice themselves to the good name of music and rap by pulling out your vocal cords and slicing off your hands.
It is also very funny to see that the fans who have commented are incredibly stupid. Your review was not as insulting as their reactions called for and they possess no dignity nor a dictionary. Spell check exists for a reason ... it can help even those who do not know how to spell the word 'you' properly.
I hope all of this posted on your site and it would make my day to see a bunch of hyped up juggalos/ettes bite me in the ass for insulting their beloved ICP.
- Humiliating Grapes (Short for Sinthu)
hey fuckers icp is the shit and if u say a nother bad thing about them i will find you and kill u i don't meen kick you ass i will stab u till you are no longer alive you worthless peice of shit
you fuckin suck!
ICP rocks!
you cant diss them like that.
u fucken suck if u think icp cant rap u fagets i fucken hate u icp keeps alive thats comin froma real juggalo
man i hate these internet faggots who think there all high and mighty, your asses are lucky the juggalos and juggalettes dont sabu you punk asses into your little computer monitors
heres a littles ryghme for your faggot ass
this maddox kid gots a lotta balls
but if he ever said that shit to a juggalo they'd have him pissin in his drawers
im sick of faggot niggaz like this always sparkin beef
when no one wants to hear it, yo phillip your comments are week
if i ever caught you one the streetz, i'd go psychopatchic
and chop your fuckin head off wit my double headed ax bitch!
comment on that punk -Halo Crowz
Icp is theeeeeeeeeee best thing to happen to me call me at hatchetman-bbd@sbc global im only 13 but iv ben a juggalo for 8 years people hate them but i say fuck people iv live with fucking red necks my whole shit hole life im just waiting to get out of my town but im still reprasinten the icp i'll take you on even if you win i will kill anyone who has the balls to diss ICP
ya know, this little philip maddox bitch has a lot of balls commin off like some little biggot bitch sitting there on his fat ass in front of the computer pullin bullshit outta his ass about icp... im pretty sure every other juggalo/lette that has read this is thinkin, ok wheres my muther fuckin ax..... ur just plainly lucky non of us a fuckin clue who you are, but the second you pull that horseshoe outta your ass. you might just be dead. *clown love for life yo*
you need to get the fuck out of here if you ain't down with the clown
(reviewed by Philip Maddox)
The second "joker's card" is pretty clumsy. So clumsy, in fact, that it becomes extremely tedious and hard to listen to. The group's rapping is two or three steps below "bad" here, and the beats are awkward and forced. They do have a bit of an excuse, as this was a totally independent release, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. The two best tracks here, "Mr. Johnson's Head" and "Chicken Huntin'" are both available in better versions on other releases. This version of "Mr. Johnson's Head", a tale of an outcase who decapitates his history teacher for flying a rebel flag, is actually pretty sad compared to the genuinely menacing version that appeared on the outtakes collection Forgotten Freshness.
The rest of the material is uniformly terrible. The group's attempts at being funny are wrecked by the lame beats, their awful, unrhymed rapping, and the fact that the group just wasn't very funny yet. The funniest track on here is "Bugz On My Nutz", a sad tale of getting crabs by having sex with homeless bag ladies, but even it has such horrible music and a wretchedly out of tune chorus that makes me want to cut the record off. When the group tries to be serious, the results are even worse - without humor, the awfulness of the entire affair becomes painfully clear. Actually, now that I think about it, a couple of songs have good bass lines - "Get Off Me, Dog!" has an excellent one, in fact, but it barely lasts 2 minutes, and that doesn't make up for the 70 minutes of dreck. I'd avoid this unless you happen to be a hardcore fan, or a "juggalo". And even they usually see this as a low point.
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(reviewed by Philip Maddox)
The fourth "joker's card" was their breakthrough due to the Disney controversy, and it's definately a huge improvement on the old, independent releases. This is due to a number of factors - first of all, the group has learned to rap a little bit better - they're still not exactly good rappers, but they at least sound like they're trying here. Secondly, they had a million dollars or so to produce this record, so the production is excellent. No more clumsy, awful beats (at least not as bad as the stuff on Ringmaster). Third, they got some great guest stars to help things out - Alice Cooper gives a threatening intro, Slash and Steve Jones (of Guns 'n' Roses and Sex Pistols fame, respectively) add some awesome, thrashing riffs to "Piggy Pie" and "Halls Of Illusions". Fourthly and lastly, the group's lyrics (while still immature and sexist to the extreme) are actually pretty funny here for the most part. My favorite are on the dating show parody "The Neden Game", where Shaggy and J rap not-so-seductive lyrics about what they're like on a date. It's hilarious and actually has a great beat. Score!
The songs here are actually good for the most part, too - the riff in the chorus of "Halls Of Illusions" makes the song a keeper, "Hocus Pocus" is a groovy, catchy shout out from the band, "What Is A Juggalo?" is a funny answer to what your average ICP fan is like ("People like him 'till they find out he's unstable/He sabu'd your mama through a coffee table"), and so on. "Piggy Pie" is catchy and funny, but I like the insanely violent version on Forgotten Freshness ("First piggy out we blow his lungs out his uniform"). Still, this album has problems. The group's attempts at being serious like on the closing "Pass Me By" are still boring, the rapping is still pretty bad, and the nonstop assault gets tiring after 70 minutes. A few of the songs could easily have been trimmed out and I wouldn't have cared (the pointless haunted house story of "House Of Horrors", the psycho love song of "Under The Moon"), but this is still a fun album.
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COMMENTS
This cd is prolly tha most popular out of all tha cd's they have made, and prolly the best one period. It basically tells everything about icp that you'll need to know, "piggie pie" tells you that they hate bigots, judges, and richies. "Under the Moon" tells us that they actually did have feelings for the opposite sex but now that love is gone. And number 16 tells you that they know there is sumthin else out there besides money and gurlz, and that they accept it.
(reviewed by Philip Maddox)
The fifth "joker's card" is the best one yet. That doesn't mean it's perfect - ICP still can't rap, their attempts to be serious rappers don't work, and the nonstop violence and sexism of their lyrics doesn't quite hold up for 70 minutes - but it's one hell of a lot of fun. It basically sounds exactly the same as Milenko, but it's more focused (if that word can be applied to the Insane Clown Posse). My favorite track here is "Fuck The World", which has an awesome, dark beat and hilarious self-and-others bashing lyrics (my favorite is "Don't bother trying to analyze these rhymes/In this song I say 'fuck' 93 times"). "Bitches", about killing unfaithful women, is a scream, benefitting from a hilarious cameo from Ol' Dirty Bastard. "I Stab People" is a short song about Violent J's little problem ("I stab old ladies, little kids, I don't give a fuck").
Nothing's quite as good as "Halls Of Illusions" from the last album, but everything's better than the worst stuff there. Except "Echo Side", which last for about 6 minutes and sucks really bad. Serious ICP at its worst. Actually, though, the last song, "Nothing's Left", is a serious one, but it's actually good! It has little or nothing to do with rap (and would actually almost be moving if not for Shaggy's pointless profanity in the background) which leads to a great crecendo and guitar climax. It actually rules! Thanks to Mike E. Clark - I'm sure that the wicked clowns didn't write the music. Aside from that track, though, this is standard ICP, though 2 or 3 shades better. I recommend it as a guilty pleasure. I feel kinda dumb giving this a 7, but I'm going to anyway. Turn your brain off and have a good time!
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