We have to counter the Kanye West thread with a superior ICP thread.
Their interviews are even better.
I've been a fan of ICP since my early teens, I had a poster of them hanging right above my computer desk in my old room for about five years. I remember when they were so big here that our local Hot Topic sold Faygo in a fridge. I also went to the Gathering in 2010 which was a hell of an experience despite me being completely exhausted and zooted on amphetamines that whole trip.
Despite my love of ICP I've never self-identified as a juggalo because I always felt like I wasn't like, at the face-painting level of fandom. Still love their classic stuff though, lots of good ass memories.
A few random tracks to get the thread rolling.
Spoiler
This thread needs the Batlord. :laughing:
Lemme see if I can find what I wrote about them on MB.
I shall return.
Quote from: Trollheart on Apr 05, 2025, 03:21 PMThis thread needs the Batlord. :laughing:
Lemme see if I can find what I wrote about them on MB.
I shall return.
After he and Frown became the scapegoats for MB I wouldn't expect him here.
Here we go...
Posted December 2016
(Sorry about all the extra anchors, but I just can't be bothered deleting them all)
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Be afraid.
Be very
afraid....
(https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRqu8DsDgcTg2k50Yes2v4POIh7Lqps_j-3zP-Ne1J6Y-CKJAhGCQ)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/Icp-the_riddlebox-cover-200.jpg)
Title: Riddle Box
Artist: Insane Clown Posse
Genre: Hip-Hop
Familiarity: Zero, other than Batty interminably wittering on about them
Recommended by: The Batlord, of course
Expectations: I'll give you a clue: I'm already clicking on "Red" and expecting to use it almost exclusively. I will give these guys one thing though: the concept of the Dark Carnival, the Riddle Box, the Joker's Card and so forth is very impressive. There's obviously a hell of a lot of deep thought gone into this, and if this were any other genre than hip-hop, and if I had not already heard enough about ICP to make me automatically expect to hate them, I would be looking forward to this. The plot would work so well with a prog or power metal band, or even maybe a Black Metal one, all of which I assume I would enjoy much more than I'm expecting to enjoy this. Preconceptions? Certainly, but I think I'm justified in expecting a big fat bleeding Hate here. I suppose stranger things have happened: that horse becoming Pope, for one. But not many.
1. Intro: In pretty gently I guess as we're introduced to (I assume) someone who just crashed his car and died and has now ended up facing the Riddle Box. He's told he has to turn the crank to find out what his fate will be. Nicely set up.
2. Riddle Box: Well **** this is not bad. Like the carnival rhythm and I can make out what's being sung. Quite catchy. Huh? Harmonies are very good.
3. The show must go on: Yeah well the lyric is terrible – these guys will rhyme anything with anything, and sometimes make up words just to get the rhyme – but the relation of the arrival of the Dark Carnival is well done. Still like this on a sort of ironic level. Fun.
4. Chicken huntin' (Slaughter House mix): Pretty violent imagery but assuming it's all for show I guess it's funny. Don't see what this has to do with the Dark Carnival though. This is what I meant in the intro when I said if this was another genre they could do a lot with the story; here it's just kind of on the edges and I don't see the point so far.
5. Interview: Yeah, that's just crap.
6. Toy box: Now we get the story of a serial killer following in his dad's footsteps. Okay, the line "We're sorry, the person you're calling is dead" is funny as hell. The idea of deadly toys coming to life is great, and then it seems they turn upon the killer? The carnival music works well here. Like this one. Goes a bit crazy at the end with some sort of necrophilia?
7. Cemetery girl: The scratching works well with the wolves howling and the lyric is just hilarious. I love the description of the girl decomposing in front of his eyes. Class.
8. 3 rings: Weirdly, what I'm discovering here is that the primary attraction of ICP is their humour. Yes, their lyrics are violent and misogynistic and racist, but they're ****ing hilarious. I guess they're not taking themselves seriously, which makes it easy to laugh with rather than at them. Even the music is not terrible, though I'm mostly judging these songs on their lyrical content.
9. Headless boogie: This one's pretty good too; the idea of amusing yourself with dead bodies is getting a little overused though. The chorus is pretty cool.
10. The Joker's wild: The game show theme here is at least tying in with the idea of judgement via the Riddle Box, but musically it's very similar to the previous track. Lyric is very clever though. Orange or Green? Hmmm.... Green.
11. Dead body man: Now we're upping the ante from necophilia to cannibalism. Decent song to be honest: like the wolves/dogs howling. Lyric is very descriptive. Clever how they turn it back on hunters -"Ya got dead deer heads up on your shelf."
12. Lil' Somthin' Somthin';: Sort of a soul feel to this, very catchy.
13. Ol' Evil Eye: Bringing in Edgar Allan Poe for the opening lines (in fairness, they credit the old horror writer for this extract from The Tell-Tale Heart instead of just ripping it off). The basic melody (familiar?) in this is good; like the organ and the quotes from Poe too.
14. 12: I like the continuation of the horror idea in this track, especially the thunder and rain effects at the start. Keyboard riff is cool. Dark, ominous feel to this.
15. The killing fields : Oddly, that kind of sounded like uileann pipes at the beginning of this one. I'm sure it wasn't, but yet weird anyway. There it is again. How strange. Kicks back in the idea of the Dark Carnival, sort of, with a nightmarish vision of the afterlife.
16. I'm coming home : Beefheart/Waits vibe to the vocal here. Nice idea in the "I don't need the rich folks/big house/ I know where I come from" lyric. Yeah, pretty decent really again.
End result: What in the sacred name of Peter Gabriel has happened here? I fully expected, intended to hate this, and while I don't love it it certainly was not the torture I had expected. I don't think there was one track I didn't enjoy; the lyrics, while often totally ludicrous and forcing words to rhyme, were usually quite funny and the music, dare I say it, was okay. Having read about the concept of the Dark Carnival, I'm a little disappointed they didn't really use it to its best; it kind of peeped in over the edges, but had I not read up on them and about it I would not have seen any concept going through this album. It's a pity it couldn't have linked things in better. As it is though, really amazed by how much I didn't hate it.
So, Love or Hate? Given my initial expectations, and though I wouldn't listen to it again for fun, I'd have to give it a Love. And nobody more surprised than meself! :yikes: :laughing:
I'll give them this: they're not Oasis.
Quote from: jimmy jazz on Apr 05, 2025, 04:58 PMI'll give them this: they're not Oasis.
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Did you just call ICP's lyrics racist?
Looks like I did, yes.
Well, if they're calling "rednecks" out as chickens or whatever, isn't that racist? In a humorous way, but yes. Then again, bear in mind this was almost ten years ago. Don't blame older TH for younger TH's grasp of hip-hop.
:shycouch:
I'd have to look back at the lyrics and see what specifically I was referring to. Or not.
"Redneck" is just a type of white person from the southern US typically associated with backwards and bigoted thinking.
The song was about killing racists.
But maybe they are racist against white people.
Possibly. I really don't mind; the songs were fun as hell. I once listened to a song from a metal band about a father raping his daughter. Sure, it was a nasty idea and reprehensible, but the way it was carried off made me laugh, especially since I knew it was tongue in cheek.
Trolls you really should listen to something decent like Illmatic and then review that.
Will consider it. Recs?
Quote from: Trollheart on Apr 05, 2025, 07:24 PMWill consider it. Recs?
Literally the album Illmatic. It's about 40 mins long.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illmatic
It's as good an entry point as anything and a near-perfect album.
I'm sure you'll love it mate.
Illmatic is a masterpiece almost as good as Riddle Box.