Every time we run a story about the Insane Clown Posse, we’ll usually get some shit from social media asking why we cover the rap duo. It’s understandable why – they’re not metal, their music borders on unlistenable, they’re gimmicky and their followers are fanatical about them to the point of murder and persecuted by the mainstream for their taste in music. Plus, there’s something funny about a duo of rapping clowns that have followers that might not have necessarily made all the best decisions in life. And while many think covering ICP is beneath a publication of our stature, no less that Time Magazine handed over some column space to the group’s Violent J for an op-ed on the creepy clown phenomenon that’s sweeping the nation. In short, and this gets pretty deep, we’re the clowns, man. From his column:
As ICP has discovered over the last decade, there’s a whole army of scary, terrifying and dangerous clowns out there in this country trying to suppress the rights of thousands of people to exercise the most basic part of the Declaration of Independence, which evokes the freedom to “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The only difference is these clowns don’t wear greasepaint.
These clowns threaten the very fabric on which our nation was supposedly founded upon—and for some f—ing crazy-a– reason, they’re getting away with it. From keystone-cop clowns shooting unarmed citizens, to racist clowns burning down Islamic centers or clowns in the NSA spying on us through our cell phones and laptops, America has turned into something far more terrifying than Insane Clown Posse’s Dark Carnival. Even a scrub like me who dropped out of school in ninth grade can see what’s going on. Today’s reality is scarier than anything you’ll ever hear on one of our albums.
Of course the band have an axe, or a hatchet, to grind, as the group’s followers, or Juggalos, were listed as a gang by the FBI and have been fighting it ever since. It’s a relatively well- written op-ed, but it’s a little preachy about the persecution of the group’s fans, and more or less a call to arms for their million Juggalo march taking place next year in Washington D.C. There will be many creepy clowns there, and hopefully one of them can answer as to why the band’s mascot Hatchet Man is carrying a cleaver, not a hatchet.
