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Insane Clown Posse

Band formed in 1990 in Detroit, MI

Insane Clown Posse's Genre:

Rap-Rock, Rap-Metal, Rap, Heavy Metal

Biography

Insane Clown Posse are a cartoonish metal/rap band with a vaunted live show that features open fires, chain saws, liters of soda dousing the audience (Faygo being the group's favorite brand), and more emphasis on performance art than the performance of music. In the world of the late '90s, that was more than enough to get them a recording contract with a major label, though the release of their 1997 album, The Great Milenko, came with a bit of controversy. Now just a duo, ICP were originally formed in 1989 as a hardcore Detroit rap group called Inner City Posse. After combusting in 1991, the only members left, Violent J (born Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (born Joseph Utsler), slightly altered the name to reflect the fact that they had been visited by the Carnival Spirit, who ordered them to carry word of the impending apocalypse by touring the nation and releasing six "joker cards" (popularly known as LPs) with successive revelations of the final judgment. The first, Carnival of Carnage, appeared in 1992 on their own Psychopathic Records label. The group became notorious in Detroit's underground scene, but several tours around the region failed to ignite much more than the rage of area leaders.

After the release of 1994's The Ringmaster, ICP began to get a bit of attention as a possible follower of cartoon metal bands like GWAR and Green Jelly. Jive Records signed the group and released The Riddle Box in 1995, but the record bombed and ICP returned to the ranks of the indies. Just one year later, Hollywood Records gambled on the band and spent more than a million dollars while ICP recorded their new album, The Great Milenko. On the day of release in 1997, however, Hollywood pulled the record, citing obscene lyrics and gruesome content -- possibly a move by its owner, Disney, to deflect criticism of its practices by the Southern Baptist Federation. In a bizarre twist, yet another major label, Island Records, stepped in to release the album and capitalize on the notoriety ICP had garnered. That notoriety only increased thanks to several incidents that kept them in the headlines: J was arrested after clubbing an audience member with his microphone in late 1997, and shortly thereafter, the group's tour bus ran off the road, leaving J with a concussion. Next, the group and its entourage were involved in a brawl at a Waffle House in Indiana, and both members eventually pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges.

All the chaos took its toll, as J suffered a panic attack in April 1998 while on-stage in Minnesota. However, all of the publicity helped expand the group's cult following to the point where its next album, the 1999 concept record The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, debuted in the Top Five. As evidenced by the numerous different collectible covers for The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, ICP had become a virtual merchandising machine, complete with comic books to flesh out their elaborate Dark Carnival mythology; they also wrote and starred in their own straight-to-video movie, Big Money Hustlas, and made guest appearances at wrestling events. The group spent the summer of 1999 bickering with various tourmates (Coal Chamber in particular) and played at the ill-fated Woodstock '99. Early in 2000, Shaggy collapsed on-stage, but the cause was deemed to be nothing more than a combination of the flu and low blood sugar; however, while staging a wrestling event several months later, Shaggy fell off a steel cage, breaking his nose and cheekbone. Still, ICP managed to make it into the studio to record a follow-up album, and Big Money Hustlas was finally released.

On Halloween 2000, the group issued its sixth album, which apparently did not count (as all the other albums had) as a "joker card" (in the ICP fantasy world, the sixth joker card was supposed to signal the apocalypse). Similar to Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion, the album was released in two completely different, separate versions, titled Bizzar and Bizaar. Finally needing to live up to the years of hype, 2002's The Wraith: Shangri-La revealed that the hidden message of their music was always to follow God and make it to Heaven. Considering the murder fantasies of "Beverly Kills 50187" and the necrophilic overtones of "Cemetery Girl," this may have been a shock to longtime fans.

In August 2004 the band released the sixth and final joker card, Hell's Pit, in two separate editions. Both had the same CD but were packed with different DVDs. Yet the Dark Carnival wasn't fully shuttered. Spring 2005 found ICP hyping a new direction for the mythology, to be revealed with the May release of Calm. The EP also prepped Insane Clown Posse's devoted fan base for the sixth annual Gathering of the Juggalos that July. Their 2007 effort, The Tempest, found the duo reuniting with producer Mike E. Clark, the man behind the first four joker card releases. Clark stuck around for their 2009 Bang! Pow! Boom! album. Featuring Freshness, a two-disc collection of the group's work with other artists, arrived in 2011. A year later, the conceptual The Mighty Death Pop focused on their detractors and other "certified hoes" with Clark returning as producer. ~ John Bush

AOL Radio Stations Insane Clown Posse is Featured on (1)

Insane Clown Posse

This station plays the best music from and music from related artists like Twiztid, Kottonmouth Kings, ICP, Dark Lotus, Violent J, Boondox, Tech N9ne, Shaggy 2 Dope, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Madrox and more.

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Insane Clown Posse's Selected Discography (44)

Bizaar

(C)(P) 2000 The Island Def Jam Music Group200012 Songs

Bang! Pow! Boom!

(P) 2009 PSYCHOPATHIC RECORDSDIGITAL201016 Songs

Tunnel of Love

1996 Psychopathic Records and Double A ProductionsEP19969 Songs

Hell's Pit, Pt. 2

2004 Psychopathic RecordsECD200418 Songs

Icp's New Years Ninja Party [DVD]

201212 Songs

Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop! Emporium

Artists Related to Insane Clown Posse (50)

	Twiztid	Protégés of the Insane Clown Posse, the Detroit-area Caucasian rap duo Twiztid based their act on a similarly theatrical, outrageous, makeup-heavy image and an obsession with serial-killer horror films.
	Kottonmouth Kings	Self-described "psychedelic hip-hop punk rock" outfit the Kottonmouth Kings emerged from Orange County, California, in 1994.
	ICP
	Dark Lotus	The Detroit based hip-hop "supergroup" has a rather dramatic story to go along with the story of its membership, Dark Lotus was -- at its outset and at its core -- the result of a collaboration between Insane Clown Posse and Twiztid.
	Violent J	Detroit-based rapper, producer, wrestler, and actor Violent J (born Joseph Frank Bruce) is best known as half (along with Shaggy 2 Dope [born Joseph Utsler]) of the greasepaint-wearing hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse.
	Boondox	The addition of the first Southern artist, Boondox, to the growing roster of the Insane Clown Posse's Psychopathic Records during the 2000s indicated the label's expansion of its deranged and murderous brand of rap-rock within the indie rap sphere.
	Tech N9ne	Like many underground rappers in the Midwest, Tech N9ne specialized in bizarre hardcore rap and stood as one of the few recognized rappers based in Kansas City when he debuted in the late '90s.
	Shaggy 2 Dope	One-half of the rock-rap crew the Insane Clown Posse, rapper/wrestler/label owner Shaggy 2 Dope was born Joseph William Utsler in his beloved Detroit.
	Blaze Ya Dead Homie	Psychopathic Records' back-story for Blaze Ya Dead Homie (born Chris Rouleau) suggests that he is a reincarnated gangsta who was originally killed in the late '80s, at the beginning of gangsta rap.
	Madrox	Michigan underground rapper Madrox is better known as Jamie Madrox, one-half of maniacal, horrorcore group Twiztid.
	Monoxide Child
	ABK
	ICP
	Anybody Killa	Masked MC Anybody Killa first emerged from the Psychopathic Records/Insane Clown Posse collective in the late '90s, contributing to tracks from likeminded types like Twizted, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, and Esham.
	Tech N9ne Collabos
	Krizz Kaliko	Rapper Krizz Kaliko first came on the scene collaborating with his fellow Kansas City MC Tech N9ne. In 2007, he made an appearance on the Kottonmouth Kings album Cloud Nine.
	DJ Clay	Detroit, MI DJ, producer, rapper, and mixtape impresario DJ Clay got his start as a DJ at local house parties and by appearing on other Detroit hip-hop albums.
	Prozak	Prozak is a longtime member of the Detroit-area horrorcore rap scene, performing in the groups Bedlam and Project: Deadman before embarking on a solo recording career in 2004.
	Potluck	Rap duo Potluck probably knows hip-hop's ongoing relationship with marijuana better than most others, since their place of residence, Humboldt County, CA, is one of the marijuana production capitals of the world.
	Cypress Hill	Cypress Hill were notable for being the first Latino hip-hop superstars, but they became notorious for their endorsement of marijuana, which actually isn't a trivial thing.
	Lil Wyte	When the quick-rapping, crunk to the core Lil Wyte first came to the attention of the Three 6 Mafia it was with an all-white group of which Wyte was a member.
	Afroman	Born Joseph Foreman, Afroman may be the first artist to achieve a worldwide hit with the assistance of the Internet.
	Three 6 Mafia	Evolving slowly but steadily over the years, Three 6 Mafia began as an exploitative, horror-themed underground hardcore rap sensation ("666 Mafia," get it?) yet went on to enjoy relatively mainstream success years later, eventually winning an Oscar and scoring some major hits.
	AMB	Axe Murder Boyz, better known as AMB, are an underground rap duo associated with Psychopathic Records, the horrocore rap label founded by and popularized by the Insane Clown Posse (aka ICP).
	Mike E. Clark
	Kingspade	Although they still draw from the same California hardcore punk and Beastie Boys eclecticism as Orange County rap-metal outfit the Kottonmouth Kings, Johnny Richter (Tim McNutt) and D-Loc (Dustin Miller) splintered off to create a more strictly rap group, Kingspade, in the early 2000s.
	Kutt Calhoun	Kutt Calhoun is an underground hardcore rapper from Kansas City, affiliated with Tech N9ne and the independent label Strange Music.
	Esham	As an underappreciated cult artist, Esham's harsh hardcore rap thrived in this hometown of Detroit, MI, for years before an ensemble of artists with a similar style began crossing over into the mainstream in the late '90s.
	(hed) p.e.	Huntington Beach, CA's (hed) p.e. (the "pe" stands for "Planet Earth") was founded in 1994 by frontman Jahred (aka M.
	Hopsin
	Haystak	Initially known best for being a huge white-boy rapper from Tennessee, Haystak overcame his anomalous status with time as listeners learned to cherish his sincerity.
	Yelawolf	Yelawolf is an underground rapper from a small town in the South who found major-label success in 2011.
	Rehab	The Southern hip-hop duo called Rehab were literally a product of their namesake. Original members Danny Boone and Brooks Buford, both recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, met at a local rehab facility and connected over their love of music.
	Jumpsteady
	Brotha Lynch Hung	A versatile producer as well as an excellent solo rapper in his own right, Brotha Lynch Hung was born Kevin Mann in Sacramento, California.
	Zug Izland	In its press materials, the Detroit sleaze metal band Zug Izland described its songcraft as "an exploration of imperfect human morality brought forth through the imagery of a pure fantasy.
	Bone Thugs-N-Harmony	Graced with a quick and sometimes sung delivery, along with a unique sense of melody, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony burst out of Cleveland, Ohio in the mid-'90s with a pair of massive hits ("Thuggish Ruggish Bone" and "Tha Crossroads") along with a great first album, as well as a successful follow-up, and then quickly unraveled.
	Eminem	To call Eminem hip-hop's Elvis is correct to a degree, but it's largely inaccurate. Certainly, Eminem was the first white rapper since the Beastie Boys to garner both sales and critical respect, but his impact exceeded this confining distinction.
	D12	Wherever rapper Eminem goes, controversy and headlines are sure to follow. With so many people unsure about whether to love him or hate him, five young rappers have decided to join him on his latest project, D12.
	Hollywood Undead	Hollywood Undead hail (unsurprisingly) from the streets of Hollywood, California, mixing brash hip-hop, rock, and minor metalcore touches with cocky posturing and thug attitudes.
	South Park Mexican	Originating in the Southern rap mecca Houston, South Park Mexican (SPM) slowly built up his own personally run record label, Dope House Records, for years before eventually signing a distribution deal with Universal Records.
	The Dayton Family	Though the Dayton Family never extended their reach to either the West or East Coast, the little-known rap group developed a substantial cult following in the Midwest during the mid-'90s with their potent hardcore rap.
	Korn	Korn's cathartic alternative metal sound positioned the group among the most popular and provocative to emerge during the post-grunge era.
	Daddy X
	Limp Bizkit	The rap-metal outfit Limp Bizkit was formed in Florida in 1994 by vocalist Fred Durst and his friend, bassist Sam Rivers.
	Slipknot	Slipknot's mix of grinding, post-Korn alternative metal, Marilyn Manson-esque neo-shock rock, and rap-metal helped make them one of the most popular bands in the so-called nu-metal explosion of the late '90s.
	Hopsin	At first, Hopsin was famous for his falling out with the pioneering label Ruthless, but that became a footnote when the rapper, producer, and actor released the hit track "Sag My Pants" on his own in late 2010.
	Bizarre	Part of Detroit's demented rap school along with Eminem, Esham, and a host of others, Bizarre is a cross between a twisted Biz Markie and a cast member of Night of the Living Dead, favoring warped horror-core and devilish themes in his music.
	Necro	Brooklyn-based hardcore rapper Necro raised the bar for perversity in the late '90s and early 2000s with his music and films.
	E-40	Synonymous with Bay Area rap, E-40 garnered a regional following, and eventually a national one, with his flamboyant raps, while his entrepreneurial spirit, embodied by his homegrown record label, Sick Wid' It Records, did much to cultivate a flourishing rap scene to the east of San Francisco Bay, in communities such as Oakland and his native Vallejo.