Angry Rage Monkey

Motto of the Opossum

Motto of the Opossum: Biss ersten, dann Fragen stellen

Insane Clown Posse and Miracles

The impossible has happened bacause I am about to link to both Insane Clown Posse AND Cracked.  These are two things I generally like to avoid.  ICP more than Cracked.  But only in the sense that one or two times a year I get suckered into reading Cracked, and the last time I seriously listened to ICP was about 10 years ago because I was curious about them, and the lyrical charm of “droppin’ babies out o’ yo’ ass” (Note 1).  I have listened to snippets every so often out of morbid curioisity (Note 2)

So I give you the ICP’s recent “Miracles” a more or less generic  R&B fueled feel-good rap.  Though with more profanity than someone like Dr Dre or Eminem might put into it.  Which is saying something.  Those f@#king rainbows blow my motherf@#king mind.

It starts OK.  As I say it is a big generic, but it has a good beat.  I felt a little head bob want to start.  And the basic premise is that we are surrounded by miracles and we don’t pay attention to them.  Great I agree with that, sure.  I am a little surprised the ICP felt they needed to point that out, but hey.  And they are all dressed in white, which makes a nice change for them.

But here is the thing, when they say miracles they don’t just mean it in the extraordinary and amazing sort of way, they mean them as straight up miracles.  The also include Rainbows, Magnets, “Long-necked Giraffes,” UFOs, crows, ghosts, basic genetics, and their own success on the list.  Oh and they accuse scientists of “lying all the time.” Le sigh.

So this is where Cracked comes in.  Because they watched the video as well, and then wrote a post called Learn Your Motherf#@kin’ Science: A Textbook for Juggalos. Which is worth reading if only for the reference to “juggaliraffles”

So there you go. (Note 3)

Note 1: Despite going straight for the crude, they do have some skills.  Though I doubt that without the whole clown/dark carnival thing they would still be around.  They remind me of the heavy metal kids in high school, who would read Micheal Moorecock, Harlan Ellison, and Tolkien and then produce their own mythologies.  Ones that were both intriguing and lose enough to find ways of explaining away the shortcomings when you look below the surface

The Dark Carnival is like that.  On the surface it sounds interesting, the pace where damned souls go to before they are sent on to hell.  Each soul bound to a different ride based on their sins, and watch over by a different Joker.  Except, what now?  The souls are tortured BEFORE they go to hell to be… TORTURED?  Um that doesn’t make a lot of sense.  And then they come out with another album that tells more of the story and tries to backfill any flaws to date.  Like for example that the Dark Cranival  is more like purgatory, and that only some of the Jokers preside over rides, others perform other tasks.  Which only raises more questions. They never succeed fully, and so they are past the “Joker Card” phase.  Which is probably good because their last album introduced a new non joker entity whose purpose is to clear the Carnival when it gets too crowded.  Um what?  Best just move on

Note 2: Tough your can’t simply dismiss them.  They have been around for something like 15 years now, still producing albums and videos.  Even the occasional film.  Master P and The Fat Boys are the only other acts I can think of that made a transition into film as themselves (and Master P is a somewhat iffy case for this example, but he has made a boatload of films).

If they were just crude, and didn’t have their own talent (and talented people working with them) they would be gone by now.  Take a video like Let’s Go All The Way, in which they take Sly Fox’s original beat and then invert the meaning of the title to mean either adopting the philosophy of the ICP, or to descend into an orgy of violence, or both — I don’t suppose they are mutually exclusive.  But the video has high production values and is presented in as friendly and upbeat was as possible, while be chock full of visual contradictions.

Note 3: Yes I know this sounds like I have listened to way more of the ICP that anyone really should.  I haven’t.  I retain information well, and did some research before writing this.  I really must get a life…: Yes I know this sounds like I have listened to way more of the ICP that anyone really should.  I haven’t.  I retain information well, and did some research before writing this.  I really must get a life…