Per the NYTimes, no less. Not my music, but Goddess bless them, they’re doing their best:
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — For more than 20 years, the rap duo Insane Clown Posse has courted controversy by rhyming about depravity, brutality and insanity. Now it causes trouble by making fun of Miley Cyrus.
A few days ago, Insane Clown Posse, a pioneering act in a rap genre called horrorcore, was approached by Fuse, the music-oriented cable channel, to record its commentary for a roundup of supposedly shocking music videos. Though the rappers have enjoyed their increasing visibility on Fuse (where a second season of their television series “Insane Clown Posse Theater,” will debut on Wednesday), they were dismayed to find that those videos included nonthreatening artists like Robin Thicke and Adam Levine…
The past year has been particularly trying for Insane Clown Posse, which, with an attitude that mixes silliness and over-the-top aggression, has built a worshipful cadre of fans, known as Juggalos.
On one front, the band is waging a legal battle against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose National Gang Intelligence Center listed Juggalos as “a loosely organized hybrid gang” in a 2011 report. On another, the band is pushing back against a former publicist who is suing Insane Clown Posse for sexual harassment. Add these challenges to the group’s continuing struggle to preserve its underground reputation while pursuing mainstream acceptance, and you have the makings of a full-blown existential crisis.
Lately, Violent J said, he has been seeing a psychiatrist and taking medication to help him cope with the persistent feeling that he can never turn off the pressures of work…
Still, other independent musicians and labels want to see Insane Clown Posse succeed, because the group represents an important bellwether of their industry.
What the band faces now is “a hell of a challenge,” said Travis O’Guin, the president and chief executive of Strange Music, a hip-hop label in Missouri.
“I hope that there’s an opportunity for them to continue doing what they’re doing,” Mr. O’Guin said. “Their business, their merchandising, their touring — all of that stuff is very impressive. Those are things that I don’t want to see go away.” …
What matters most, the band says, are the Juggalos, who paint their faces like Insane Clown Posse, consistently buy the records, merchandise and concert tickets, and probably number in the tens of thousands. (“They’re not millions,” Violent J said.)…
Kary Moss, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan who is working with the group’s lawyers, said in a statement that she expected an announcement shortly “regarding the next steps that will be taken to ensure the right of Juggalos everywhere to gather together and express their support of the I.C.P. without having to worry about being unfairly targeted and harassed by law enforcement.”
Violent J said that the band felt obligated to pursue the case. “It’s time-consuming, it’s money-consuming, it’s killing us financially,” he said. “But it’s letting everybody know we’re fighting it. If we don’t, eventually everybody will accept it, that they are a gang.” …
Admittedly, some of my feelings may qualify as survivor guilt — we were living in mid-Michigan around the time ICP booted up, looked around, and promptly got the heck outta that suffering state…
Pogonip
A kid I worked with once let me listen to them. My ears began to bleed.
NotMax
Pfeh.
MikeJ
But fuck the music, because why would a band be interested in that?
Baud
From the FBI report (your link was bad):
Villago Delenda Est
Shorter ICP: We want some bling, dude!
Violet
Didn’t they throw off their fans when they revealed they were Christians?
Violet
Fuckin’ magnets, how do they work?
Baud
That whole article was really uninteresting.
Mr Stagger Lee
I’m probably going to burn for this
There ain’t no lesson to learn from this
There’s nothing I will earn
BUT IT’S SURE IS FUN!!!
Roger Moore
I don’t believe it. The clowns have their own major political party.
Baud
Ladies and Gentlement, Rick Santorum (h/t LGF):
Bob
@NotMax: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmezecMiVCM
Felonius Monk
That phrase alone boggles the mind —- hip-hop in Missouri? Hard to imagine. I’m surprised that they haven’t reincarnated Quantrill’s Raiders to drive out this scourge.
Violet
@Baud: What the hell? Was he drunk?
Yatsuno
@efgoldman: I have read that paragraph four times. I still for the life of me cannot figure out what the hell he’s saying.
Baud
@Yatsuno:
Some of the comments at Buzzfeed try to make sense of it. I think they’re giving Santorum too much credit.
Amir Khalid
Um, the NHS does provide health care. Plenty of it, at no charge above what one pays in taxes. (As the British contingent here will proudly attest.) And even the Tories know better than to mess with the NHS.
Mr Frothy seems to be arguing that his party should work to deny health care to the sick so that they can’t vote against Republicans. “Vile” is not a strong enough description for such counsel.
NotMax
Don’t watch much of the traditional network TV anymore, so don’t know if they still do stuff like this at this time of year.
(Memo to FOX – note the text and that it is from 47 years ago.)
TheMightyTrowel
@Amir Khalid: I miss the nhs. Best thing about living in the UK.
Mike in NC
@efgoldman:
I always thought Rand Paul resembled the good professor a bit.
Cassidy
@Felonius Monk: Don’t google “hick hop” then. That’s a rabbit hole you don’t want to go down.
Yatsuno
@TheMightyTrowel: Aussies seem to love their system okay though. It’s also a bit cheaper than the NHS. Big problem on your part of the planet is getting enough rural doctors.
Violet
@Amir Khalid: From what I hear from English friends and relatives, the government does nibble away at the edges of the NHS. It’s heading more toward a two-tier system, where people who can afford private insurance get it, then go outside the NHS, paying more for faster and fancier and sometimes better treatment. Things like nicer hospital rooms (private vs shared), the use of better medical equipment (yes, you can have that MRI or 3-D ultrasound).
Relatives have told me that their private insurance situation is similar to how ours was before the ACA. One of my relatives is afraid to switch her insurance plan, even though it’s expensive, because she doesn’t think she can qualify for one if she shops around. She’s got what she’s got.
I haven’t looked into it in detail so I don’t know how much of that is accurate, but I found the discussion of it interesting.
Felonius Monk
@Cassidy: Did you mean this?
Belafon
@efgoldman: It’s sleight of hand mixed with projection:
“The Democrats are trying to make you dependent on government by guaranteeing that everyone gets health care. Because if you’re alive you’ll vote for them, and by making you healthy you’ll vote for them. (and now the switch) Because, if you stop giving someone health care, then they can’t vote because they are dead, and the dead will not vote for Democrats.”
There’s only one party that wants to deny people health care and hope they will die, and it’s not the Democrats, but Santorum projects all of the stuff the Republicans hope for right onto the Democrats.
Cassidy
@Felonius Monk: I haven’t listened to that one, but will later. This is what I’m referring to. Another one.
Jamie
This is why I love the ACLU. Even most of the local ones.
And as a burner, I can say with authority, those people are nasty.
Bubblegum Tate
ICP sucks as a music act–wack rhymes and shitty beats–but I definitely respect their hustle and their grind. It’s hard to make a living in the music biz these days, and ICP has managed to succeed on its own terms for a long time. That’s pretty admirable, even if their music is not.
Robert Sneddon
@Violet: Britain has always had private medical treatment alongside the NHS. Harley Street in London refers to an area where lots of private doctors and clinics operate, catering to the wealthy and megawealthy from around the world as well as the stressed politician looking for discreet treatment for their alcohol problems, captains of industry can get their mistresses an abortion without having to sit in public waiting rooms etc.
The private insurance schemes like BUPA tend to deal with minor problems providing a higher standard of personal care with private rooms rather than open wards, TV and internet etc. and more prompt treatment of routine non-life-threatening ills like hernias, slipped discs and the ike. As soon as something bad and expensive like cancer or a heart attack happens the private patients get shipped to the NHS ICU facility down the road.
One big thing I like about the NHS in Britain is the total absence of paper bullshit. I’ve been goggling at the reports of folks here high-fiving each other over the PPACA while telling long convoluted tales of the days and weeks they’ve spent shuffling information, comparing policies, rounding up tax forms etc. All the other national systems that get rave reviews in this blog, the Swiss, French, Australian etc. healthcare systems have entitlement cards, co-pays, qualification periods, private insurance hoops to jump through etc. Why? If it’s a national healthcare system then why all the administrative makework if everyone is covered already? The last form I filled in for healthcare was a one-page sheet of paper when I registered at my local GP’s surgery over six years ago — name and address, where I was last registered, that sort of thing. No tax forms, no credit card details, no employer’s name and address, hell I didn’t even need to give them my National Insurance number (SS# in the US).
Mart
After a few days watching the twin towers fall down my “Rolling Stone” mag was in the mailbox. I thought that would cheer me up some. ICP was on the cover. A paragraph or two into the story they were talking about raping little boys. Toss the mag and back to the towers all fall down show, more depressed than ever.