Jon Ronson, a reporter probably best known for The Men Who Stare At Goats, interviews the two men who are Insane Clown Posse, niche-cult violent rappers now self-exposed as hardcore Christians:
I suddenly wonder, halfway through our interview, if I am looking at two men in clown make-up who are suffering from depression. I cautiously ask them this and Violent J immediately replies. “I’m medicated,” he says. “I have a lot of medicine that I take. For depression. Panic attacks are really a serious part of my life.” He points at Shaggy. “He’s gone through some things as well.”
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“You do a show in front of how many hundreds or thousands of people.” Shaggy nods. “You’re giving your full being, your soul, to every person in that crowd, every pore in your body is sweating, you’re fighting consciousness, just to get it out of you, and after the show all your fans are partying, ‘Yeah! Rock and roll!’ And you’re just here.” He glances around the dressing room. “You’re just fucking sitting here.”
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Violent J turns to him and says, softly, “If we moved furniture for a living we’d have a bad back or bad knees. We think for a living. We try to create. We try to constantly think of cool ideas. And every once in a while there’s a breakdown in the engine… I guess that’s the price you pay.”
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Shaggy nods quietly. “I get anxiety and shit a lot,” he says. “And reading that stuff people write about us… It hurts.”
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“Least talented band in the world,” Violent J says. “No talent. When I hear that I think, ‘Damn. Are we that different from people?'”
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He looks as if he means it – as if he sometimes feels hopelessly stuck being him.
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It’s just a terrible twist of fate for Insane Clown Posse that theirs is a form of creative expression that millions of people find ridiculous.
(h/t Andrew Sullivan)
Open Thread: The Unbearable Clown-ness of BeingPost + Comments (45)