What: Insane Clown Posse with Dockside Green
When: Sunday, 8 p.m.
Where: Distrikt nightclub, 919 Douglas St.
Tickets: $35 at bplive.ca, Lyle’s Place (770 Yates St.) and the Strathcona Hotel
Insane Clown Posse has been going for 26 years, but for the past 16 of those, the rap duo from Detroit has been unable to perform in Canada, due to criminal records that prohibited members from crossing the border.
“Legal issues, man,” rapper Shaggy 2 Dope (born Joey Utsler) said from his Michigan home. “Felonies, probation. Understandably, Canada don’t like American criminals, but all that s--- is ironed out.”
The band’s first full Canadian tour in nearly two decades closes Sunday in Victoria, a show that comes loaded with expectations. Utsler and his bandmate, Joseph Bruce (who performs as Violent J), who are never seen without greasepaint on their faces, are also rarely without their favourite drink: Faygo, a purple soda that is sprayed on the audience.
“It’s not about making money, because we lose money doing every tour we do,” Utsler said of their Faygo shenanigans. “We play theatres or clubs and bring an arena show.” For the duo’s performance on Sunday, organizers have received word that the group is bringing 350 two-litre bottles of Faygo, and have been told to tarp the ceiling for their own protection. Mayhem will most definitely ensue.
“Faygo is basically the third member of ICP,” Utsler said with a laugh. “We put so much energy into it, it’s not just a rap show. We put on a show, with theatrics. We put in so much energy, it’s a constant battle trying not to pass out or throw up.”
ICP’s founders grew up in the same suburban Detroit neighbourhood as rapper Eminem, but the two acts have little in common stylistically. While Eminem stays true to hip hop’s roots, ICP plays up the cartoonish side of its personality, both with its clown-faced image and horror-movie lyrics. At its core, ICP is entertainment and escapism — a trailer park version of KISS gone turbo.
Utsler and Bruce are self-made millionaires, with an all-American story. The two elementary-school friends spent part of the late 1980s as a wrestling duo in the Midwest, which they gave up for good once word spread of their rapping abilities. They started independently and released albums on their own label, Psychopathic Records, which today is the artistic home to ICP and its many cohorts.
A fanbase formed, one that remains entrenched a quarter-century later. Trademarks associated with the group have become calling cards of sorts: an ICP logo (the Hatchetman) tattooed on its fans; Faygo; an annual festival (Gathering of the Juggalos) for the extended ICP community; and a fantasy world (the Dark Carnival) populated by the diehard ICP fans known as Juggalos.
Each part of the ICP universe has remained true through 14 albums and more than a dozen affiliated recordings.
No fewer than seven books have been written about the group, whose mere existence appears to confound the mainstream. In fact, the passion and commitment of its inward-looking fanbase makes for one of the great misunderstood movements in popular music, Utsler said. ICP has rapped about the after-life, and appears to believe strongly in spirituality, stopping short of proclaiming themselves to be Christians.
They are a genre — and industry — unto themselves.
“I don’t want to cry and say it’s us against them, but it’s a little bit unfair,” Utsler said. “We take it in stride. It is what it is.”
However, certain segments of society have developed a hatred of the group, according to Utsler.
“There’s no question,” he said, when asked if ICP has been given a harder ride than most rap groups. “Since the beginning of our career, people have not just disliked us, they have straight-up hated us. They want us dead.”
In 2011, the Juggalos were deemed a “hybrid gang” by the FBI. ICP appealed the decision. A final ruling has yet to be made on the matter, but the damage, in many respects, is already done. Juggalos, according to Utsler, are being discriminated against because of their association with the rap act, be it a Hatchetman tattoo or ICP shirt.
“It’s not fair that Juggalos get a bad rap. There’s bad apples in any bunch. I’m sure people that listened to Mozart back in the day killed people and whatnot. That isn’t the majority. That should not be what Juggalos are based off because of a few select a------s.”
The band’s first performance following its Victoria debut will be at next week’s Gathering of the Juggalos in Thornville, Ohio. The subculture that exists during the Gathering’s three-day run is much less bacchanalian than past stories would suggest, Utsler said.
“It’s peaceful, there’s so much camaraderie there, nobody goes hungry. It’s beyond love there.”
Despite the artistic gap between ICP and jam-band favourites Phish and the Grateful Dead, there’s a connection between the communities, a philosophy of people helping one another, that is rarely reported. “The only difference is the Grateful Dead didn’t get the rap that we get,” Utsler said.
