Insane Clowns Break Down Magnetic Juggalo Appeal for LA Weekly

Didn't we meet at the tuxedo rental place?

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Meanwhile, in one of the six or seven other places in the world that is not Tokyo or Austin, Gustavo Turner of our sister rag LA Weekly went to the "vast wasteland of poverty" that is Detroit to kick it with the Insane Clown Posse, who've been wearing makeup, garnering working-class adoration, and freaking out establishment types since 1992. The result is a long, informative and reasonably intimate feature where Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope drop their respective personae and reflect on what it's like to be... you know, these dudes.

It's not the first or only illuminating article about the Posse or the astonishingly sustainable mega-subculture it's spawned -- see for one thing this Village Voice article about the annual Gathering of the Juggalos -- but it's well worth taking ten minutes from your Wednesday afternoon to read. For one thing, it punctures some of the snarkier hot air of the "Miracles" fiasco -- which was, as Violent J says, "us doing our best" -- and suggests that the duo's collectible mysticism may well be more than a shrewdly calculated marketing vision. Best of all, it gets at the paradoxical nature of self-awareness coming from this act, no matter how intelligent it is. "They're deep, they're slow, they're meaningful," J says of songs like "Miracles," of which there are plenty in the ICP catalog. "They're not about ax murder." ----

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