Juggalos Are Us - Get past the clown makeup, the violent lyrics and

Juggalos Are Us - Get past the clown makeup, the violent lyrics and th…Clown Posse fans - Main Feature - Main Feature - Pittsburgh City Paper
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NOVEMBER 9, 2006
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Juggalos Are Us
Get past the clown makeup, the violent lyrics and the sea of thrown soda and we're all
about family, say Insane Clown Posse fans
BY MELISSA MEINZER
The cops outside Club Zoo in the Strip District say kids in face paint have been waiting for
the place to open since morning. When the doors finally open at 7 that evening, the liquid
that's confiscated most often isn't bottom-shelf vodka; it's Faygo, a Detroit brand of pop.
Today, it's more like holy water. Though it's getting tossed into giant trashcans, inside it will
flow. And flow, and flow.
Family reunion: Juggalos at an Insane Clown Posse show at Club Zoo.
Heather Mull
The kids are juggalos -- devotees in the cult of Insane Clown Posse, a pair of white-boy
rappers from suburban Detroit who've earned hero status with self-identified outcasts the
world over through hyper-violent lyrics and over-the-top stage shows. Pittsburgh is a
juggalo hotbed, including an annual mass visit to Kennywood Park.
The group's status comes despite -- or maybe because of -- receiving almost no video
airplay and almost no major-label backing. ICP fans say they are united by their outsider
status and loving acceptance of one another. They call their fandom a family, which
manifests itself in signoffs on e-mails and Internet postings: MMFCL, or Much Muthafuckin'
Clown Love.
Family members are easy to pick out at ICP shows. Lots of fans ape the black-and-white
"wicked clown" face paint affected by ICP's Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J. Fans collect Tshirts and hockey-style jerseys emblazoned with ICP insignia or those of other bands on
ICP's recording label, Psychopathic. And the Psychopathic logo, a little red man with spiky,
twisted hair and brandishing a hatchet, is everywhere in the crowd: on shirts and medallions
and inked into flesh.
At an ICP show, the Faygo is the blood of the beast formed by the band and the crowd. At
one show early in the group's career, a booing audience member threw some on the stage,
the guys threw it back, and a movement was born. It's as much a part of the stage show as
the makeup and the microphones.
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Violent J gets Faygo everywhere.
Heather Mull
Call it shtick, call it a gimmick -- many do. The group, begun in 1990, calls its violent, circus
imagery the "dark carnival." The term "juggalo" comes from Violent J's early juggler
persona. Six of ICP's 19 albums and EPs are known as "joker cards" and are supposed to
reveal some greater truth about the world to juggalos and anyone else who listens. The final
joker card, The Wraith, claims that the entire experience has been about God and
righteousness all along -- the cartoonish violence was meant as retribution for the
unrighteous: bigots, negative people and haters in general. From the song "Thy Unveiling":
"When we speak of Shangri-La, what you think we mean? / Truth is we follow GOD, we've
always been behind him, / The Dark Carnival is GOD and may all Juggalos find him!"
Whether God is present at Club Zoo, it's still rock 'n' roll -- as in "sex, drugs and ..." One
outrageously hammered fan sweats and shouts in smeared makeup: "I am a juggalo till the
day I die! Everybody that is down, they care about everything. You can't feel it unless
you're part of it. It's part of everything we do." The "it" is family, but it doesn't stop this fan
from demanding sex acts from a reporter -- to the mortification of the fan's apologetic
girlfriend.
After an opening set by Drainage X, members of that band hang outside the club, explaining
their take on the dark carnival.
"It's like a fairy tale, a fantasy, a horror movie," says Spider, the bassist. His face is painted
white and his eyes appear to cry tears of blood. He's done some backyard wrestling with
ICP's federation, a side project of the group, and was thrilled to be invited on the tour.
"Juggalos are the most loyal fans I've ever seen," he says. As a metal band, Drainage X
might not have gone over with the usual rap crowd. "If we came out trying to sound like
Violent J, they'd say, 'Fuck these guys.' It's why I'm happier to go on this tour than on a
metal tour."
Inside the club, the hatchet man is tattooed on the bared pecs of Doug Martin, of the North
Side. "It's for life," he explains. "When they say 'family,' it's no joke. They got me through a
lot of hard times, like fights with my parents. It's like therapy."
Around 9:30, after several opening bands, the crowd becomes an organism, swirling where
the mosh pit will eventually materialize. A young couple squashed against the front
barricade makes out frantically. Smoke of at least two varieties billows near the stage,
where sound equipment is swathed in clear tarps, like the set of a snuff film in a horror
movie.
On stage, two huge, hollowed-out skulls contain hundreds of two-liter bottles of diet Faygo
cola -- sugary soda is too sticky to dump on eager fans, apparently. Twin crypts sit on
either side of the turntable, which is behind a salad-bar sneeze guard.
Everything goes black. Blacklight strobes pulse over the crowd. With a blast of bass so loud
you can feel it pushing out of the 12-foot speaker cabinets, Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J
emerge from the crypts -- shaved heads, identical black outfits and crisp, dichromatic clown
makeup perfectly applied.
As the refrain "Get blood everywhere!" rises, the full-on Faygo assault begins. It never lets
up, not for an instant, throughout the entire hour-long set. Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope
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constantly twist the tops off the bottles as they rap and dance around, squirting them,
throwing them into the crowd and shaking them up full throttle, then releasing them like
hyper-carbonated rockets into the sopping crowd. Soon, ghoulish lackeys emerge from the
crypts, throwing Faygo and restocking the skulls' ever-diminishing supplies. The ghouls blast
Faygo from water cannons, slosh buckets of Faygo into the crowd and, between more
costume changes than Britney Spears -- now they're mushroom-headed monsters, now
hellish clowns -- throw feathers, confetti and streamers into the Faygo-besotted crowd.
A demonic, feather-tossing clown.
Heather Mull
About halfway through, Shaggy's shirt comes off and his semi-toned torso begins to steam
from the Faygo, which feels freezing in the sultry club. Kids have been flinging themselves
toward the stage all night, crowd-surfing on the wet, sticky hands of their family.
For the final song of the night, the orgy of thrown pop reduces visibility to blizzard levels.
When the lights go on, the three-foot-wide trough between the stage and front-row crowd
barrier runs thick with a muck of Faygo, feathers, confetti and several errant shoes.
Outside, the cold and stink of generic diet soda hits hard. Fans leave the show wetter than
if they'd showered with all their clothes on. As they disperse into the otherwise-deserted
city, a cry comes from some unseen corner: "Woo! Woo!" The reply comes from blocks
away: "Woo! Woo!"
It's the family, calling to one another.
With lyrics such as "What is a juggalo? He just don't care, he might try to put a weave in
his nut hair," and song titles like "I Stuck Her With My Wang" and "I Stab People," it's
understandable that Insane Clown Posse could have something of a public-relations
problem. And some violent criminals -- a Massachusetts teen attacking patrons of a gay bar
in February, and a gang of kids in face paint mugging people in Seattle -- have ascribed
their own violent impulses at least partially to the band, which doesn't help the public
perception.
Any real juggalo, the band said in a statement released after the gay-bar attack, knows that
the band's message, however violently packaged, is ultimately about tolerance. "Anyone
that knows anything at all about juggalos knows that in no way, shape or form would we
ever approve this type of bullshit behavior," said the release from band manager Alex
Abbiss.
Most media accounts of the juggalo experience have focused almost exclusively on this
violence, and on the outright weirdness of the fandom. But what's been overlooked, fans
say, is the juggalo refuge for kids who might not have a haven and an outlet.
"It's an outlet for kids who would otherwise be getting into fights," says Anthony Walker, a
23-year-old juggalo from the city's Allentown neighborhood. Criminals invoking the band's
name, "they're not down. They're just using it as an excuse," he says. "We're just a bunch
of kids listening to music" -- banding together as quasi-kin.
Rick and Megan Topping, 25 and 26, live in Brentwood with a 7-year-old son and another
kid on the way. "I'm the educated juggalo guy," Rick says through the makeup, touting his
managerial IT job and their home and family. The 7-year-old's not allowed to listen to ICP
just yet, Megan says, though he does know that Dad wears makeup to go to ICP shows. "He
thinks it's odd for a boy to be wearing makeup," she allows.
"We're a big wicked clown family here," says Bryan Pitman, who traveled a long way to see
the show: He's on leave from Iraq, coming today from his home in Akron, Ohio. He and his
Army buddies treasure the music's ability to release their aggressions. "I'll listen to
anything, whatever I can free my mind to and just relax," he adds.
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Ten years ago, when Phil Mineo started coming to ICP shows, he would spend the whole
time up front, enduring the violence of the pit to be close to the clowns. "It was different
back then," says Mineo, 25, of Erie. "Now I'm just back here," hanging in the relatively
uncrowded back of the club. He met his wife through the fandom, though she's not with him
tonight -- she just had their child three weeks ago. The kid's future juggalo status is in the
air, he says, since his wife is backing away from full-on juggalism herself.
Michele Knight, 21, and Paul Werme, 25, say they've been to scores of shows -- almost 50
between them. They've been fans since about a decade ago, when they used to paint up.
"I like [the music] because of the issues they bring up -- 'Hell's Pit,' 'Crooked Preacher Killa,'
those are about the priests and what they did to the kids and how it was wrong," Knight
says, echoing the notion that all the dreadful violence is meant to be retributive.
Michael Sorg, left, with co-juggalos at Club Zoo.
Heather Mull
"People who don't listen just think we're freaks."
At 25, Michael Sorg is Pittsburgh's juggalo elder statesman.
He's a husband, homeowner and film editor by day, but his spare time is dedicated to
maintaining westernpajuggalos.com, and making music of his own in an ICP tribute group
called Crap. The Web site includes wife Melissa's juggalo advice podcast, the Missfit Advice
Hour. She also answers questions on the site -- questions like: "I am a juggalo and have
been for quite some time, but I also like other rap music like Juvenile and like Jay-Z. Does
this mean I'm not a true juggalo?"
"Down is down!" she replied. "As long as you're down, that's all that matters. Being down
isn't just about the music. It's about the sense of belonging and the sense of family. As long
as you're down with that, that's what makes you a juggalo."
"It's partly proximity" to Detroit, says Michael, that's made Western Pennsylvania such a
juggalo hot spot. "People have told me this was one of the original clown towns." Some urjuggalos scoff at newbies, whom Sorg calls mall-a-los for picking up their merch at Hot
Topic or Spencer Gifts instead of at shows.
There are gradations in the fandom too, he says. "A lot of people need to prove how down
they are."
He's moved past that now, he adds: "I haven't done the face paint since 2001." That was
for the Gathering of the Juggalos -- a mobile yearly outdoor festival that draws thousands of
juggalos and bands from Psychopathic's roster. "We slept in the car for three days," he
recalls. After that, "I didn't want to touch face paint."
One local fan's tattoo commemorates the beef between ICP and another white rapper from
Detroit, Eminem. A mountain of skulls climbs the guy's shoulder, and the top of the pile is
crowned with a pike impaled with the pretty blond head of Marshall Mathers, bleeding from
the mouth. The bad blood started when Eminem circulated a flier for a show of his saying
that ICP might stop by, without having cleared it with them first. The two camps have
traded barbs in dis tracks ever since, notably in ICP's "Nothin' But a Bitch Thang."
Days after the Club Zoo show, another show celebrating the five-year anniversary of Sorg's
Web site was held at HKAN, a South Side hookah bar. Featuring Crap and other local ICPflavored groups Twisted Thoughts, Broken Wingz and No Clue, it was part of the club's
weekly "Hip Hop and Hookah" series. Emcee Ryan Cassidy of Basick Sickness, an up-andcoming local hip-hop act, hosts the show and did a set. While his tastes run far and wide,
Cassidy, 23, is unable to disavow his juggalo roots.
"Back in the day, I was diehard," he says. "I had enough [ICP] shirts to wear every day for
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a month." His horizons have widened, but he still goes to the shows, and at Club Zoo, was
in the pit in front of ICP. "Once you're a juggalo, you can't shake it." He recalls his mother
picking him up after shows back in the day, "Her car seats were covered in garbage bags"
to keep the Faygo off, he says. "She made me strip down to my underwear!"
It's easy to misunderstand what ICP and juggalos are all about, he says: "When it comes to
artists, [ICP] doesn't get one ounce of respect: It's a gimmick, a bunch of white dudes in
face paint throwing Faygo around, are you kidding me?"
But even the band's business acumen commands his respect. "Those motherfuckers are
hustlers," he says. "They're eatin' off the music and they aren't on MTV dancing around in
shiny jumpsuits. Granted, they're in clown makeup, but no label told them to do that.
They've never had a major label backing them."
"Never" is not exactly accurate. The fourth joker album, The Great Milenko, was initially
released by Disney-owned Hollywood Records. After Disney board members objected to
some of the content, the group excised three tracks from the disc. But hours after its
release, the album was pulled from shelves and ICP was dropped from the label.
The record was later re-released in its original form by Island Records. The publicity helped
make it one of ICP's most popular albums, leapfrogging to platinum status from the
controversy.
What most people outside the fandom don't understand, says Michael Sorg, is the idea of
God hidden in the violence of the lyrics.
"They're not by the letter," he says, "but it's in there."
Josh Trafinchick's induction into the family happened at age 6, when he found an unlabeled
cassette tape he only later identified. But his fixation has only grown. Ten years later, the
baby-faced high school student bears tell-tale signs of his fidelity -- piercings and tattoos,
ritual garb and an obsessive collection of paraphernalia, both purchased and homemade.
A moment in his presence, in his Belle Vernon house or walking down the street, betrays his
ICP allegiance. Other disciples recognize and greet him. He spends hours each day before
his computer, maintaining his Web site and communicating with other juggalos across the
country. His mother, Wendy Fitman, at first skeptical of his devotion, soon found herself
something of a devotee. She started istening to the music she'd only tolerated before, even
when Josh wasn't around.
"It's truthful," Wendy says. "It's stuff you want to say but don't." Wendy wouldn't go so far
as to classify herself as a juggalette, but she's wearing a T-shirt of Twiztid, a Psychopathic
band.
Juggalo at home: Josh Trafinchick and Wendy Fitman in Josh's bedroom.
Heather Mull
Sitting in the kitchen of their neat, cheerfully decorated home -- country-style Americana,
Halloween and, in Josh's bedroom, wall-to-wall ICP -- the pair share an easy affection. Josh
is as tolerant and respectful of his mother as any 16-year-old could be expected to be. They
both talk about Josh going to college, since he is putting in all those hours teaching himself
programming languages to run gzninjas.net. It's already the top-rated site on
top100psychosites.com, a site that ranks juggalo sites by counting how many visitors each
gets.
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Josh played the foundling cassette tape and liked the sound. It spoke to him -- and it was
lots of fun. As he got a little older, he searched out the lyrics online and realized this was
The Riddle Box, ICP's third joker card. He read up on the group and started downloading its
music. By the time he was 14, in addition to the hatchet man on his shoulder, he had
juggalo spilling down his calf.
When Wendy and Josh had lived previously in Johnstown and she started a new job, one of
her coworkers began gossiping to her about a strange new kid at their children's school -- a
kid with blue hair, piercings and tattoos. "I said, That's my son," Wendy recalls. "I explained
that I'd rather him do this, that's not hurting anyone, rather than the drugs and the alcohol.
I get a lot of flak from it but I stick up for him."
Wendy says such criticism, which she hears from other mothers, was not entirely
unexpected. She was so worried about getting into trouble for allowing Josh to get inked at
13 that she checked first with the county's child and youth services office. But she's proud
of her son, his self-taught programming expertise, his avoidance of drugs and booze, and
his creativity.
Josh and Wendy say that miscreants in face paint who commit crimes such as the
Massachusetts gay-bar attack, or Seattle park muggings, aren't really juggalos, and that the
music couldn't motivate criminal behavior.
"That's bull," Josh says. "Just because someone's out there doing something retarded and
saying, 'I'm a juggalo' ... they're not a juggalo. If you're a juggalo, you just kick back, you
like the music. We don't want fights. We don't want all the drama."
-- E-mail Melissa Meinzer about this story
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COMMENTS
40 comments posted for this article
GINGY
Post a Comment
4/12/2010 - 9:20am
FUCKING MAGNETS HOW DO THEY WORK?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-agl0pOQfs
you people make jimmy buffett fans look like polymaths
Report this comment
HatchetRunning
2/14/2010 - 8:06am
Extra reading and WARNING this may fuck your brain so dare to comprehend it only if you have
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considered possibilities outside what the media funnels down your throat. I was surprised the mention
of the Wraith without any talk of the controversy, many of us lost our way due to The Unveiling and
many are still lost as a result, and I agree with them to the extent that the meaning as it was
perceived by the world was incorrect and they certainly arent a mutant christian rap band. It is possible that 2
dope and J follow God, but through our own evolution we are discovering that "God" as it is portrayed in "Holy
Scriptures" might not be all that accurate and that in reality God may be our bond with the universe itself. Living
a bad life or not being good to your friends and family may disconnect you from the network of energy we all
thrive in. Their meaning I believe was simply that. To trust, to love, and to have faith. Giving it a tangible face
and personality is foolish enough and then passively demanding whatever the current currency is for the times is
transparent at best but thats just my personal opinion. Do not follow "God" as it is preached to you while they
pass around the fucking collection plate. Do not give God the first portion of your income (fans will like that one if
u recall the song) but simply follow your own heart and be good to those around you. Follow whatever it is that
God means to you and you will find your Shangri-la in death. Oh and for fucks sake dont be a jackass and post
ignorant ass dumb shit comments on any cultures boards. Valid arguments and intelligent questions are good
and healthy, but that shit was just stupid.
Report this comment
HatchetRunning
2/14/2010 - 7:54am
Clearly krizlarue missed the part about a large number of Juggalo's holding respected positions in
society. "managerial IT shirt" that guy most likely makes more in a year than you will in your life.
Funny concept. Anyways I've met cops, government officials, teachers, club owners, managers, hard
working intelligent pioneering motherfuckers runnin with the fuckin hatchet. The faithful will find true
peace in Shangri-la and all you haters can burn with your shit karma.
Misplaced hate and ignorance turns back the wheels of progress of our entire fucking civilization you halfwit.
Dont they teach you tolerance and indifference in middle school? Or did you never go to middle school? Has it
ever occured to you that some people use incorrect spelling/grammar as a means of expressing independence?
Ive been a Juggalo since we were some poor lost fucks fighting for every scrap of respect we could get and lets
face it folks, now some of the most rich and powerful got that way following the Juggalo lifestyle. Dont like it?
Fuck you. A hater cant stand the sight of a real motherfucker and nobody is more real than true down ass
Juggalo's. Dont say the truth, spit the truth the way it is and the way it will always be. Fuck sugarcoating shit.
May we all prosper eternally. BTW Twiztid Renditions of Reality for anyone wondering what this shit is really
about but doesent know where to start. Much love family. -J
Report this comment
Wickedninja
2/10/2010 - 2:43pm
Anybody who finds this article offensive is fucking stupid it speaks the truth and nothing but the
truth, get over yourself, oh and by the way look at me, I'm a Lette and I can spell correctly, holy shit!
Dumb bitches.
Report this comment
Juggalo Locksmith
2/ 2/2010 - 8:27pm
Mame, with all do respect you need to be a little more careful about how you word things. I am a
Pastor for the Juggalo Nation. I am highly offended about your article. Yes you did print truth about
the juggalo family. Although I severarly doubt that a juggalo propositioned a reporter with his lette
standing there. I am completly offended by the falseness of such statements. Yes we are a family, but
a cult we will never be. The juggalos like Josh understand what it is about, avoiding the evils of this physical life
in exchange for eternal peace in shangri-la. Please i implore you to please do your research. And please
understand the sevearity of prevoking this nation. You sound like a moron printing such reguritaited trash.
Report this comment
superman619
1/ 3/2010 - 2:05am
all this shit started over a fucking flyer those stupid bitches
Report this comment
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