“ Will Eat Bugs for $ ”
At any other gather , a written proclamation that one is willing to ingest insects for cash might seem outlandish . At the 2010 Gathering of the Juggalos at Cave - In - Rock , Illinois , it go away for the most part unnoticed . The four - day outside party , which washeavyon sex , drugs , and nudity , was held in honor of the Juggalos , the right noun stick on to fans of the horrorcore music duoInsane Clown Posse . Often badmouth and outspoken about being misunderstood , ICP fan lean to embrace extremes , including a epicurean demonstration of debauchery at their annual assembly .
While some have derisively written off these issue as Woodstock in buffoon make - up , not everyone has taken it in stride . Juggalos onceprovokedthe Department of Justice and the FBI into declaring them a manifest felonious gang ; extreme behavior , include a severed finger’s breadth , has led to flock of bad press . Are they misunderstood or malign ? Or , as some Juggalos insist , are they only part of a unique intersection between euphony , mythology , and performance artwork ?
ICP and the Detroit Scene
Theoriginsfor Insane Clown Posse go back to Oak Park , a suburb of Detroit , Michigan , in the late 1980s . Two mellow schoolers — Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler — meet and bonded over a mutual dear of strike and professional rassling . With Bruce ’s brother , John , the menformeda radical dubbed the Inner City Posse in 1991 . By 1992 , John Bruce was out ; Joseph Bruce ( espouse the level name Violent J ) and Utsler ( Shaggy 2 Dope ) kept the initial and renamed themselves Insane Clown Posse , bosom the impulse building around the utmost acid - rap genre in Detroit ’s music scene at the time .
Like KISS and GWAR before them , ICP adopted a la-di-da stage mien , splice clown cheek key with rosehip - hop . ( Bruce took inhalation for their aesthetical from childhood nightmares about scary clowns . ) They also recognized that strong followings are built on community and a feeling of being part of something even if it may seem puzzling to outsider . Rather than unloose standalone record book , ICP created a musical narrative known as the Dark Carnival . Albums were part of a Joker ’s Card collection that unspooled the story , with songstouchingon everything from murder to cannibalism to evangelical Christianity .
While provocative , ICP was n’t extol violence so much as channeling the grand guignol repugnance dramatics of early 1900s Paris , where audiencesexperienceda kinetic frisson at gory and outlandish scenarios . While those performance were often caked in degree descent , ICP stuck to lyrical scenes of mayhem .
In “ My Axe , ” for exemplar , the twoponderthe frisson of edged weapon system :
“ Everybody everybody everybody runMurdering murdering murdering play , everybody diesSwing swing lilt , chop chop chop , everybody perish ”
This was hardly fodder forTotal Request Live . Throughout the 1990s , ICP amassed a fanbase outside of regular TV channel . They seldom invite attention from MTV or radio stations . When they coquet with mainstream succeeder , it never quite materialized . A 1997 record bargain with Hollywood Records , then have byDisney , fell apart after ill about their provocative lyrics .
Mainstream rejection turn out to be a asset . In 1994 , fansdecidedthey would call themselves “ Juggalos,”afteran ICP song style “ The Juggla . ”(Asynonymfor fans , ninja , apparently failed to get on . ) Juggalos grease one’s palms every album — loose through the group ’s own Psychopathic Records label — hit as many life shows as potential , pluck up merchandise , and espouse the counterculture nature of the group . The more seditious the general populace believe ICP , the more Juggalos seem to thrive .
“ People come into our world that do n’t belong here , and they reexamine us , and they say , ‘ What they do is stupid , ’ but it only makes sense to the Juggalos , ” Brucesaidin 1997 . “ I know there ’s a substance to my music . So do the Juggalos . To the remainder of the world , all they hear me say is ‘ separatrix ’ and ‘ veer . ’ … They just need to write bad things . That ’s cool . I say , ‘ Go forrader , write it . ’ I ’ll take the blame because I cognise the Juggalos hear what I ’m articulate , and that ’s all that matters . ”
Aside from being a devotee of ICP , there are a few parameter for being a Juggalo . Face pigment , while uncouth , is optional . So is gravel atattooof “ Hatchetman , ” the group ’s disk recording label mascot . More significantly , there ’s a familial element that coalesce after ICP spent nigh a decennary as an hush-hush success story . Juggalos seeing one another — identifiable by ICP merchandise adorning their person — might hit up a favorable conversation as though theybelongedto the same sodality .
“ All my life , I never check into any social groups , ” Jack Tipper , a Juggalo , toldtheNews and Recordof Greensboro , North Carolina , in 2004 . “ I establish the Carnival , and everything has been baseball field rainfall ! Juggalos show me unbalanced love because it is n’t about the clothes or how cruddy rich you are . hoi polloi got their discriminate so - called social groups . We have the Juggalos . ”
In 1998 , Bruce ’s brother , Rob , attendeda Gen Con pattern . Thisgathering , which celebrates tabletop and board game , gave him an idea . If people could convene to share a reciprocal love of game , comics , or Star Trek , then it made sensation that ICP could do the same . The chemical group book the Novi Expo Center just out of doors of Detroit for the first - ever Gathering of the Juggalos , which ran from July 21 to July 22 , 2000 . It would be the last time that the Juggalo fandom would stay under the radiolocation .
The Gathering
The inaugural gathering was something no band had ever done . While there had been lover conventions for the Beatles and Elvis Presley , the performing artist themselves did n’t act as as an event ’s promoters . ICP personally sank money into hosting their assembled sports fan without having any real thought of what would happen or how many devotees would yield $ 60 for the two - 24-hour interval event .
The answer twist out to be about 7000 Juggalos , all of whom descended on the Novi Expo Center with mayhem in mind . cubic decimeter ofFaygo — an economy Midwestern soda brand that became the group ’s unofficial soft drink — were sprayed everywhere ; Juggalos jumped from rooftops into Dumpster ; some looting was reported , though other fan stepped in to break off vendors from being point . While the facility did n’t ban ICP or its fan outright , it never hosted another Gathering of the Juggalos again .
“ It was the first event where Juggalos from all over were coming together , ” Rob Bruce toldThe Detroit Newsin 2020 . “ Before , they were just in their town with their friends in that town . Here , you get Juggalos coming from land off to descend to this event . That ’s what was so dope about it . ”
The Gathering of the Juggalos was not a one - off upshot . It became an annual tradition , with backyard hand-to-hand struggle , boxing , dish pageants , vendors , and a sense of uninhibited socializing that sometimes clashed with polite bon ton . During the culmination night of the Gathering in Toledo , Ohio , in 2001 , some errant Juggalos stormed anddestroyedthe stage , drawing the wrath of more gracious fans . Wayward Juggalos , one lover inform a newsperson , were call “ Juggahos ” and were mostly shunned from Juggalo social club at large .
During the 2002 Gathering in Peoria , Illinois , police stave in off a riot that broke out after some distaff Juggalos ( sometimes called “ Juggalettes ” ) embraced a clothing - optional esthetical . Come 2003 , the event made a lasting move outdoors , where private property made public nudeness and drug use more tolerable .
On juncture , Juggalo crowds could be insular and had little patience for bid Edgar Albert Guest . In 2010 , rappers Method Man and Redman do , only to be pelt with rubble . During thesame show , internet personality Tila Tequila was also attack with projectiles . The wrestling matches , which hosted wrestlers like Colt Cabana , oftenincludeda highly participatory bunch that measured their gratification by how many rock they throw off into the ring .
The ensuing publicity for the Gatherings was often pert , vomit up Juggalos as a sodality of nonconformist ( most of whom were and remain young white man ) . The fandom was an easy prey for shows likeThe Daily Show ; immersive journalism with reporters file from Juggalo gatherings became mutual in the other 2010s , too . But the occasional joke paled in compare to a 2011 declaration that made Juggalo affiliation less of a quirk and more of a criminal matter .
In the eye of the United States government , Juggalos were n’t a sept . They were a gang .
ICP vs. DOJ
In 2011 , the Justice Department ’s National Gang Intelligence Center and the FBIannouncedin their mob scourge appraisal news report mean for Congress that they had separate the Juggalos as a “ loosely unionize intercrossed gang … rapidly expanding into many U.S. residential district ” and one that had been cognize to confide crimes include hooliganism and felony . The theme buy the farm on to say :
“ crime committed by Juggalos are sporadic , disorganised , individualistic , and often involve simple violation , personal drug use and possession , petty theft , and hooliganism . However , overt author reporting suggests that a small turn of Juggalos are work more organized subsets and engaging in more bunch - alike reprehensible action , such as felony assault , thefts , robberies , and drug sale . Social networking websites are a popular conveyance for Juggalo subculture to communicate and amplify . ”
vexation over Juggalos being a legitimate gang organisation preceded the DOJ ’s inclusion by year . In 2003 , manful scholarly person at George Washington Middle School in Illinois were sent home when they braided their hair in a fashion modeled after ICP . Local policebelievedolder Juggalos were getting into criminal trouble and may have been in the crosshairs of local crew like the Latin Kings .
Those reports had been insulate , though . The 2011 DOJ categorization of Juggalos put them in conference with street gangs like the Crips or the Mongol bike club , making the fandom ’s repute spoilt .
Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope were understandably fierce . The two vehemently defended their fans and alleged the DOJ had bad miscalculated Juggalos ; they offered to compensate the legal fee for any devotee unduly burdened by the slander .
With the support of ICP , the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) of Michigan sued the Justice Department and the FBI in 2014 , charging the federal administration was ostracizing Juggalos . Some , thegroup claimed , had been fired from their jobs , had been stopped and searched by police for wearing ICP article of clothing , and even deny entry into the United States Army over the fandom ’s now - besmirched reputations .
The lawsuit was dismissed but later reinstate in 2015 . add up 2017 , the band had apparently consume its last legal gust , with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appealsfindingthat the FBI ’s definition was not de jure binding and therefore not capable to be lawfully challenged . ( The gang classification technically stay in piazza . )
In 2018 , Consequence of Soundpostedthe FBI ’s documentation on Juggalos , which appeared to mime some of the earlier governance hysteria around repulsion comic and red video games . Juggalos , the FBI reported , were at odds with the violent MS-13 gang , an accusal some found unlikely . ( In 2006 , ICP graffiti had beenfoundnear track - out MS-13 signs in Pineville , South Carolina . ) And despite their reckon gang condition , only two wild crimes committed by known Juggalos were cited in the document .
That said , some Juggalos have expose some extremely unique behavior . In 2016 , a Juggalette named Shelby Neuens agreed to have a fellow Juggaloslice her right forearm openand pledge her blood to observe a dead Juggalo friend . fit in toRolling Stone , Neuens also consented to having her pinky finger cut off . The Juggalo who wielded the tongue , Jonathan Schrap , was charged with reckless accidental injury in the second degree , mayhem , and assumed incarceration . ( Schrapreceiveda 3.5 - year prison sentence in 2017 . )
Another Juggalo slice off his own tit during a 2013 Gathering in the Leslie Townes Hope offindinga buyer for it ; another was arrested in 2017 for showing up to a Boston wireless place with an ax todemandthe DJ act as “ My Axe . ” Other , more serious crimes have been link up to Juggalos , though their participation in the fandom seems incidental rather than motivational .
Nor have these incidents stemmed ebullience for the grouping and the inherited atm it promote . The Gathering of the Juggalos has been held annually since 2000 , skipping only 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic . In 2021 , Violent Jannouncedhe would be stepping back from touring due to essence issues . But the Juggalos continue to gather , link up by their status as a household outside the mainstream . To be a Juggalo is to be essentially misunderstood , and that ’s how many of them prefer it .
“ I ’d rather have 10 Juggalos , ” Violent Jsaidin 2001 , “ than 1000 meaningless radio set fans . ”
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