The Batlord

Insane Clown Posse: Ringmaster

Up to ICP's second album and the second Joker's Card. You know, as much as the whole idea of the Joker's Cards and the different attractions of the Dark Carnival add a fun, offbeat element to the group they don't really do much with it. The only time they really go into the title character/attraction is in the intro. They go into different aspects of the Dark Carnival for one or two songs on an album but for the most part they kind of ignore the whole concept. On one of their later albums they actually used the skits in between some of the songs to tell a sort of story that culminated in the last song and it worked fairly well without making the whole album about the story. Why they didn't try something like this earlier I don't know.




Carnival of Carnage didn't quite sound like the finished product and had an old school gangsta rap vibe to it, but Ringmaster finally sounds like the ICP only I know and love. Bizarre, silly, and strangely compelling. I've been cracking out on my ICP records and my one Twiztid album for the last few days, so a journal idea that started as a lark has actually gotten me totally back into this whole shebang. I guess I should have seen this coming since I really did love them back in the day.

Last album introduced the concept of the Dark Carnival, which if you're unaware is actually a metaphor for heaven and hell. The titular character of this album, you know, the Ringmaster, is the leader of the Carnival and judges your soul upon entry. Apparently he's also supposed to be a metaphor for yourself or something. I think the dude from their next album, The Great Malenko, was supposed to be you too. Whatevs. I could give a shit about ICP's quasi-religious crap. I just find the fantasy element to be fun.

The album begins with "Wax Museum" which is the intro that every one of their albums starts with. Not that they all start with this intro, but they all have an intro. You know what I mean so you can go fuck yourself. Usually I find these tedious, overlong, and just plain awful, but this is rather cool. The carny music production gives an appropriate vibe and along with the narration really feels like an introduction, not only to the album, but to the Dark Carnival itself. I can actually imagine myself queued up at night, waiting to get into a carnival, unaware of what is to come. Maximum funnage.

And just like their other albums most of the rest of the songs ignore the Dark Carnival concept. The ones that do though actually sell it better than others. "My Fun House" tells the story of a "rich boy" trapped on a ride through Violent J's funhouse, where he is brutally punished for...being rich it seems, before being sent on to the Ringmaster. One thing that's vaguely annoying about ICP is that they try to use politically and socially conscious lyrics to justify what really just seems like bitterness and wealth envy. Still, it's a fun song that shows that J, while he may be a terrible rapper, actually has an underrated skill at story telling.

One thing I've noticed about ICP recently is that when they are firing on a cylinders they are actually quite good at making their limitations as rappers work for them. On "House of Mirrors", a song about a rich boy, of course, having his sins reflected back at him in yet another Dark Carnival attraction, the minimalist, monotone, droning verses actually give the song a palpable feeling of menace. Along with the dark, lo-fi production it has a nihilistic atmosphere that is pretty fantastic.

Most of the rest of the album is taken up with talking about tongue-in-cheek serial killing, sexing up bitches, whether they be fat, stinky, or on crack, committing atrocities on rednecks, and other assorted silliness. I definitely dig me some ICP but I'm surprised by just how much I'm feeling this album. It's bizarre as I could hope for, easily accessible and fun, and feels like their definitive album with its relative focus on the Carnival concept. This might just be shooting to the top of my "Need to buy" albums list.

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