Mars‘s takeover of MCD continues! Here he sits down with Insane Clown Posse’s Shaggy 2 Dope to talk about Detroit, the Juggalo family, and what, if anything scares the godfather of horrorcore. Insane Clown Posse’s new album The Marvelous Missing Linkis in stores and on iTunes now and the band will be headlining their 21st annual Hallowicked Clown Show in Detroit October 31st at the Fillmore in Detroit, MI.
When I was growing up I embraced myself into the wicked $#!+. Some call it horrorcore. Crazy, insane lyrics, about taboo subjects. I listened to everything from The Flatlinerz to Ganxsta NIP, and Brotha Lynch Hung, to stuff like Triple six and X-Raided. I loved how it made me feel. I loved the novelty of the fact that they were talking about the Devil and murder and suicide. It was so much different than the stuff force-fed down my throat by your normal commercial radio and MTV programming.
I collected everything. But it wasn’t until I first heard Insane Clown Posse that I truly knew what it was that I wanted to do with my life. I used to buy everything they had out. I was working for magazines at a young age so I would always have Island Records send me big boxes of everything that they had to review. Test-pressing CDs, stuffed animals, promotional stands, everything. Then I would have all this cool $#!+, but also I was putting them in print in all these magazines I wrote for. I have stuff you kids these days would go crazy for. I have their very first album on vinyl. There’s like only two left in the world. I had tapes with no barcode. Different re-presses. All kinds of $#!+. I had everything they put out.
When I was getting into music and being influenced by Brotha Lynch Hung I was a rapper. But everyone was a rapper. Insane Clown Posse made me want to stand out. I grew up with these guys’ posters on my wall. I am the type of person that if I’m into something, then I have to know everything about it. That’s why I’m so well versed in horrorcore. I was a fan first. It just so happens as an artist I rose through the ranks that I am friends with the same rappers I worshipped as a teen.
But in the world of horrorcore Insane Clown Posse are untouchable. They don’t !*(% with just anyone. They are not seen before or after shows really. You can’t slip in and give them demos unless you pull some ninja $#!+ and get lucky. They run a watertightass ship. So when my phone rang and Psychopathic Records asked me to be on their new compilation in 2008, I knew I had to stand out.
I paid the best producer. I went and got a legendary vocalist on the hook. I had it mixed by a legendary engineer. I wanted them to know I was !*(%in’ serious. Everyone in horrorcore in the underground knows when you !*(% with ICP you are the $#!+. So when Violent J walked up to me at The Gathering Of The Juggalos and knew who I was, I was pretty excited. For him to pass me a joint and be like “What do you think about touring with us?” It was a pretty big deal to me.
It was about a few weeks later when their label called and asked me to leave October open. My son just turned one around that time and this was going to be his first Halloween. I looked at my baby momma and was like, “Look. I’m going to do this. Make sure you take this baby out and make sure he has a great Halloween. I think I’m about to do the Hallowicked tour.”
Instead they put me on the tour with their entire roster, and then at the last minute on the Hallowicked tour. This meant the world to me. Every night performing for thousands of diehard Juggalos just like myself. It was like the Mark Wahlberg movie Rock Star. Except I didn’t have to wear leather pants. I soaked so much game on that tour. I went home and never stopped riding the buzz that they helped create for me. I am forever grateful for that. Over the last year I went through a lot of $#!+. One of the people I reached out to for advice was Violent J. It was an honor that he is there to talk to when I needed words of encouragement. ICP are the kings of what we do in horrorcore. They helped put me on so when I got the opportunity to do this article I had to reach out and show love. This time I’m chopping it up with the other half of the group, Shaggy two Dope as they set the stage for their 21st annual Hallowicked clown show.
Mars: Shaggy motha!*(%in’ 2 Dope! Its Mars, man, what’s going on?
Shaggy 2 Dope: Oh, what up man! How you’ve been?
Mars: I’ve been good. I’m back on the scene trying to do big things again. You know I just caught your show in LA for the Missing Link tour. You and J are killing it as usual. Best time I’ve had in a long time, man. The first time I went to Detroit was to start my first big tour with your label Psychopathic Records. Walking around in the daytime out there it looks scary as !*(%. What was it like on Halloween as a kid trick or treating?
Shaggy 2 Dope: You know, I guess when you’re from there you don’t realize how !*(%ed up it is until you start traveling, you know what I’m saying? It was just normal $#!+ to us you know? Detroit is a really crazy place. They are trying to build it up but still the majority of the city is !*(%ed up. It’s crazy because like, if you’re from Detroit you talk $#!+ about it all the time but if you’re not from there and talk $#!+ about it? You don’t get a pass for that, you know what I’m sayin’?
You’ll end up !*(%in’ somebody up talking $#!+ about it. It’s just crazy like that. Detroit looks like a nuclear wasteland. I talk to people and they’re like yo, I’m moving to Detroit and I’m just like, why? There is really no attractions there. But I love my city. I !*(%in’ love it. But when you grow up in that environment its crazy so stuff like Halloween is just normal to us, but if you just moved here I can imagine it being scarier than normal because of the surroundings.
Mars: I love going to Detroit because I’m a photographer too. I shoot videos and stuff for people. DJ Clay from your label once took me around to South West Detroit and showed me Delray when we had a day off from tour and took me around to all the places you talk about in your music and just looking around, every inch of Detroit looks like an amazing photoshoot location. I’d go nuts out there with a camera.
Shaggy two Dope: Haha I know right? But being from Detroit you still try to find unique places to do shoots at. You don’t want to just take a picture on your block. You know a lot of people from Detroit do just take the you know, normal group photo on their block but we like to search out even more !*(%ed up places to do our photoshoots at in Detroit. Even though you can probably do a good one right out on your front porch.
Mars: Most people from other parts of the country don’t know about it but I do because working with and listening to your music and a lot of independent music from the D, but Detroit mostly looks like that because of Devil’s Night, the night before Halloween. How would you explain Devil’s Night to people who don’t know what it is?
Shaggy 2 Dope: Well yeah, I never even realized that Devil’s Night–until we started traveling–that nobody else had it. So I thought that was crazy. That nobody else had it. Basically the day before Halloween everyone comes out and burns the city down, you know what I’m sayin’? A lot of it’s for insurance and $#!+. People pay goons to go out and torch their business and $#!+. When that caught on, kids would just go out and set garages on fire and abandoned houses and they try to put a lock on it. It’s not as bad as it used to be back in the day with the neighborhood watches and $#!+ going around. Now they try to call it Angel’s Night which you know, really ain’t flying.
Mars: Yeah, that really doesn’t have the same ring to it…
Shaggy 2 Dope: The cool part about it–well, not the cool part, but the funny part is they have a crew of people going around the city volunteering with these little orange flashing lights to prevent the fires but then you got drug dealers on the block with the same lights out there slanging their $#!+ with the same lights so the cops don’t !*(% with them. So they would think they are part of the patrol.
Mars: Ha ha, thats great.
Shaggy 2 Dope: Detroit’s a hustler’s paradise.
Mars: Every year around this time Insane Clown Posse gets a lot of attention because of Halloween. It’s like you are the Elvira of the music world in a sense. Everyone makes sure to come to you.
Shaggy 2 Dope: I don’t know if I would say we were like Elvirabecause she is only poppin’ one time out of the year.
Mars: That and you guys don’t have big, big +!++!%$…
Shaggy 2 Dope: Well yeah, but I think we get it because were known as this big scary thing. It’s more accepted as opposed to, like, being out in July doing shows. This ain’t like a once a year gimmick for us, you know what I’m sayin’. This is what the !*(% we are. This is what we do all year round. We do Halloween everyday.
We do a Halloween show every year called Hallowicked in Detroit. It’s our big show of the year you know what I’m sayin’? Like the Gathering Of The Juggalos, but we’ve been doing the Hallowicked shows since way before the Gathering. So thats like our !*(%in’ night. We’ve been doing it so long that its a very special night for us. Sometimes we’ll do a whole week before Halloween in different cities.
But in Detroit, its not just the Juggalos from the Detroit area. Everyone from all over the country goes to our Hallowicked clown show on Halloween. Halloween night is always in Detroit and I would say about only 400-something people are actually from Detroit there.
Mars: People don’t realize how big of a draw you have at these shows. My first tour that I was ever on, was when you guys put me on the Hallowicked tour in 2008. The first show might have been at the Verizon Amphitheater and one moment we’re all playing basketball backstage, the next I walk through the curtain and theres a sold-out crowd of like 4,000 Juggalos. What do you think it is that draws such a dedicated fanbase to the Insane Clown Posse?
Shaggy 2 Dope: I think its just a family sense. It’s just the camaraderie between Juggalos. When we do a show it’s not just a show. It’s people getting together and !*(%ing hanging you know what I’m sayin’? If you’re a stranger or somebody else you automatically got something in common. It’s like meeting up with your homie even though you don’t know the motha!*(%a. I mean thats bottom line. It’s like Juggalos got love for Juggalos. It’s not like a !*(%in’ Eddie Money concert where people are coming out like “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me” and pushing through the crowd to get your seat, nah, you’re like slapping hands like Teen Wolf walking down the hallway. You’re down with everybody even if you don’t know them.
Mars: What do you think it is about Juggalos that scare normal people? Why is everybody trippin’?
Shaggy 2 Dope: It’s just because of the media blowing it out of proportion. You know what I’m sayin? You have all these media outlets talon $#!+ going around saying Juggalos are bad people and this and that and now we are officially a gang. And it’s all bull$#!+. If anyone is scared of our scene, and they actually come out to one of our shows or the Gathering or whatever they would see that it’s bull$#!+. They could be the most straight laced stick up your ass mother!*(%er in the world, and they go to one of our shows they are going to see that nobody treats you like $#!+. Nobody !*(%s with you, you know what I’m sayin’? They could go to any Juggalo event, not even an ICP show. If you are there, then you are willing to be down.
Mars: For people who aren’t familiar with horrorcore, how would you explain to them exactly what it is that we do?
Shaggy 2 Dope: Its crazy because when the East Coast guys came out like the Flatlinerz and the Gravediggaz thats what the media called their stuff. But we were doing what we called the wicked $#!+ out here mad years before it was called that. The wicked $#!+, and basically Esham coined it, that term. That’s what we came up with it being called. We never thought of it being called horrorcore. It’s basically like a horror movie on a CD. So that’s basically how the whole everything being called horrorcore got started.
We still call it the wicked $#!+. Dark Carnival $#!+. Its just different than the whole “spending money, up in the club Bugatti” type of $#!+. It’s just us $#!+ting on people that need to be $#!+ on. Stabbing people instead of shooting people. It’s just an outlet for anger you know? Its just done in a different way than gangster $#!+.
