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| Photos by Brad Troemel | | IN THE LAND OF THE JUGGALOS - PART 1A Juggalo Is King
“ What is a Juggalo? A dead body / Well he ain’t really dead, but he ain’t like anybody that you’ve ever met before / He’ll eat Monopoly and shit out Connect Four.” –ICP, “What is a Juggalo?”
With the possible exception of the Jews, no other group has eaten as big an amount of shit over the course of its existence as the Juggalos.
From the earliest reviews of the Insane Clown Posse’s singular brand of circus-themed swear-rap, the general contention has been that there is no way music could possibly sink below this point. This is the bottom. It’s almost as if ICP intentionally cherry-picked the worst aspects of goth, punk, gangsta rap, rave, nu-metal, and real metal to create a sub-culture so universally repulsive as to forestall any attempts at outside involvement. Basically, they trumped all previous claims of FTW, and then wrote a nearly unlistenable song called “Fuck the World” just to hammer the point home.
But while everybody else was busy acting like they were above gems such as “Bugz On My Nutz,” Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope were forging a media empire for their base of extremely devoted followers, the Juggalo Family—sort of like a rap-alliance between Deadheads and the KISS Army. The Family spread rapidly across the poorer swaths of the Midwest and established a huge and more or less self-sufficient underground with its own distribution network, porn, churches (seriously), charities, file-sharing services, anti-drunk-driving coalition (JADD), initiatory secret society, GLBT activist, pro- and backyard-wrestling circuits, and two MySpace variations (ninjaspace.net and the possibly defunct myjuggalospace.com).
If you want some scope of their national coverage, just plug the word “Juggalo” into google. Wait, actually I just tried that and it really wasn’t that impressive, but trust me, they are big and forever getting bigger. I know, because I just spent the weekend with a good 6,000 of them.
 The Gathering of the Juggalos is like the horror-rap equivalent of the Hajj. ICP started it in 2000 as a two-day festival in their native Michigan to showcase the bands on their label, Psychopathic Records, but over the next few years it metastasized into a four-day-long acid-tit-and-rap binge, drawing thousands of Juggalos from across the country and featuring performances by outside rappers such as 2 Live Crew, Three 6 Mafia, and Vanilla Ice.
Except for a lucky three-year spate in northern Ohio, the Gathering has been forced to move every year due to crowd issues (the second one in Toledo resulted in a full-scale indoor police riot), and up until the third year, ICP had yet to make it through a complete set on account of audience overenthusiasm. This year’s was being held at a biker camp just outside the 350-person townlet of Cave-In-Rock right on the southern border of Illinois, an hour’s drive in all directions from anything approaching civilization.
I’d been hesitant to dive into the Gathering on my own, but at the last minute a Welsh Juggalo named Daff I’d emailed at juggalonews.com called me and offered to be my guide. I bought my tickets through ICP’s website, and two days later I was Juggalo-bound.
TO BE CONTINUED:
IN THE LAND OF THE JUGGALOS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Nov 16, 2009 wrote:
Downtown Tucson: Forgot to mark the calendar. ICP, means stay the fuck away from here. There’s 10000 cops and the ghetto bird make circles for the last 30 minutes. Tucson, from some reason, has an enormous amount of juggalos. People might be under the impression this is some kind of hippy town. Wrong. There’s more juggalos than any other subculture. Does someone know why? I think it’s the abysmal school system here. But even degenerate retards who look like they got hit in the face with a shovel need something to believe. And those of you who feel compelled to state how you’re a juggalo with a brain or a job or a dick longer than 3 inches: give it up. It doesn’t matter how quasi normal you are, you still listen to shit and freely associate with the lowest form of human scum to walk on two legs. | | Anonymous, on Oct 29, 2009 wrote:
come on, some people are so stupid...there is no way that you have met every juggalo in the world, dont judge an entire group by the actions of one person. I am a juggalo, im black, im a college student, i have a job, i dont smoke or drink. kinda screws up your whole stereotype, dosent it? There is not one particular type of person that listens to ICP. Its just a band its like Gratefull Dead or Kiss, or NWA or Tupac (ok, mabey not Tupac, but u get the point) its music. I listen to it because i am an adult and i FEEL LIKE IT. I dont judge u for your favorite type of music, dont judge me for mine, please | | Anonymous, on Oct 22, 2009 wrote:
"Damn. I’m a 49 year old juggalo who is VERY successful."
There has to be a caveat somewhere. | | Anonymous, on Oct 21, 2009 wrote:
Damn. I’m a 49 year old juggalo who is VERY successful. | | Anonymous, on Oct 8, 2009 wrote:
This is the most incredible saga I have ever read. More! More! | | Anonymous, on Oct 5, 2009 wrote:
my name is james yo fuck these juggalo haters if u want to try to kill us start with me im 16 and ill be down till the end ill worn you if u hert fam ill kill you so bring it bitches | |
| Beef, on Sep 24, 2009 wrote:
Much clown love to Morton! Woop woop! | | Anonymous, on Sep 24, 2009 wrote:
I been down with the clown since way back...i seen my homies die an they aint ever comin back... i walked through the streets my painted face held high...an i know my homies is lookin down on me from way in the sky...but to anyone disrespectin the juggalo name...thinkin we all lame...like we’re playin some game...i got some news for ya...we can break you all down...cause nothin can fuckin stop an army of....wicked clowns | | Anonymous, on Sep 21, 2009 wrote:
I hope the next Juggalofest will be booked in the same weekend as a KKK convention. | | Anonymous, on Sep 20, 2009 wrote:
all woman who become juggallos look like lesbians and their tits instantly sag when they make their agreements to join this dumb ass lifestyle of idiocracy | | Anonymous, on Sep 20, 2009 wrote:
WHAT KIND OF A FUCKING NAME IS JUGALLO.
these people come up with the dumbest shit | | Anonymous, on Sep 20, 2009 wrote:
its not that i hate them for liking music, its just that theyre a bunch of fucking idiots who do nothing but annoy the shit out of people and talk about the corniest shit ive ever heard of.
| | Anonymous, on Sep 20, 2009 wrote:
fuckin idiots | | Anonymous, on Sep 20, 2009 wrote:
this article is superb journalism in a magazine that from my limited readership normally has 0 journalism.
i am very impressed.
if you think this article sucks, stop reading vice. you’re not hip enough or cool enough or intelligent enough to be worthy of pretending you don’t read vice when you go party and meet girls. | | Anonymous, on Sep 20, 2009 wrote:
i feel like this article belongs in a sociology jounal | | Anonymous, on Sep 19, 2009 wrote:
i think this is one of the most sincere and honest articles i’ve read on this site in a long time. i was reeling with disgust the entire time, yet it was compelling to the point of beauty. yeah, that was kind of faggy. | | Anonymous, on Sep 19, 2009 wrote:
Baggy tits!FTW | | Anonymous, on Sep 18, 2009 wrote:
I don’t really like how in the beginning of the article you mention that juggalos are closely related and similar to Deadheads. Deadheads wouldn’t run around knocking over trashcans, polluting ponds, or ’thrashing’ to thoughtless music like ICP creates. Shame on you
-Deadhead | | Anonymous, on Sep 18, 2009 wrote:
People like this get made fun of in Cali. | | Anonymous, on Sep 18, 2009 wrote:
i am from detroit. i used to see "juggalos" all the time when i was in junior high, i never knew what the fuck it was. ive only heard maybe 3 ICP songs in my life. then when i got into high school, there were a select few kids who would still wear the shirts. they were the kind of kids who didnt brush their teeth, didnt change their clothes, were in the remedial classes, and seemed like they were stuck at the age of 11. those kids only made it to the 10th grade then they all seemed to drop out of school or get killed in motorcycle accidents. i am 27 now. i rarely ever see "juggalos", but when i do, its like a Bigfoot sighting. I know I saw one, but no one believes me. | | Anonymous, on Sep 7, 2009 wrote:
They should have put some Juggalos in the film "Idiocracy". | | Anonymous, on Sep 7, 2009 wrote:
ICP sends out a message that says " All Teenages, quit caring about everything and just love ICP." The sad thing is, all these teens are are walking bilboards so ICP can sell thier crap. | | Anonymous, on Aug 13, 2009 wrote:
"If I ever, and I mean EVER, heard anyone say "Frick Rock n Roll" I would kill them."
lol at the tough guy on the internet | | Anonymous, on Jul 29, 2009 wrote:
If I ever, and I mean EVER, heard anyone say "Frick Rock n Roll" I would kill them. If I heard anyone say "Frick" anything I would kill them. | | Anonymous, on Jul 29, 2009 wrote:
Juggalos are some of the most kind hearted open minded people around... i dont understand why people have to hate on someone for liking a genre of music... when elvis came out people were like FRICK ROCK N ROLL.... obviously not much has changed.. now its FUCK ICP but none the less juggalo is known to be an expression of originality ... of course the world hates free thinkers... we have the power to CHANGE the world...opression is blind for us all... White black korean mongul rap hiphop rock n roll... | | Anonymous, on Jul 29, 2009 wrote:
so funny to see the ignorance in people... why hate someone / kill them for liking music.... oh man | | Anonymous, on Jul 27, 2009 wrote:
the first i ever heard of icp was from a retarded guy in my neighborhood. not in an endearing down syndrome retarded way but in a my mom smoked way too much crack and i like to pick on kids way. he tattooed "icp" on his arm with a lighter and a paper clip. | | Anonymous, on Jul 26, 2009 wrote:
fuck, im glad i live in miami. the white trash shitheads who listen to this never head down. first of those dumbasses to show their face around my neighborhood ill fuckin shoot him. | | Anonymous, on Jul 23, 2009 wrote:
i’d go for the tits | | Anonymous, on Jul 23, 2009 wrote:
Amazing. I’m glad Vice is able to go to the stenchiest shit dungeons of humanity and pull great journalism out of it because there’s no way I could ever tolerate it. | | | Next 30 comments > |
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