They come out on stage with you sometimes, right? Violent J: The first time I ever brought my son on stage, he was on the side—my girlfriend was holding him—and it was the first time he had ever seen our show, and he was crying throughout. I thought, “Awww man, this is terrible. It’s scaring the hell out of him.” Then, at the end of the show, he came running out there, and he got on my shoulders and started throwing Faygo and it turned out, he was crying because he wanted to get out there! The Gathering has become one of the biggest festivals for music in the world. Do you find that because of this, mainstream America is more willing to embrace you? Violent J: I don’t think mainstream America is embracing us at all. They’re making fun of us... In what way would you say they’re embracing us? I figured they’d at least be trying to send some money your way for endorsements. Violent J: Never been offered anything in our lives. Not even from Faygo. Why? Violent J: Well, they say that they’re a family product and they’re not made for throwing on people. They don’t wanna fuck with us because of the language in our music and the way we use Faygo. You gotta get Barack Obama to become a Juggalo. Violent J: [Laughs] He might be! You never know who’s a Juggalo and where they are. There are Hollywood directors that are Juggalos. Like who?! Violent J: The director of Be Cool. He called us and said he’s a Juggalo, asked us to send him a bunch of stuff. And he placed it in the movie. And then there’s another movie coming out with Ben Stiller, which isn’t out yet, but the main character in it is wearing an ICP shirt. Same story. The director told us he was a Juggalo. It’s like a secret society! You’ve helped a lot of rappers that were once very popular find fame again via the Gathering, such as Coolio, Spice 1 and Tone Loc. Why help resurrect their careers? Violent J: Because I don’t believe in fads and I don’t believe in styles. We believe that if somebody was fresh once, that they stay fresh... forever... first of all, thank you for noticing that. Of course. Violent J: We try to do that. Like Vanilla Ice, for example. It’s funny how the world laughs at Vanilla Ice, but it was the world that was buying all that shit. Now they laugh at him when they need to be laughing at themselves.
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Do you pay much attention to popular culture, like what videos and singles are big right now? Violent J: I try to. But like, the MTV Music Awards? When Taylor Swift was singing that song to Kanye West... that was just fucking ridiculous. That was so fucking dumb I felt like throwing up. She wrote a fucking song and she’s singing it to him.... because he ran on stage during her award acceptance? Like that was some traumatic, horrible thing that happened in her life. It was like she was molested. I’m sure he ran up there, drunk, during her award. A year later, we have to all sit here and listen to her sing a song to a grown ass man… about how he’s still acceptable... he’s still okay, he’s one of the good ones? Fuck MTV for putting this on. Fuck everybody involved for us having to sit there and watch this bullshit... as they take nothing and try to make it something. It’s pathetic, man. There are so many other artists that could have taken that slot and brought the house down. But, instead we gotta listen to that. It seems like knowledge of Juagglo culture has gotten bigger now than it ever has been. The Gathering being in its 11th year is an indication of that. Violent J: Yeah! That’s the interesting thing. You go to any of the concerts and it seems like most of the people in the crowd are like from 17 to 25. And, some Juggalos end up landing in important positions. Like, look at you, you’re a writer! You said yourself you were a Juggalo. Fuck yeah. Violent J: And now here you are doing a story about ICP! That’s awesome! That’s why this is gonna last forever, because even if somebody outgrows it they had those two or three or maybe four years where they had a good time being a Juggalo. Apparently on your latest tours, there have been traveling scientists showing up outside your shows and showing how magnets work. Violent J: I think that is fucked up! And listen, if it wasn’t illegal, I’d straight up beat their asses. [Laughs] No, straight up! We know how the fuck magnets work! What are you doing out there insulting our fans like that? The song is so innocent! What it’s saying is to appreciate everyday things in our life, man. It’s by Juggalos for Juggalos! That’s why it’s soft. Sometimes when we’re talking to Juggalos, it’s like talking to your best friend. Not everything we say has got to be violent and wicked. You wanna speak to Shaggy? Shaggy’s there? I’ll talk to Shaggy!
Violent J: Alright, here he is, be good man. Shaggy! Dude, I’m really sorry, I didn’t know you were there, I talked to J for like 45 minutes! Shaggy 2 Dope: Aw, it’s all good man. We were just doing our thing up here. The state of hip-hop. What do you think? Better now or worse? Shaggy 2 Dope: It’s making more noise than it used to back in the day. I think it’s actually cool that somehow rap has made it so far that it’s just considered normal pop music. It’s true. It’s really infiltrated American culture. Shaggy 2 Dope: No doubt! Everybody back in the day is like, “Awww, it ain’t gonna last.” You know what I’m saying? Well, obviously it has. I think I liked it back in the day more... just because, you could hear something and know where somebody was from. You would hear some West Coast shit where it’s just like thicker bass lines, it’s not so much about the drums… that’s some West Coast shit. You know, you hear some heavy 808 type shit with mad snares and hi-hats, so you know that’s some down South booty shit. Nowadays, everybody works with each other so much, you don’t know where it’s from. Chuck D was saying that typically the harder music comes from the suburbs and the smoother music comes from the inner city, where it was more dangerous. Do you find this to be true? Shaggy 2 Dope: Not at all [Laughs]. I mean, I was gonna say N.W.A. was pretty fucking angry. But if you really look at it, Compton is a suburb of L.A. I think maybe he meant like the G-funk shit, you know what I mean? It’s pretty relaxed... Shaggy 2 Dope: Yeah, the beats were more laid back, but what they were saying wasn’t. Talkin’ about shootin’ motherfuckers and smokin’ weed? That’s not too relaxed. Well I guess smokin’ weed is, but what do I know, I don’t smoke weed. You don’t smoke weed? Shaggy 2 Dope: Nope. When I was a kid I did a few times, not my thing. I don’t like being high. Just Faygo? Shaggy 2 Dope: Yessir. [www.insaneclownposse.com]