How Do Dayton Family Lyrics Compare To Horror Rap Lyrics

September 2, 2016 / como / 0 Comments

Underground hip hop group Dayton Family is often associated with horror rap outfit Insane Clown Posse because they are signed to ICPs Hatchet House Records. Although Hatchet House is really nothing more than a holding stall for artists Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope think will be the next big thing in underground hip hop, many old Dayton Family fans take this to mean the ICP has faith that Dayton Family will soon be on the top of the charts, and thanks to the support ICP has given them.

While thats a fair assumption to make in some respects, be careful with the amount of sound similarities you think Dayton Family (traditional underground hip hop) and ICP (horror rap) have. For one, Dayton Family, at least when they were up and coming in the mid 90s, were not a horror rap group. They were a more traditional underground hip hop group whose lyrics touched on themes of survival in an economically challenged environment. There is little talk about the morbid content covered heavily in ICPs horror rap songs.

For proof, lets take a look at some examples from one prominent ICP horror rap song and one prominent Dayton Family underground hip hop song.

ICPs “Chicken Huntin” Horror Rap:

Barrels in your mouth, bullets to your head
The back of your necks all over the shed
Boomshacka boom chop chop band
Im 2 Dope and it aint no thang
To cut a chicken, triggers clicking
Blow off his head but his feet still kicking
Last as long as you can my man
Cause when that chicken head hits the fan you got
Blood guts fingers and toes
Sitting front row at the chicken show so

As you can see, these lyrics are vile to say the least. Furthermore, its pretty obvious that ICP doesnt expect you to take these horror rap lyrics seriously, theyre plainly meant to be funny and for novelty purposes only. Despite the fact that both Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope come from backgrounds similar to Dayton Family, they choose to make funny horror rap songs in most instances instead of more traditional underground hip hop songs.

Dayton Familys “F.B.I.” Underground Hip Hop:

I’m wakin up in the mornin, with problems on my mind
Motherf*ck the education and drug rehabilitation
I’m smokin on that weed and the green is getting tasty
Dead feds in my closet cause they tried to chase me

These are the opening lines to Dayton Familys “F.B.I.”, and the paint a completely different picture than the horror rap lyrics do right off the bat. With much of underground hip hops themes similar to those mentioned above in the Dayton Family song, it would appear that they are not the anomaly, ICP and their horror rap is.

So, to say that underground hip hop group Dayton Family will be the next big thing in horror rap because of ICP taking them under its wing would be misguided. Chances are that, if Dayton Family does regain the momentum it once had, it will be because theyre bringing back the same gritty street lyrics that once made them popular, not because they crossed genres into horror rap.

However, as is the path for an successful artist signed to Hatchet House, if Dayton Family does get their career back on track, they will most likely end up being signed to horror rap record label Psychopathic Records, where every artist as a horror rap artist. None are mainstream underground hip hop like Dayton Family.

Keeping that in mind, it would not shock anyone if Dayton Family and the horror rap heads in charge at Psychopathic found a way to make a hybrid sound by combining both horror rap and the underground hip hop Dayton Family is known for!

Now Signed To Hatchet House, Will Dayton Family Ever Climb The Ranks To Psychopathic

April 23, 2016 / como / 0 Comments

All underground rappers who become successful enough to be household names eventually have to partner up with a large record label to continue their growth. For instance, once small time underground rapper Eminem went from being signed to Detroit based independent label Web Entertainment to being signed to Interscope Records as part of a multi-million dollar deal. If he hadnt, he wouldnt be the global superstar he is today. Who else is in that boat?

Flint, Michigan based rappers Dayton Family were just like Eminem was once upon a time: impoverished, unknown, and brilliant. In the mid 90s, Dayton Family (named after the street they lived on, Dayton St.) slowly started gaining notoriety in the clubs around their hometown. Before they could blink they had been signed to a label and created a record that was certified gold.

However as is the case with many such underground rap groups, fame turned out to be more than Dayton Family could handle. After a series of imprisonments and other legal trouble, the Dayton Family had no choice but to take a three year hiatus in the beginning of the 00s. But, as is also the case with many underground rap groups that have suffered the same fate, theres often a third party interested in reviving said underground rap groups faltering career.

In the case of the Dayton Family, those angels were none other than once prominent underground rappers Insane Clown Posse, who own Psychopathic Records. (Described as once prominent here because they are now mainstream, and the underground label isnt as applicable).

Insane Clown Posse started their own record label at the beginning of their own career and called it Psychopathic Records. Today, Psychopathic Records not only continues to be the one outlet for Insane Clown Posses horror rap music, but also the one outlet for an all star roster of other horror rap artsits that are a little more underground than ICP is right now.

Between those underground rap artists and ICP, Psychopathic Records is without question the authority on what is good in the world of the underground rap micro genre horror rap.

That said, Psychopathic Records is the precedent. If you get signed to Psychopathic, its safe to say youre on the brink of making it. Of course, not everyone can be signed to Psychopathic, otherwise the accomplishment of such would be worthless and the label wouldnt be a trusted source of new music. Thats why Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope created Psychopathic Records subsidiary Hatchet House to sniff out the next big thing.

And guess whos signed to Hatchet House now

Dayton Family has only been signed to Psychopathic Records subsidiary Hatchet House since 2010, but if they are at all able to pick up the momentum where it was in the late 90s, these guys will be boosted from the underground rap game back into the main stream. You dont sell 500,000 albums by accident. If that does turn out to be the case, Dayton Family will surely move up the ranks from Hatchet House to Psychopathic Records.