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!
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.
December 31, 2015 / como / 0 Comments
Who was you with when you got tattoos?
Who was you tripping with when you did them mushrooms?
Who the f*ck threw up all over your car?
And then felt worse then you about that shit in the morning? (Friends ya’ll)
Who loans ya money, homie?
Who owes ya cash?
Who taught you how to use the bong for the grass?
I don’t know much but I gotta assume
When ya hit ya first neden, ya homies was in the room
These are the lyrics to “Homies” by ICP. This song has neared anthem status for those within the Juggalo Family, but more importantly, “Homies” by ICP acts as insurmountable evidence that horror rap can bring people together. Many anti-horror rap crusaders out there have long accused horror rap of being an overly violent, misogynistic genre of music that does nothing but turn youth against their parents, or existing fans against the rest of the public.
As “Homies” by ICP lyrics demonstrate above, nothing could be further from the truth.
But its not just songs like “Homies” by ICP that perpetuate the Juggalo family atmosphere among horror rap fans. Its the people and horror raps over-arching message that makes Juggalo and family go together like horror rap and Psychopathic Records.
ICPs Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, unarguably the godfathers of horror rap music, have always viewed themselves, for better or worse, as misfits. They dont fit in with mainstream society, and would have it no other way. This is where horror rap comes in.
Instead of moping about their status or feelings toward the public at large, the guys write songs like “Homies” by ICP to show a welcoming mentality towards other horror rap heads who feel the exact same way they do.
Has this strategy worked? To say the least, yes. Songs like “Homies” by ICP and the bands general attitude towards the Juggalo family have created an artist-fan bond so strong that ICP could retire now and never have to work again if they wanted to.
The scenarios put forth in “Homies” by ICP, as evident in the lyrics to “Homies” by ICP above, are perfect examples of this kind of Juggalo family love. Aside from their shared love of horror rap, those within the Juggalo family are just as strongly connected as stereotypically bonded relationships, like frat brothers or father-son, if not stronger.
Juggalo family members loan each other money, get too drunk, talk about girls (or boys for the Juggalette members of the Juggalo family) , etc.
So next time you think that horror rap only deals with themes of suicide, murder, Satanism, or other non-sense violence, remember “Homies” by ICP and the Juggalo family bonds! It they werent real, the Juggalo family and all other homies of ICP would have long since disbanded.
December 1, 2015 / como / 0 Comments
There are super groups (groups comprised of one or more musicians that are successful in their own right) in every musical genre. Recent examples of such include Them Crooked Vultures (Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal), Velvet Revolver (Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, Slash of Guns n Roses, + more), and Broken Social Scene who have so many members it would take the entire page to list them all.
You may have noticed that all of these super groups are in the rock or indie rock vein, and thats true for most super groups throughout history, except for those Psychopathic Records super groups appreciated by the Juggalo family!
Yes, there are indeed super groups that the Juggalo family approves of because theyre made up of Psychopathic Records recording artists. Psychopathic Rydas is one that receives a decent amount of attention from the Juggalo family, but Dark Lotus (made up of Psychopathic Records artists Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid and Blaze Ya Dead Homie) is the Psychopathic Records supergroup that receives the most attention.
And dont think for a second that theyre not appreciative! Find an excerpt from Dark Lotus song “Juggalo Family” below that details how much they owe and how connected they feel to the Juggalo family.
So many people in the matrix die alone, hey
Not me, my soul belongs to Juggalos, they
Keep me going when Im down and out
I pick up the phone drop them a line and hear them shout
Saying Twiztid is the shit, and Im down with the clown
Dark Lotus for life until Im dead in the ground
I give a shout to all my homies and killers who get it started
All my Juggalos always representing for the departed
That verse alone represents how Monoxide child of Twiztid feels towards the Juggalo family, and you can believe they respect him more for airing out his true feelings. Now it would be one thing if Monoxide Child was doing this on his own as a solo Psychopathic Records artist, but when you factor in the other Psychopathic Records members of Dark Lotus who more or less give the same message to the Juggalo family, it grows even stronger.
Considering Dark Lotus has been a Psychopathic Records super group since 1998, its looking like, at least for now, Dark Lotus will not suffer the same fate as its super group contemporaries. However, Dark Lotus last album, The Opaque Brotherhood, was released by Psychopathic Records in 2008 so they should probably deliver something in the near future to keep the Dark Lotus love strong from the Juggalo family. Maybe Dark Lotus will get their act together after ICP releases The Mighty Death Pop! later this year, the biggest Psychopathic Records release in years.