Showing posts with label Insane Clown Posse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insane Clown Posse. Show all posts

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Have an Insane Clown X Mas

A Carnival Christmas is an Insane Clown Posse single released in 1994 (and reissued in 1997) on Island/ Polygram and Psychopathic Records, featuring two songs: "Santa's a Fat Bitch" and "Red Christmas."

"Santa's a Fat Bitch" has a very west coast sounding, hardcore track, replete with a lot of sleigh bells for that holiday feel, and features a strangely sung, high-pitched hook... I guess it's meant to be a parody of Christmas carols; but I don't know any carols that're song like that. LOL It's about ICP's beef with Santa, that he never goes to the ghetto on Christmas to bring them any toy, so they sing about how much they hate him:

"Santa Claus, Santa Claus, where ya been?
I see ya got cookies and milk on your chin.
I guess you had time to collect your ends;
You always been down for your rich friends.
But Rudolph he don't bring the sleigh my way,
Nothing but coal and dirt for little J.
I guess ya couldn't fit down my chimney shaft;
You need to lose some of that fat ass.
All the little rich boys, they get paid;
Counting their toys and ducats they made.
Me, I got a little half little chunk of dog shit.
I'ma kill that fat bitch!"

"Red Christmas" sounds a little more Detroity, but still has plenty of sleigh bells as well. The beat stops regularly for the Posse to sing dirty versions of famous Christmas jingles, and then resumes for the next verse. The lyrics are appropriately weird... Violent J raps about dressing as Santa Claus and climbing down chimneys to kill people, only to tangle with the real Saint Nick; while Shaggy 2 Dope tells a story about building a snowman because he has no friends, until a really sunny day comes along:

"He was melting and I was just fine.

He got pissed and pulled out a nine;
'If I'ma die, you should come with me,
'Cause we're boys,' (BANG) and hit me.
Damn, I'm dying,
I'm dead, he got his wish;
And all I got is another red Christmas."

These two songs were also included on the ICP's compilation album Forgotten Freshness vols. 1 & 2; though the version of "Red Christmas" on there is missing the screwy "12 Days of Christmas"-parody at the ending. I don't know how great of a loss that is, really; but it's always nice to have the complete versions of stuff in your collection.

So ok, now A Carnival Christmas is the single; but it's taken off the limited edition A Carnival Christmas E.P., which was released and available only in December of '94 from Psychopathic (but not Island/ Polygram) Records. The EP features both songs from the single, plus two additional: "Santa Killas" and "It's Coming."

"It's Coming" is just a bland, repetitive instrumental tracks with a few repeated vocal samples heralding the coming of the next "Joker's Card" album (The Riddlebox). These promos were common appearances at the end of their EPs, and this track should be of interest to die-hard completists only.

But "Santa Killas" is another full-out Insane Clown Posse Christmas song, in fact it's the best one. It features a guest MC named Fink the Eastside G and producer Mike E. Clark (the strongest element of the ICPosse) even takes the mic. It features the best hook, most rugged beat of the lot, with a different set of samples for each verse, and it holds up much better through repeated listenings, since it doesn't rely on "funny singing" and other gimmicks that get annoying fast. The concept is simple: they kill Santa Clauses... J shoots a Santa Claus in the mall for saying he's been too naughty to receive presents, Shaggy jacks him for his sleigh, Mike has an axe to grind about not getting what he wanted for Christmas that year and Fink shares a graphic moment about burning Santa and his reindeer alive:

"Spark up the matches,
And it catches,
And I burnt that MOTHERFUCKER UP!!
'Ho ho (cough cough) what the fuck?'
Cooked his ass with a crackling sound,
Watched as the ash come flickering down.
I smoked their bones and I get much iller;
Fink, the Eastside G, the Santa Claus killer!"

God knows we don't need any more lame anthems to their "juggalo" fans or self-parodying references to Faygo; but when you're looking for a novel holiday tune, the Insane Clowns know how to deliver the outrageous. The rarity has made the EP a bit pricey, but if you come across it relatively cheap, it could be worthwhile Christmas present to get yourself.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Horrorcore Potpourri

If you could sum up the entire 90's horrorcore phase in one, tidy album (and you can!), this would be it. It's the soundtrack to The Fear, and with only, like, two omissions that I can think of, offers a thoroughly near-definitive sampling of horrorcore in its heyday. It's an education, and it's fun, which is a lot more than you can say about the movie.

This album is what the Tales From the Hood soundtrack should've been, had they not dropped the ball: a sampling of every horrorcore artist working at the time, except again for those two ommisions. The only people who stand out as missing to me are The Cella Dwellas (who may not've wanted to been associated with the horrorcore fad) and Crustified Dibbs. And two out of every-fuckin'-body ain't bad! So let's jump right in:

1) "The Fear (Morty's Theme)" - Although Esham - like pretty much everybody associated with the horrorcore - has since attempted to distance himself from the subgenre, he may well be the man who started it. At least in the sense of making "horrorcore" a full-time rap career, as opposed to a single novelty song, like "Haunted House of Rock" or Bushwick Bill's "Chucky." And considering he's saddled with actually making a theme song for the goofy movie's villain (a wooden dummy that springs to life whenever you're really scared), Esham acquits himself very well. His style, the hook, the music (which I can only guess is by Esham himself, since this album features no production credits, but he usually produces all his own stuff) are all very effective at evoking the best elements of this movie and just being an engaging little song. Sure, he's done better work on his own... but when you burden the artist with having to make a song about Morty, I don't think you could ask for more.

2) "Black Peter" - Half Pit and Half Dead only managed to release one single, independent 12" in their career; so to see that this album even scooped these guys up is a real treat. What's more, we learn a bit more about their crew, including the fact that they rolled with a reggae guy named Machete, who appears on this song. (Black Peter, by the way, is an in-film reference, so this song must've been specifically written for the movie.)

3) "Here Come the Gravediggaz" - Ok, this is right off their debut album, but it's kinda impressive that this little rinky-dink movie with a Warlock Records soundtrack got The Gravediggaz at all. Remember, this was right at their peak, and everything Wu-related was huge.

4) "Necrophobia" - Not much is known about The Headless Horesemen, except apparently they were signed to Def Jam (we know this from the liner notes of this album), and they did a guest appearance on Def Jam's other horrorcore act, The Flatlinerz', debut album. Like them, I suspect The Horsemen got dropped when Russell Simmons saw horrorcore wasn't going to be the new gangsta rap. I think these guys were doper than the Flatlinerz, though, with more creative "out there" flows.

5) "Better Off Dead" - This is that Half Pit and Half Dead song that they'd put out on their aforementioned 12".

6) "Life After Death" - Esham got popular enough to put out several albums by his weedcarriers, collectively known as Natas. This is the title song off of their debut album. It helps that Esham made himself a member of his own group, and often appeared on their songs.

7) "Fear, Flesh & Blood" - This is Machete from that Half Pit song, going solo this time. This album probably would've been a nice boost to their careers if they'd ever managed to follow up on their first single. He's probably also the first horrorcore reggae artist, like, ever.

8) "Graveyard Tales" - This is a song by a guy named Terror, who I believe is from New York, with a flow that meshes a throaty grimy style with playful "all over the place" enunciation, a la King Just. Not bad.

9) "Dead Body Man" - Yep, The Insane Clown Posse are included here. This is a song right off their 1994 EP, The Terror Wheel, and it's one of their better ones.

10) "Rocks Off" - If you're going to include another Esham song, particularly one that's just lifted from one of his albums (the Helter Skelter EP), you'd think you'd do one of his better horrorcore songs than one of his cheesy sex songs. But the filmmakers actually used this song in the movie to score a "sexy" scene, which both explains the song's inclusion here and the artistic failure of the film.

11) "Infared's Terror" - I don't really know who Infared is either, except the fact that he and all the Half Pit Half Dead acts are all credited as appearing "courtesy of Army From Hell." I guess that makes it pretty clear he was down with them, too. Again, I'm really surprised they didn't muster up an album after this. His flow's really grimey... pretty cool and very 90's.

12) "Run" - Flatlinerz are here being represented, too. This would have just been another "song off their album," but since it got shelved, this song becomes another soundtrack exclusive.

13) "Sweet & Saxxy (A Moment of Calm Before You Die)" - Like its title implies, this is the only non horrorcore (or rap at all) song on here. It's a little easy listening, light jazz number by somebody named Kim Waters. I think you'll find that everybody who owned this back in the day learned to stop the tape at track 12.

So, there you have it. It's a pretty sweet Whitman's Sampler of horrorcore in its prime. Sure, a sizeable chunk of these songs had been previously released, but a lot were exclusive. I'm not sure of there's a vinyl release, but the CD is easily found and worth picking up for a nostalgic trip back to the early 90's.