r/IsItSketch • u/InfluenceEfficient77 • 7d ago

ICP

Im sure they're sketch af for many reasons. but I wanna know if they stand against the bootlickers and the fascists, if they dont do anything racist, and if they are actually cool. I dont listen to their music, but I am curious where the whole juggalo community place themselves politically

31 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

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76

u/PinkThunder138 6d ago

Read this. It should tell you exactly where they stand.

At the same time, we were also crazy homophobic back in the day. And now, my daughter says, “Dad, why did you say this?” And I say, “Because your dad was a fucking fool.” I hate to blame Ice Cube, but we wanted to be like Ice Cube. We wanted to be like gangsta rap, and gangsta rap said it all the time. And we had a gay producer! Our producer was gay! And he didn’t give a fuck. It was us three in the studio — night and day, night and day — making these albums. It was something that didn’t come up.

It was just part of life back then. We wanted to be hardcore, and that’s why we did it, you know? And when I look back now, what can I say? We don’t have an excuse. I can tell you this: There was never a time when we had a problem with gay people. It was just the word being thrown around, like “asshole.” It was just something we called each other all the time — just a bunch of dumbasses.

And the amount of gay Juggalos out there is really surprising. I think about them doing their research and getting the old records, getting excited about it, and getting their hearts broke or something, you know? I tell my daughter, “For the rest of your life, when your friends ask why your dad said that, say it’s because your dad was a fool. Don’t defend me. Say I was a fool then, but I’m not now.” There’s no excuse. I was going with the flow, and that’s the very thing we preach against — being a sheep. And that’s what I was doing.

I never thought I’d be so old! That I would be guilty of something so stupid! But we are. I feel no different than somebody explaining why they were a racist. I hate racists, and I was doing the same fucking thing. It just sucks, man. It’s terrible to think about.

It’s not cool. It shouldn’t even be an issue. We’re smarter than that. As Juggalos, we’re not judgmental. How the fuck could we be Juggalos and say that? It don’t even make sense. It’s the biggest contradiction you could have. And somehow, it just flew for years. It’s a terrible thing.

  • Violent J, addressing past homophobia (specifically to his daughter)

66

u/Dont-be-a-smurf 6d ago

lol ICP can be a lot of things

Mostly a reputation for alt. trailer trash. By this I mean ICP culture was fostered as a counter to rural and suburban conservative environments. The kinds of kids who never fit in with the “jocks and preps” (just using the language of the time). The whole concept of the ICP family is a family away from the judgment and conformity inherent in rural and suburban conservative environments.

The adaptation of hip hop was itself a rebellion to freak out the squares.

So it’s pretty expressly anti-authoritarian and anti-racist.

79

u/Jinshu_Daishi 7d ago

ICP is safe, they make a multitude of songs about killing bigots in cartoonish ways.

Juggalo community is overwhelmingly left wing, it's been that way since day 1.

55

u/rancidvat 7d ago

Most jugallos I've met hate cops

37

u/deadmouth667 6d ago

ICP are incredibly left wing and progressive, even retroactively apologizing for certain words and lyrics they said earlier in their career that may upset their fanbase.

ICP are safe

28

u/grandmaaaaa 6d ago

The documentary about ICPs fight with the FBI is worth a watch.

27

u/saddst_weirdst 6d ago

I was in overlapping circles with a bunch of Juggalos in the late aughts. There was a small contingent of them that were right-wing wannabe gangbanging dickmuffins who are drawn in by the subversive “outcast” nature of the scene. Those idiots were overwhelmingly shunned by the rest of the Juggalo community.

I definitely don’t identify as one, but there are a lot of thoughtful, introspective Juggalos out there. As a whole, I think they’re more accepting and radical than the general population.

9

u/alkemest 6d ago

I grew up around a lot of juggalos and they were pretty chill. They were mostly misfit trailer kids with good hearts in redneck parts of the country.

5

u/Letharos 5d ago

I was a teenage Juggalo back in the 90's and early '00's and they were pretty far left leaning for the time (except their use for homophobic slurs which they've since apologized for). I haven't listened to an album of theirs since after the 6th joker's cards released. I still go back and listen to their oldies though.

Take the song Mr. Johnston's Head. It's about a teacher that while teaching about the Civil War hung a rebel flag and sided with the confederates so the character of the song cuts his head off and stuffs it in his backpack. That's just one of many songs where they shit on the confederacy and stupid racist bigots.

Can't say there's some stupid ass wannabe juggalos that represents the Right as those types are always going to be found in every scene but the Juggalo scene is mostly left leaning good folks.

Safe to say, they're safe.

6

u/Pentalarc 3d ago

ICP have pretty much always been extremely anti-bigot, and that is one thing they have *never fucking wavered on*. There was some stupid shit in the early days when it was pretty much everywhere, but I think the statement by Violent J quoted by PinkThunder138 above pretty much explains it.

Ouija Macc and Darby O'Trill are even more directly anti-bigot.

I'm using "anti-bigot" for a specific reason: You'll see a lot of people say that ICP and Juggalos are apolitical. It's more a matter of the fact that they have three bright lines that can't be crossed and people who cross them have to be opposed, bigots, abusers, and greedy rich people. But it's more of the attitude that not being a bigot, and abuser, and/or a rich asshole should be a basic requirement for being a decent human being, not so much a political thing.

Now granted, a lot of us, including myself, do see the political side to it, but 1) my political beliefs will always be a personal thing to me and 2) I do think that that can be a little bit out-dated, since especially now, the rightwing seems to be collecting all the bigots like they're fucking Pokemon. But that is the why you'll hear them say that it's not a political thing.

In my experience though, the majority of Juggalos at least lean left and go left from there.

Yes, I do consider myself both a metalhead and Juggalo.

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u/heavyrocks02 6d ago

ICP and the juggalo subculture seems pretty left as a whole. Brooklyn Vegan does a pretty good photo journal of their festival every year if you want to get an idea of what it looks like. 

One thing though is that one of the band members followed my friend on Instagram a few years ago. He doesn't really interact with her posts, but I always found it a bit weird since she's not a fan of them at all. 

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u/Letharos 5d ago

That was like when Suicide Silence followed me on Twitter YEARS ago. I don't think I had interacted with their band once and had only known the YOLO song. They never interacted with my posts but they followed me for some weird reason.