I think he's fatter.

Probably not in the last 2 or 3 years but over the last 5 years, I'd say that's a fair claim.

He does look a bit fatter, now that I think about it, but it's impolite to point that out. He went to a lot of trouble making this nice song about domestic terrorism for everyone to enjoy, and I don't think it would help his eating problem if we were to reject his artwork and hurt his feelings.

he is definitely fatter like his dick looks like a button on a couch cushion fat.

I like all the time ICP spent trying to get themselves off of the FBI list of active gangs, and then they release a song like this. Now they're just going to be on another list.

IZ: cause they make a song about terrorism with a hook that goes "What type of man would commit these atrocities?"? Some context: the album is called "The Missing Link" and the theme is that if your "link" is missing, you're going to feel lost, do bad things, go to Hell, stuff like that. Clues on the album make me think that the "link" is faith in God, but Shaggy has said in multiple interviews that it can be anything that makes your life feel incomplete. In July, part 2 to this album comes out which is called "The Missing Link (Found)," which will probably reveal more. Anyway, it doesn't take much to get me going on an ICP tear so it's something we'll all have to learn to live with.

Ah, see, that was going to be my next question. The subject matter seems a bit grim for nice Christian boys like J and the other one, but then again, since the whole Joker Card thing is done with, getting juggalos to take up arms in the name of the Faith Militant seems like the logical next step. I wasn't sure if we were meant to *sympathize* with the song's protagonist, like we were in "I Stab People", or if the protagonist was meant to instruct us about sin, like he was in "I Stab People".

So they're back to preaching about sinners and non-believers, huh? Turning into regular Louvin Brothers, they are.

Mute left video, watch left video:

http://youtubedoubler.com/frmP

Homer: you said, "...since the whole Joker Card thing is done with..." That's where you're wrong, friend! This is part of what they're calling "the second deck." 6 more Joker's Cards! This is from #3 of this set. And if anyone tries to say that doing more Joker's Cards is a cop out, I have a lot of opinions on that too...

Doing more Joker's Cards is a cop out.

Bullshit! After the first 6 ended, nobody gave a fuck about the next album. The response was nothing but "This isn't as good as the Joker's Cards," so they did more Joker's Cards. Now of course you have people who aren't happy that there's more Joker's Cards, so nobody's ever gonna be happy about anything. Frankly I think it's pretty powerful to spend 12 years on a goal, complete it, and then say, "Well, let's do it again." It's so easy these days for people not to try shit because they think they're too old or it's too late, but to start something in your late 30s that you know takes over a decade is admirable, I say. Somehow, for reason I can't explain, having the albums be part of a set makes it that much more exciting to hear what the next one sounds like. They even said there could be a 3rd set after this.

So what you're saying is, they WANTED to move on and do other shit, but the new stuff wasn't getting them money, so they said "fuck it, let's just do it like Hollywood superhero movies and make an endless cycle of reboots".

That's not a good thing, Pete. You're making them sound like sell-outs.

Idk if you're just trolling me but I'll take it cause I crave ICP discourse: nobody said anything about money. YOU just interjected that in as part of the conversation. It's about giving the Juggalos what they want. Juggalos said the Joker's Cards were better, so boom, more Joker's Cards. I didn't say they want to do something else. I said they tried something else and people weren't digging it so they went back to what they were doing. You're projecting how you'd feel in that situation. I've never seen/heard them indicate that they'd rather be doing something else. I think they're happy to be doing anything because they're cognizant of how unlikely their career is.

So if juggalos said they wanted all Hatchetgear merch for free, they'd get it?

I don't think it's about what juggalos "want", Pete, so much as it is about what juggalos "are willing to pay for". Obviously, because ICP are professionals, and selling musical merchandise is their job.

ITT:

A guy who pretends to like ponies and a guy who pretends to like clowns trolling each other incessantly. WE ARE EATING OURSELVES ALIVE

That's retarded Homer. Giving away all the merchandise for free would be unreasonable and you know it. "Want" and "willing to pay for" are more closely related that you're giving credit for. You wouldn't be willing to pay for something you didn't want, would you? The two go hand in hand. You can say Juggalos are stupid but we're not SO stupid that we'd honestly go "GIVE US EVERYTHING FOR FREE OR ELSE YOU DON'T CARE BOUT US!!" We're happy to buy shit and keep the ship afloat. It's a pretty thick line between "All Hatchetgear being free" and "putting out another series of albums in an ultimately arbitrary set." One is rational, one is not. Don't be foolish.

Of course the two are related! That's precisely my point.

Remember: YOU said that the decision to do a Joker's Card reboot was NOT about money, but was instead simply the ICP giving fans "what they want". Yet now you are saying that what the fans want, and what will get the ICP money, go hand in hand. So in other words, according to you, I was right all along. I agree with you on that.

It's also important to bear in mind what you said at the end, re: rationality. In the example you cited, what makes one course of action (making more Joker's Cards) "rational" , and the other course of action (giving away free atchetgear), "irrational"? Why, the presence of money! The idea of a market exchange. Here again, by your own admission, the ICP is motivated by money: they are rational actors, and they know that the best actions are those that result in personal gains. Anything less, such as altruistic self-sacrifice, would be "irrational".

You know that they're motivated by money, and you know WHY they're motivated by money, so why fight it?

they finally heard about the canon d series, a camera that has made thousands of awful videos look slightly more professional in exactly the same way.

at least they got the race of terrorists right

oh my, well you need to get out more, this ain't that bad

I'll be straight up, the whole album has this sound to it and I'd probably go as far as to say it's my least favorite release they've ever made. Keep in mind that that means nothing coming from me because I think the other albums are the greatest pieces of art ever created in mankind, so the bar is pretty high...

Yeah, what happened here? Love them or hate them, at least ICP usually sounds like ICP.

I'd have to say this is the best I've ever heard them. Leave it to Prickly Pete to be the one dissing the Clown!

Ashtar, this is what they usually sound like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcsm8sWM_e0

"Explosions" is clearly an improvement.

Evilhomer, I don't know if it's possible to be more wrong.

Name me one ICP song that's better than this. Besides Miracles.

Ooooh don't even say that that one you linked is what they usually sound like. Hell no! I'd say that the "Great Milenko" album is most representative of the overall ICP sound. As for "what happened," if you like you can attribute it to them using new producers on this album instead of the one guy who has done literally every other ICP album (except 2)

I think what's happening is that ICP is hanging out with a lot of younger, better bands, and they're re-inventing their sound in order to keep up with the new blood - you know, better stuff, like Tech N9ne, or Snow tha Product. ICP are basically doing a Metallica in reverse. ::nods::

Worse than Bokencyde?

I like where your theory is coming from but I think those are bad examples, because Tech N9ne has gone WAY off the rails; In half the time he has easily gone at least twice as far out with his music from where he started than ICP ever has. Also, I don't know that ICP and Snow Tha Product have ever met. They don't have any songs together or gone on tour together, anyway. A better example might've been Hopsin. I still disagree, I'm just helping your argument cause I'm a bro like that. I'll give you some points though cause Tech N9ne's producer DID produce this track, so you were right to hear a connection there. One might argue that the "younger, better artists" that ICP is hanging out with that is influencing them is their current protoges AMB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgfNmazPSzk

EvilHomer
Name me one ICP song that's better than this. Besides Miracles.


Every single thing of Riddlebox.

90s ICP has more going on than people give it credit for, and I'm not talking about the goofy religious allegory (although that's pretty great, too), I mean musically. Mike E. Clark has his own weird voice as a producer, and I respect it. There was an interview maybe 15 years ago where they discussed in passing how influenced they had been by the early to mid 70s (Radio Gnome Invisible era) high concept phase of Gong, that was the first thing that tipped me off.

http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=87790

I can't say I've paid any attention to anything post Great Milenko, but I've been an unashamed Juggalo apologist for a long time.

Bugz On My Nugz uses a Bruce Haack hook, too.

I'm not going to name names but I have it on good authority that at least one or two of the PoE fouding fathers were closet juggalos, too.

It helps to stop looking at ICP through the lens of music and start looking at it through the lens of wrestling, because that's the real key. The backyard wrestling came before the music, and if you start to look at them as wrestlers and their songs as promos it changes things a lot.

Kthor was a juggalo?

And I don't wanna talk to a terrorist,
Ya'll fuckers all jihadin' and gettin' me pissed.

at least he doesn't have to listen to this shit anymore