Juggalo Music Is Halloween's Greatest Gift... and Anyone Who Disagrees Can Catch an Axe to the Forehead

October. The transformational month when the leaves start to turn, the weather starts to fade and everything from lattes to condoms become spiced with pumpkin. While the vast majority of people choose to dabble in a few spooky flicks, gorge on candy and play dress up for Halloween, the Season of the Pumpkin is the culmination of the calendar year in the lives of Juggalos.

Blessed with an array of Halloween themed events, songs, and merchandise, no other musical fanbase can lay claim to an entire month's worth of revelry and respite from normal life. Now allow me to break it down for you why the world of Blaze, Twiztid, ICP and the entire Psychopathic Fam-i-ly is truly Halloween's greatest gift. So if you're on the fence about being down with the clown till' you're dead in the ground….read on.

Twenty years ago ICP released a Halloween song that forever changed the seasonal music game. Up until this point, listeners were giving themselves gooseflesh with Halloween hits like Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt Keeper's "Monster Mash" and Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London". Along came the Wicked Clowns in 1994 with "Dead Pumpkins", a truly terrifying tale about a deranged and perverted old man who keeps jack-o-lanterns made out of human head's on his front porch because he simply doesn't give a fuck. Combining old-school turntable scratching with primitive, nefarious rap metal production and lyrics that are both poetically horrific and hilariously juvenile, ICP brought horror music to newfound heights with "Dead Pumpkins." As Violent J eloquently raps in the first and second verses:

"Open your bag and I give you my treat / Crusty yellow toes off a dead woman's feet / Take me by the hand and I lead you down stairs / And that little Jimmy is were you'll spend the next seven years"

Furthermore…

"All year round but I love my Halloween / You never get an apple or a purple jellybean / Droplets of chocolate a licorice snack / Instead you get a deep fried French poodle nutsack"

Each Halloween since then, the supreme prophets of the Dark Carnival continued to drop poetic Hallowicked flavor that consistently split the wigs of Juggalo's across the galaxy including collaborations with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Tech N9ne, Prozak, Kottonmouth Kings, Esham and the entire Psychopathic family. Many of these original cassettes and CD singles sell for upwards of $200 on the Juggalo black market but you newcomers now have the opportunity to stream them at 94 kpbs on YouTube. Highlights include:

Insane Clown Posse - "Mr Rotten Treats"

A macabre, Freddy Krueger inspired tale about another sick old fuckbag who gets his kicks distributing children treats like "balls freshly picked form Detroit's biggest nutsack" or a concoction of "fried titty nipples, sweet acid drops, and sweet chocolate covered nipple nuggets with fresh creamy shit filling." This character even inspired a sophisticated T-Shirt with his tantalizing menu of goodies on full display (One may wonder why balls on a chin are about 33% higher in cost than balls in a butt. That said, Detroit is facing "wild west" economic times. )

"Halloween on Military Street" is a slice of life portrayal of Detroit's most ruthless block during the Night of the Witch. Beginning with a philosophical deliverance courtesy of Theodore Gottlieb, the song lays the groundwork with a deceptively charming, carnival inspired harmony underneath Brother Theodore's meticulous voice-over: "We measure things by what we are. To the maggots in the cheese, the cheese is the universe. To the worms in the corpse, the corpse is the cosmos." Deep shit right there. When was the last time Radiohead or Arcade Fire actually taught their fanbase something about how the world revolves? The song goes on to describe various encounters that our protagonist, Violent J, faces during the night, from getting his nutbag flicked by mean old Mrs. Cherryspoon to power bombing the neighborhood turd, little Larry Shurd on a block of cold concrete.

Insane Clown Posse - "Halloween on Military Street"

Your average juggaho might've thought that ICP would've gotten soft during their TRL-fishing days of the late 90's. But take a second to remove your richie boy head out of your own ass and you'll see that shit stayed boner-hard. Songs like "Pumpkin Carvers" featuring Twiztid and the Kottonmouth Kings details the festive hacking and slashing of human faces with a scalpel while "Sleep Walker" has a lullaby chorus of "choke em', kill em', stab em'" amidst verses about a man who spends his nightly slumbers choking necks and cutting heads.

Insane Clown Posse, Kottonmouth Kings, Twiztid - "Pumpkin Carvers"

Insane Clown Posse

- "Sleep Walker"

All that shit is just ICP though. Add Twiztid, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Anybody Killa, Boondox, House of Krazees (Twiztid' first group), Samhain Witch Killaz, Halfbreed, Bedlam, Prozak, KGP and countless more underground, horrorcore delights to your repertoire and you've got a more colorful concoction than Better Home and Garden's seasonal recipe for candy corn snack mix.

Twiztid cranked out THE Halloween party anthem of the new millenium with their 2001 smash "Juggalo Party". Amidst chants of "Put your axe up", Jamie Madrox profoundly sums up the Juggalo ethos with the statement "Hallowicked is the only day of the year I get to be myself, instead of trying to be normal like you or anybody else." Though no longer with Psychopathic, the demented duo continue to perform their annual Halloween themed Fright Fest tour in the finest Juggalo infested Midwestern towns and third-tier markets like Joilet, Illinois and Jacksonville, Florida.

House of Krazees, the original incarnation of Twiztid plus the R.O.C. (who went on to form Halfbreed), released what is perhaps the scariest Halloween album of them all. 1994's Season of the Pumpkin is a 20 track tour-de-force of raw wickedness and violent terror. Listen to "Trick or Treat"

House of Krazees - "Trick or Treat"

So go ahead and keep spending your Halloween listening to wuss rock, pop-rap, and girlfriend metal or show some sack and make this year's playlist songs about cursed hockey masks, raising hordes of dead ninjas, and waggling your dick-piece at jack-o-lantern's. Whether it's catching a show on Twiztid's Fright Fest tour,

witnessing ICP at your local Haunted House

, or bobbing for candy apples filled with razor blades in a vat of Moon Mist Faygo, your Halloween is sure to be greatly enhanced with a splash of the Wicked Shit. If not, feel free to continue and paint your face as Violent J or Shaggy 2 Dope on Halloween and we'll keep dressing up as you for 364 days a year, Juggalos are having a fire sale on fucks.

Further Listening: