Now just holy fucking shit. I feel warm on the inside thinking about Violent J getting an email from Time, being asked about clowns in America today, and muttering to himself, "Well, we all know who the real clowns are."The instinct, obviously, is to dismiss this whole thing as absurd and nonsensical and self-interested and, yeah, there's some of that. But here's a moment of eloquence for you:"ICP has discovered over the last decade, there's a whole army of scary, terrifying and dangerous clowns out there in this country trying to suppress the rights of thousands of people to exercise the most basic part of the Declaration of Independence, which evokes the freedom to 'Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' The only difference is these clowns don't wear greasepaint."
From there, J gets mad about the Juggalos being named in the FBI's National Gang Threat Assesment, something he's quite rightly mad about. He tries to circle back on himself by bringing in his sweeping social criticisms along with the more pointed pro-Juggalo, pro-ICP vibe.Which doesn't work perfectly. Of course it doesn't. But Violent J is getting at something here, about the nature of fear and the importance we place on uncomfortable images rather than sinister values. It's worth reading the whole thing in full, frustrating though the little flashes of insight might be, just to say you did. Do so here.Lead photo via ICP on Instagram.These clowns threaten the very fabric on which our nation was supposedly founded upon—and for some f—ing crazy-a– reason, they're getting away with it. From keystone-cop clowns shooting unarmed citizens, to racist clowns burning down Islamic centers or clowns in the NSA spying on us through our cell phones and laptops, America has turned into something far more terrifying than Insane Clown Posse's Dark Carnival. Even a scrub like me who dropped out of school in ninth grade can see what's going on. Today's reality is scarier than anything you'll ever hear on one of our albums.