The Batlord

All right, real talk? I totally used to be into ICP. For about a year I hung with a bunch of juggalos who almost turned me (gimme a break, I didn't even know what a juggalo was at the time). I've since lost interest in them for the most part, but I still get the odd urge to play some of my old records every now and again.

Having only been into them for a year about four years ago my knowledge is pretty patchy, so I'm gonna start my exploration with their debut. Actually it's not their debut but it's the first one where they used the whole "Wicked Clown" schtick and I'll be damned if I listen to ICP doing straight gangsta rap. Sounds like ear cancer. Anyway, since this is year zero for the whole shebang I figured it'd make sense to do this album.

Oh yeah, and this is also the first of ICP's six "Joker's Cards", a collection of semi-kinda-sorta-not-really concept albums introducing different aspects of the Dark Carnival and it's attractions. I've never been able to see much of a unique theme to any of them though besides the intros, so I'm not sure how much it matters. Still, as far as ICP is concerned they're "important" so I'm gonna do all six of them.



God damn it. Why do they insist on a two track-long introduction on every album? They always suck ass. Listening to an ICP album basically begins by skipping the first two tracks.

I've been listening to this for a while and it feels like a transitional album. The schtick is there, but the personas still feel like bad, eighties gangsta rap. Like if Eazy E dropped too much acid and pooped on a mike. Honestly, the longer I listen the more this sounds like a cut-rate Amerikkka's Most Wanted. This album shows as much talent as anything else they've ever done, the lyrics are pretty much the same, though they're not as off-the-wall as they would become a little later ("Wizard In the Hood" doesn't count since it sounds like a ripoff of Ice-Cube's "A Gangsta's Fairytale"), but it's ICP so you get what you expect.

So that's where the "psychopatchic" thing comes from. Violent J just tried to force "psychopathic" to rhyme with "hatchet". I don't know if I feel contempt or amusement. Since taking ICP seriously is missing the point and I've long since come to accept ICP's lyrical mediocrity I choose amusement.

Alright the shitty, lo-fi production on "Psychopathic" has me by the nuts. We might be onto something here.

Yeah I'm definitely feeling this at this point. Apparently a song about giving a woman a black eye resonates with me. Worrying. Almost as worrying as liking ICP in the first place.

Good lord the production on this album is two-dimensional. It sounds like they had a broken keyboard and just played the same two or three notes over and over again. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it's just dull.

I had some fun with this, and it could very well grow on me, but it's definitely no Riddlebox, though more than a few songs definitely speak to me. Still, a promising start. I'd say my reputation on this site is about to go all the way down the toilet, but for a guy who publicly raves over Manowar I guess digging ICP isn't necessarily all that big a surprise.

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