Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucem Ferre
Oh wow, they made fifty songs about being psychotic clowns that kill bigots in the name of god. So creative.
I'm not looking at it from a back packer view point. The rehash song topics like every rapper does. They don't do it much differently on different albums. The whole disappointment of ICP is that they had this gimmick that allowed them to create commentary on social and political issues in a creative way yet they were never creative or smart enough to flesh that out. Because that's what they were going for in the beginning when they were just a bunch of Esham rip offs like every other rapper. Their commentary never became anything more than some adolescent whining about life being unfair and half assed versions of what every rapper was saying at the time. Most of their creativity came from their producer, Mike Clark. And yeah, in the beginning it was new. Not at all the most creative **** coming out at the time in hip hop though. They were just riding mainstream trends through out the whole thing. At first they tried to be gangster rap because that was what's cool. Then they rode the numetal wave when that got big in the late 90s. I had appreciation for what they tried to be. I still every once in a rare while will listen to older ****. The other day I threw on Ringmaster, used to love that album. Disappointed, it didn't live up to the hype of nostalgia. Very cringey. With a few exceptions. When they connect they can hit pretty hard, but a lot of times moments are ruined with some terrible ass lyric. I was immature when I got into them, and they never matured with me like Twiztid did. But they are definitely goofy. They know they are goofy and they own it. They use the whole "we're clowns" thing to explain all the goofy **** they say. I thought that's why you liked them. Their light hearted foolery while Twiztid are too depressed or some****.
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I like a lot of **** about ICP. Their early, self-aware non-seriousness is highly charming combined with their bizarre, psychedelic lyrics (for lack of a better term I guess). Their musical styles that, yes, rode current trends, created unique sounds with every album that made each one unique, necessary, and better than the genres they borrowed from, even when the albums weren't even actually that great (like
Shangri-La], and
by far Carnival of Carnage). And I don't really like that they used so many guitar beats from
Jekyll Brothers and on, which dumbed down the textures of their production (and yeah, Mike E. Clark was obviously the most traditionally skilled musician in the group, and is also something that makes them superior to Twiztid).
The amount you talk about lyrics in regard to ICP makes me think that you simply aren't on the proper wavelength to appreciate them. They have a lot of highly visual imagery, beyond violence and testicles, that isn't at all accomplished, but succeeds at a basic level. But that's only part of the point. ICP have a lot of underrated lyrics afaic, but they really shine on an all around musical level. Hip hop isn't just bars. It's music just the same as any other, and can flourish on many levels even while failing on more traditionally hailed metrics.
06-28-2017, 02:04 AM
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