4/10/2023 0 Comments The missing link lost icp cover![]() ![]() Island Records ended up grabbing up ICP and re-released The Great Milenko properly, and while ICP continued to enjoyed great creative freedom on through to the fifth Joker's Card The Amazing Jeckel Brothers in 1999 along with their Bizzar Bizaar double album in 2000, the eventual merger of Island with Def Jam would pretty much cut the wicked clowns off at the knees and they no longer were any sort of a priority. Then next was the big controversy with their 1997 Hollywood Records released album and the fourth Joker's Card, The Great Milenko, when it got pulled off the shelves on its release date by their parent company Disney out of heat they were receiving by the Southern Baptists about various things Disney was involved in. It was with Riddle Box, the third in the Joker's Card series released in 1995 on Battery Records (a division of Jive), that ICP started on their journey through a slew of major label homes. This is when the major labels moved in on them and the rollercoaster began. ![]() While the rap scene in Detroit may have hated on ICP, they somehow stumbled onto company within it all that gave a fuck.Įven though Bruce and Utsler found that ICP has the power to be something more than just a rap group, the next chapters in their careers were a bit scary. There was an air of excitement from an actual rap artist at Detroit area record stores that would not be felt again until the ascendance of Hip Hop Shop alums like Proof, Jay Dee, Slum Village, and Eminem. Record Time gleefully displayed ICP's product line on the shelves, and through their connections with their management, Hot Hits in Roseville, Michigan was the epicenter for exclusive ICP merchandise. The in-store appearances were more like an event with kids lined up around the block. The stores respected ICP because their products sold well and brought another type of consumer into the shops. They started to become ubiquitous regionally with a younger tinge of the music buying community, and the record stores were the social media of that time. While ICP was starting to really hit their stride, their growing fan base of Juggalos started to don the face paint more and more at their shows. Every step of the process was also new and fresh, it was all exciting." Going to put it in the stores and all that, it was phenomenal. The day the record came out, the excitement behind it. Everything was so new to us at that point. "Just being on stage in front of 200 people. "Just going to a store and them ordering more cassettes on consignment, realizing people were buying our shit, it was great," explains Utsler during a phone interview about his fondest memories of those early days of ICP. It was their work ethic during those early years that would eventually start to pay off for them in the long run, learning and being excited about all the little steps along the way that it took to put out a record. Still in their late teens, they had the same rap dreams as anyone else where they just wanted to get a record deal. It was an exciting time for ICP group members Joseph Bruce (Violent J) and Joey Utsler (Shaggy 2 Dope). ![]()
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