ICP's 2018 Big Ballas Xmas at Our House (featuring an ICP Acoustic Set) - Farmington Hills, MI [by Scottie D]

What up y'all, and Happy Holidays from your homies at Faygoluvers.net!  I'm sure that you're all aware that the Biggest Ballas Ever show has come and gone.  You may have seen some things online about it, and you may be one of the lucky few to have experienced it for yourself.  Well, for those who are curious, I’m gonna drop some knowledge for you in the form of a complete Ballas 2018 review! If you’ve never read one of my reviews, it’s time to get comfortable!  I’m sure it’ll be pretty lengthy. Also, since the photos were taken on disposable cameras (we'll cover that later....trust me, there's a reason), we have to wait about a week for them to come back.  Hopefully ANY day now with the holidays.  We'll make sure to post a photo gallery when we get them all! Now, let me take you back a few weeks… Ballas: The Preparation For the past few years, the Big Ballas Xmas Party has moved from its home in Detroit to give Juggalos from other areas a better chance to attend.  We got Ballas shows in St. Louis (Pops in Sauget), and Nashville, but for 2018, Psychopathic Records decided to return home to the D. On November 8^th, a HUGE announcement came in the form of a Facebook post from ICP.  They decided to not only bring it back to Detroit, but that it would actually take place at Psychopathic HQ!  They deemed the event “Big Ballas Christmas At Our House”! [caption id="attachment_178363" align="alignnone" width="388"] Click to enlarge![/caption] With the announcement being made so close to the event itself, those who wanted to come in from out of town had to book plane trips, hotels/Air BNBs, etc.  As soon as they went on sale, I purchased two tickets to Saturday 12/22’s show.  After that, I used my Southwest Airlines points to book the pair of plane tickets, and got with my homies Cheryl aka Cherry Bomb and Jimmy to figure out where we were going to stay.  We chose this AWESOME Air BNB that we will definitely stay at again.  It was about 5 miles away from the office!  With Cherry providing the ground transportation, we were all set! The first tickets sold out in record fashion, lasting only a few hours.  Psychopathic decided to add on a 2^nd show, which was to take place before the first show (Friday, 12/21).  So those who didn’t get the first round of tickets would actually be seeing the show BEFORE the OG purchasers.  This didn’t sit well with some, but Psychopathic did a few things that made up for it.  I’ll get into that a little later. Fast-forward to Friday, December 21^st, and we were packed and ready to roll!  I worked a half day on Friday, went home, packed up the car, and we were off to the airport.  Our flight was at 2:30, and we didn’t know what to expect with it being the weekend before Xmas.  Luckily, we breezed right through security and made it to the gate with plenty of time to spare. Jimmy was flying in from Boston, and somehow things lined up to where we were landing within minutes of each other.  So that made things easy for our chauffeur: Cherry Bomb (Thanks Cheryl!).  Because I fly quite a bit for work, I have the A-list option for free WiFi.  That way we could keep in touch with Cheryl about any delays. Although we were only in Detroit for a few days, we had checked in two large suitcases…one with some gifts for the Juggalo Yacht Club, and the other with all of our gear.  The one we figured would be empty on the way back ended up coming in handy…but I’ll get to that later too. Cheryl had already met up with our AirBNB host who was absolutely fantastic, got the keys, and met us at the airport to scoop us up!  After the half-hour trek to the AirBNB, we got our rooms picked, and all decided it was time to get some food.  There was a bar and grill up the road that had some veggie options for Cheryl, and some wings that were labeled “stupid hot” for Jimmy and myself.  I’ll spare you with those details, but let’s just say that these “hot” wings were about as spicy as Frank’s Red Hot.  We made a quick stop at Walmart, got Jimmy some much-needed deodorant, and some breakfast items, and jetted back to the AirBNB. When we got back, we finished unpacking our belongings.   I put everything away….shirts, shoes, jeans, hoodies, socks.  What’s missing?  My goddamn boxers, that’s what.  I had left everything in a pile to pack, and Amanda said just leave it there and she’d get it into the suitcase.  Guess who had to roll around in some 2 day old drawers?  Not a big deal, but one of those things that you catch yourself thinking about until you get a fresh pair on. On Friday night, Amanda, Cheryl, Jimmy, and me caught up with what’s been going on in our lives.  As always, my favorite part of Juggalo events is spending time with the people we don’t get to see very often.  We’re lucky in that we get to have several “family reunions” a year (if we’re able to make it to all of the “official” Juggalo events). We all talked deep into the night, and didn’t have anything planned until the next afternoon when the Juggalo Yacht Club would be meeting for a super early dinner. While I tried to stay away from Facebook to avoid any spoilers from the first night of Ballas, I did see a few items start to trickle in.  Among the things we saw were:

• Joker’s Card shirts with different colors (ie: COC with Riddlebox colors, Shangri-La in Gold (Ringmaster), etc)
• Old school charms
• Echoside Gathering cards (WOTH and Shaggy Show)
• Vinyls
• Zippos
• $25 hoodies
• $10 t-shirts
• Exclusive Ballas 2018 shirt
• Wizard of the Hood / Chronicles of the Dark Carnival DVDs
• $20 mystery boxes

I’ll show you my pick-ups towards the end of the review, but let me get to that point, ol’ impatient ass. After crashing at 5 AM or so, I don’t think any of us slept well due to the anticipation of that evening’s festivities!  What should we expect from an ICP acoustic set?  Will there be any merch left after the first night?  What will be different about the second first night Ballas show than the first second night (see what I did there)? I woke up after just a few hours of sleep, but was ready to take on the day!  I scrambled a dozen eggs, cooked about 2 pounds of bacon, and fed the crew before we started our long, but promisingly epic day!  Since we still had some time to kill, we went up to Walmart again so I could finally get some fresh Underoos. **Side note: I got the breathable Fruit of the Loom boxer brief 5 pack.  Did you know those motherfuckers don’t put a pee hole on them?  Is this something new? Am I the only one who actually uses the pee hole? What the fuck?! Moving right along...it was now time to head over to the Juggalo Yacht Club Pre-Ballas Dinner!  We had all of the JYC members who got to come out to Ballas, Cherry Bomb, Vinnie the ICP Kid, Christian Ike, Christian’s girl Ashley, Kenny, Chris and I think that’s it.  Our trusty captain Big Zane chose the Black Rock Steak House which had a variety of options, even for veggie lovers like Cheryl.  They bring your steak out on a platter with a 700 degree stone to cook it on, along with your choice of two dipping sauces.  I went with the New York strip, which is my go-to.  So I plop this 12 oz slab of raw meat onto the hot rock to let it cook for a few minutes, flip it, and finish it off. To my surprise, the meat wasn’t seasoned at all.  So it's no wonder they want you to slather it with dips.  My wife Amanda got chili, which had beans in it (a Texas no-no), and was sweet.  Yes, like sugary sweet.  Overall, I gotta get these yacht boys and girls down to Texas for some real steak! [caption id="attachment_179585" align="alignnone" width="600"] Yacht Club Pre-Ballas Dinner[/caption] But this isn’t Scottie D’s restaurant review, back to the event!  My wife had made these JYC ornaments for everyone in the club.  They turned out fucking AWESOME and everyone was super appreciative of them! [caption id="attachment_179586" align="alignnone" width="600"] Click to enlarge![/caption] We had a great time choppin’ it up with everyone, knowing that we may not have a chance to later that night with everything else going on.   After we split from the steak house, it was time to head back to our temporary home and get ready for the night!  As soon as we got through the door, Jumpsteady called me and asked for a favor.  He wanted me to run the projector for the ICP Home Movies that night.  I, of course, agreed and said that I would be there as soon as possible.   Not 15 minutes later did he call and let me know that he had someone already there who could cover it.  So while it would have given me an opportunity to actually see the movies which have eluded me for the past few events, at least I wasn’t tied down to anything for 3 hours.  One of these days I’m gonna be able to sit down and watch those though! Fast forward an hour or so, and we were getting texts from Big Zane in the parking lot.  He was waiting on us so that he could give us our Big Ballas JYC hoodies and blue Santa hats!  We got all of our shit together and headed towards the reserved parking lot which was less than a mile away from Psychopathic HQ! Those royal blue hoodies were dope as fuck! Much props to Zane, Alicia, Relish, and everyone who had their hand at putting it together! [caption id="attachment_179610" align="alignnone" width="494"] Click to enlarge![/caption]   Shortly after meeting, a shuttle came by to scoop us all up.  There were two running at busy times so you never waited more than 5 minutes for the next one to arrive.  Nicely done, Psychopathic! I don’t know how many of you have been to the Psychopathic offices before, but we didn’t enter through the front door.  There’s a truck entrance on the left side of the building that had a tent setup outside with heaters for the smokin’ ninjas, and a single security guard (also a Juggalo) at the side door.  Some were frisked, others waived through, but everyone in attendance seemed to be on the same page about respecting Psychopathic’s “no cell phone” policy. One of the first smiling faces we saw entering the door was Rachel Paul!  We got hugs, got our fresh as fuck “Santa’s A Fat Bitch” charm, a CD titled The Gift of the Wicked Shit that had unreleased tracks “Swings & Chops [Demo Mix]” and “Mr. Clean” on it. [caption id="attachment_179587" align="alignnone" width="326"] Click to enlarge![/caption] [caption id="attachment_179588" align="alignnone" width="402"] Click to enlarge![/caption] After our yellow wrist bands were secured, we turned around to a WALL of merch!  Not only did they have the shirts, jerseys, hoodies, and more that I mentioned earlier, but SO much more!  Most older shirts (such as tour/Gathering leftovers) were $10.00 while the newer ones (like the multi colored Joker’s cards) were $20.00.  Silk screen hoodies were $25!  Some jerseys were $40!  There were some rare items such as the leather football jersey as seen at the 2002 Gathering of the Juggalos which my homie bought for $500.  There were all kinds of $1.00 and $5.00 items from belt buckles, CDs, stickers, flyers, and more!  There was also a $20.00 mystery box that contained 2 shirts, 2 CDs, a DVD, and various other items like old Gathering charms, Gathering booklets, flyers, and more!  Some were stuffed with rare crew shirts, one of a kind JCW prop shirts, and who knows what else! I got a shirt that simply says “BITCH BOY” on the front of it.  Something tells me Kegan packed that one especially for me. The merch lines were completely disorganized, as you would expect at an ICP show, or most concerts really.  Unfortunately, many of the Joker’s card variant shirts sold out, as did the Ballas one in my size.  But luckily, Amanda got hers, and several shirts that she wanted too.  Overall, I went back a few times to see if there was anything I missed.  Remember that spare suitcase that we had?  Well we jammed it FULL of merch that we bought there.  I don’t think I have brought home that much merch since the 2001 and 2002 Gatherings.   I felt a little ridiculous.  While we had the merch guy’s attention though, we splurged and bought 10 disposable cameras for $6 each.  Little did we know that we bought the last batch of them!  Sorry if you were assed out, but we didn’t know until it was too late.  We promise we made good use of them and will post the results soon! After that, I finally got to go exploring around the office.  I have had the honor of going there a few times before, but had NEVER seen Billy’s office.  That was fresh to check out, though I didn’t dare sit in the big man’s chair. There was the conference room, where numerous important meetings have undoubtedly taken place.  The prop room was recently reorganized and is one of those rooms that I never have enough time to spend in.  So much history in those four walls alone! Also upstairs was the Psychopathic Radio studio!  Rudy, Kegan, and Carlito were all choppin’ it up with some Juggalos on the air, and all donning their (bitch ass) Philadelphia Eagles and (hoe ass) Steelers gear.  As soon as the Juggalos who were on the air were finished, they invited me in to sit down.  Before I sat down though, I swapped out my Santa hat with a Dallas Cowboys Santa hat.  We Dem Boyz!  Hahaha.  I think part of the broadcast got cut out, but on the 2^nd part of Saturday’s episode of the Juggalo Show Ballas edition, you can see Zane, Blood, and myself at the broadcast table right at the beginning: (This episode isn't embeddable so you'll have to click RIGHT HERE to see the show!) It’s always a good time being a part of the show, no matter the capacity.  Much love to Rudy, Kegan, Carlito, Nick and Anthony for bringing us the latest Juggalo flavor every other Thursday night on Psychopathic TV!  (Did I plug that right?  Pay me!) As we continued our tour of the office, we went downstairs where Hoodoo and Str8Jaket were recording and mixing down a track!  I only got to witness this for a few minutes, but you could tell how dedicated the both of them were…making tweaks to what seems like minor parts of the track until it was perfect to them. Finally, we came across what is probably my favorite room in the entire Psychopathic compound.  It features a few work desks, a futon, and the legendary Karma Wall!  There was a photo area with a Big Ballas back drop setup where Joanna (aka Peaches) was snapping shots with a DSLR camera.  I’m hoping to see more of those pics released via the ICP Facebook page soon! Back in the day, we must have sent in several photos from concerts and gatherings, because I found myself on the wall a few different times.  There are THOUSANDS of Juggalos on there, and I hope that if you’re reading this, you get to see it for yourself one day too.  Since everything is digital these days, I don’t imagine that many photos are sent in.  Maybe some of these pics that were taken on the disposables at Ballas will be good enough to grace the walls at Psychopathic. We made a run back to the car, as it was getting close to 9 PM and we didn’t want to miss a second of ICP’s live acoustic performance!  As mentioned, I had an assload of merch to drop off, and didn’t want to keep up with it for the rest of the night.  We filled Cherry Bomb’s trunk with merch, and hopped back onto the shuttle with the quickness.  By the time we got back, we found a row of seats together, and it was about time for the show to begin! *Side Note: Before the picture surfaces, I was handed an electric guitar and have never played one in my life.  After the pic was taken, I was told I was holding it upside down.  I had a 50/50 shot and I fuckin' blew it. lol. Jimmy actually found another seat in the 2^nd row, but it was only a single seat, so he offered it up to Amanda.  We wanted her to be up there to get some good shots with the disposables. Luckily, a super ninja named Rob Roseman saw me talking to her from a few rows back and actually gave up his prime seat to me so we could sit together.  All he asked was for me to fill up his disposable camera with some good shots!  I was more than happy to hook that up for him! Thank you and much props homie! Now, the stage was set.  Roughly 200 Juggalos were in rows of folding chairs waiting to see this potentially once-in-a-lifetime show.  Two big ass yellowish-gold chairs were on the stage for each of the Wicked Clowns.   Razor Ray was on Shaggy’s side on an acoustic guitar, and a ninja named Mike who plays guitar for Uncle Kracker was on J’s side.  DJ Carlito was in the back on the 1s and 2s, and Rude Boy had his own mic to sing backing vocals. J and Shaggy came out and introduced themselves as follows: VJ: I’m Violent J S2D: And I’m Shaggy 2 Dope VJ: And this is the Insane Clown Posse Band! First words out of their mouths and I was already cracking up!  The guys went on to describe how Big Ballas has been done for years, but in recent times they felt it lost its luster.  This year, they felt they had to do it up as big as it’s ever been, so they decided to bring it back home to their house! They began by thanking Mike P, Kuma, and Str8Jaket for hooking up the backing tracks to the forthcoming show.  Without more than a few more words, they started to perform their first track:

1. “Three Ring”

A stripped down backing track with just the basic bassline was played as Ray and Mike strummed their acoustic guitars for this Riddlebox classic.  This really set the tone for the night.   J and Shaggy sat in their gaudy gold chairs with wireless mics reciting their verses, and it looked like they were having a genuinely good time!

2. “Deadbody Man”

Before getting into playing the track, they talked about recording it with Mike E. Clark in Laura Grab’s basement.  They called her “Laura Grab that ass” and said to trust them because it was no ass that anyone would want to grab.   They then started talking about “goosing” each other’s asses, how great the Rude Boy’s ass was, and that he must do squats or use the Thighmaster for his glute muscles. Then, Shaggy mentions goosing an anus, which he said is the actual hole.  They don’t goose each other’s assholes though, just the cheeks.  Goosing someone’s anus is going WAY too far. Back to the song though! It became a legitimate radio hit in Detroit!  When they recorded it for Terror Wheel, they had no idea it would become a Juggalo classic.  The pop radio station (which played stuff like Will Smith) started spinning “Deadbody Man” and ICP couldn't understand why.  The station was switching formats, and they wanted to kill off the old station...so they did it with an Insane Clown Posse song!  J said every time the song came on in the middle of the night he would wake up and listen to it. Deadbody man went out being #1 when the radio station switched formats.  J said that every time he hears this song, he thinks about how he and Rude boy would drive around in J's girlfriend's Jeep and listen to the song endlessly. **NEWS ITEM** There will be a MUSIC VIDEO for “Deadbody Man”!  They said why not make a video for it and some other ICP classics? They hope it will come out dope!

3. “Piggy Pie”

ICP started to talk about recording The Great Milenko for Hollywood Records. There are multiple versions of this next track that they regularly perform live.  Shaggy says he gets the versions mixed up. He knows the lyrics to both, but forgets which version they are doing during the show. For the music video that they shot for this, Hollywood or Island Records (they couldn’t remember which) had all of these cranes and stuff for a big budget shoot, which was a special time in their careers for them. Violent J told Danny Brown that "you're only new once" so enjoy it while you can.  He feels that it came out negatively when he said it and wishes he could take it back.  ICP was lucky because they have enjoyed the sensation for a long time.  They were new when they first came out in Detroit, then with Riddlebox, they spread through the Midwest.  Then with Milenko, they got a whole new audience.  Lots of Juggalos thought AJB was the sophomore record when they had already had like 20 releases. J said that their favorite time in their career is when they started to be considered "old school”.  When you’re old school, you don’t have to give a fuck about being the new, hot artist.  Once you've been in the industry for so long, even former haters show some sort of respect for you.  So when ICP wants to reach out for an interview because they have something to say, the outlets usually will honor their request.  Shaggy says there are people in positions now that are or were Juggalos, so they get love from them now too. Now they just get to worry about doing shit like this (Ballas) to entertain those who still fuck with them.  That's their focus.  It's almost 2019, and now there are 3rd generation Juggalos!  A little ninja probably 11 or 12 was in the front row, stands up, and wishes J and Shaggy a Merry Christmas.  It was a really sweet moment.  They then perform “Piggy Pie” from The Great Milenko. Violent J reminisces about MC Breed.  He introduces Breed by talking about his track with Tupac, and the hip-hop classic "Ain't No Future In Your Frontin'".  ICP were proud and honored to sign Breed to the Psychopathic sub label called UMZ Entertainment which was ran by Alex Abbiss and Rudy back in the day. One day, Breed called J hallucinating due to something he had smoked. Breed claimed that government agents were coming through the floor.  He was running around on Jefferson Avenue, so J and Shaggy went to pick him up.  To calm him down, they brought Breed back to the office and told him that he should record a track about what he was experiencing.  Breed and ICP did a song together called "Let Me Go" that has never been released in any form.  Because they felt bad that the 2^nd round of Ballas tickets sold got to see the show first, Psychopathic did something fresh for the first rounders and pressed up a CD single exclusively for the Saturday crowd! [caption id="attachment_179592" align="alignnone" width="451"] Click the pic to enlarge![/caption] Breed unfortunately passed away, but he was such an awesome dude.  He was ALWAYS performing his songs. At bars, clubs, wherever he had an opportunity.

4. “Crooked Preacher Killers”

Esham did the bassline and the beat for this song, which led him to remind those in attendance about the E & J Tour coming up in January 2019!  Shaggy also has a solo tour with Ouija. CPKs has a lot of genuine anger, and J loves the message in it.  They go right into performing “Crooked Preacher Killers” from the Hell’s Pit album. After CPKs, J said that there's a song on Fearless Fred Fury that they consider to be the most hardcore, ruthless, wickedest wicked shit they've ever recorded!  Bring that shit on!

5. “Crossing Thy Bridge”

When they recorded the next song in Dallas, J called his mom and said that he felt it was as good as POD's "Alive" song.  To this day, J still feels that their song is better than P.O.D.’s.  They go right into “Crossing Thy Bridge”. J and Shaggy say that recording The Wraith: Shangri-La in Dallas was EASILY some of the best days of their lives.  They went from some of the best days of their lives to some of their worst when they started working on Hell's Pit.  They invest their souls into the music so going to such a dark place really took a lot out of them.

6. “Chicken Huntin’”

This next song is something that's pretty much played out for J and Shaggy.  They've performed it so many times they are just kinda done with it.  They WERE excited about the acoustic version though!  There was a quick anus tickling reference, and J insisted that Shaggy come clean and just tell everyone why he said it.  As I sit here and read back what I’m writing, it doesn’t really sound all that funny.  But trust me, you would have had to be there. Lol.  They then performed “Chicken Huntin” (Slaughterhouse Acoustic mix). **SHOW INTERRUPTED FOR A SPECIAL PRESENTATION** After “Chicken Huntin’”, ICP interrupted their acoustic session to present a very special surprise to someone.  They called up Billy Bill and Jumpsteady to a HUGE applause!  J said that about 2-1/2 years ago, they hired a guy at Psychopathic.  When he came, he knew some shit, but didn't really know it like Mike E. Clark or Mike P.  He was eager to learn though.  If he didn't know how to do something in the studio, he would go home, YouTube/Google it, and learn that shit. The next day he would come back and know how to do it.  Not only did he figure out whatever was thrown his way, but he also took notes and put them in a laminated book so that future engineers would know how to do it.  1-1/2 years into his tenure at Psychopathic, they were more than confident about his abilities and had him do the ENTIRE new Fearless Fred Fury album!  He would be at the studio at ANY point that he was asked…all hours, and any day at the drop of a hat.  He has been a Juggalo his entire life.  Violent J said that if you produce an entire Joker’s card with ICP from beginning to end, then you earn your Don Charm from Psychopathic Records! They showed the Don charm, thanked Alligator Jesus for the hookup, and presented it to the one and only Str8Jaket!  Congrats to Str8…new father, and the newest Don of Psychopathic Records!  Well-deserved brother! [caption id="attachment_179593" align="alignnone" width="353"] Click to enlarge![/caption] Str8 got a “Fam-I-Ly” chant, and after everything died down, gave a short speech saying that he was truly surprised by this.  He said that the past few years has been crazy, and that he couldn’t wait for everyone to hear FFF!

7. “We Belong”

Violent J made a brief introduction to the next song from The Wraith: Shangri-La.  He said it was his absolute favorite bassline from any song they had ever released, and that Shaggy absolutely MURDERED the song!  They immediately started to perform one of MY personal favorites from The Wraith (or ANY of ICP’s albums for that matter): “We Belong”! After finishing that track, Shaggy immediately went into a story about Joey Boots.  Now I know most of you are probably saying “Who the fuck is Joey Boots?”  I can assure you that at least 5 people in attendance had their ears perk up when they heard that name.  Joey Boots was (key word) a regular caller to the Howard Stern Show up until his untimely death almost 2 years ago to the date of Ballas 2018.  (He actually passed on December 23^rd, 2016). Anyways, now that you’re all caught up on your Howard Stern / Joey Boots trivia, let me get into the story that Shaggy told.  J and Shaggy went out to Los Angeles to do the extended music video for “Bowling Balls” from the Hell’s Pit album.  They told Alex Abbiss (their manager at the time) that they don't want to be put into a nice hotel.  They want to chill with the crackheads and prostitutes.  Back then, 2 Tuff Tony and Shaggy were drinking buddies.  They would sit on the sidewalk together on Sunset Blvd and just straight trip crackheads and watch them tumble.  One would come stumbling by, and Shaggy or Tony would stick their leg out and make them fall and bust their ass.  Shaggy said it was one of the funniest things ever. A cab pulled up and a dude got out with a 12 pack of Coronas.  He obviously wasn’t a crackhead, but Tony and Shaggy decided they were going to trip him anyways.  So this dude starts to walk by, and they they trip him, but he catches himself and saves his Corona like a ninja!  This guy says "Do you know who the fuck I am?  I'm fuckin' Joey Boots!" Shaggy says "Who the fuck is Joey Boots?"  Joey says "You've heard the Howard Stern show, I'm Joey fuckin' Boots!" The way Shaggy told the story, it didn’t seem like Joey was all that heated.  He asked Shaggy and Tony "So what are you guys doin' over here?  Just trippin' people?  Let me sit down." Joey Boots sits down and pops open a Corona. Shaggy, Tony, and Joey Boots were now sitting on the sidewalk tripping crackheads.  Only Boots didn’t understand the subtlety of the game they were playing.  He went HARD with his trips like *SPLAOW* and cracked up when the crackheads would bust their ass! J and Shaggy wondered what happened with Joey Boots, and our homie John Paul shouted out that he had committed suicide.  J and Shaggy thanked him for bringing down the holiday spirit by talking about suicide, and quickly changed subjects by talking about the next track. *SIDE NOTE* According to TMZ, Joey Boots actually died of an accidental heroin overdose.  Still tragic, but just in case you were wondering.  (Source: https://www.tmz.com/2017/03/13/joey-boots-cause-of-death-heroin-overdose/)

8. “The Neden Game”

They went on to introduce the next song…one from The Great Milenko that is loved by Juggalos, and may have even been heard by non Juggalos if your local mainstream hip hop station picked it up.  It’s “The Neden Game”, of course, and they spoke a little bit about the recording process.  The announcer on the track was actually a local newscaster that they reached out to.  He agreed to do it, but didn’t want any money for it. He only wanted cappuccino ice cream!  Shaggy claimed that they bought him like 40 cappuccino ice cream bars, and J was shocked that he remembered that!  They immediately followed this story with their acoustic rendition of “The Neden Game”!

9. “50 Bucks”

After The Neden Game, J immediately started telling stories about their experience with the WCW in the late 90s.  They revealed that they had a chapter dedicated solely to their WCW days for “Behind The Paint”, but somehow, that was lost and never recovered.  J said they didn’t even notice it until the book was pressed up and it was too late.  To make up for it, they sprinkle in WCW stories here and there because it was such a memorable time in their lives! One story they shared is that there used to be a small room in the backstage area which was a recording booth.  Wrestlers would go in and shoot spots, and a big red light was on top of the room which told anyone else outside to stay quiet and don’t disturb because recording was in progress.  ICP was there with Vampiro, and while the light was on, Vampiro knocked on the door loudly several times, and then took off with Shaggy not far behind him!  Violent J stood there, shocked by what just happened, and a door came flying open.  Of all people Chris Benoit came out, neck veins all roided up and pulsating.  He said “What the fuck is wrong with you, clown?” Violent J jokingly said that he squared up and said “What Bitch?!”, but laughed and said that he was actually paralyzed with fear, and just let Benoit stand there to chastise and humiliate him.  He IMMEDIATELY threw Shaggy under the bus, not knowing that Benoit would eventually become a murderer. In another incident, he said that Goldberg was filming a spot where he was walking angrily down the hallway towards the arena.  The cameraman walked backwards to capture the shot.  There were dressing rooms all along the hallway, and as soon as the cameraman was about to cross ICP’s door, Vampiro shoved J into the cameraman who is holding a $200,000 camera!  Luckily, the cameraman saved the camera, but Goldberg was PISSED!  He held his temper though and asked J if they were shooting something together later that day… During filming, he grabbed J by the chest, around the Hatchetman he was wearing, which mangled the charm.  J said Goldberg gripped him so hard, it left fingerprints in his chest! They said that flying out every Monday for Nitro became a grind, but they will always look back on it favorably overall. How does this all tie into the track “50 Bucks”?  Well, they claim that that is all they were ever paid for their stints in the WCW and WWF.  Lol.  I don’t know how they could have left this track out of an acoustic set, but I’m extremely glad that they didn’t.

10. “Another Love Song”

Violent J mentioned that he had lost a lot of his hearing due to constant touring and recording without using ear plugs.  He said that even so, he could still hear when people mentioned “ICP” or “Violent J” at a whisper.  If all he heard basically was humming while at a restaurant, for example, if someone at another table mentioned the Insane Clown Posse, he would immediately pick up on it and see that they were looking at him. He then mentioned working with a director named Diane Martel for the “Another Love Song” video shoot.  She was a big-time director who shot the “Bring The Pain” video for Method Man.  They shot the video in the desert, so it was crazy hot.  J said he just remembers her wearing grey sweat pants, and seeing the outline of her butt sweat.  She would ask ICP to “just do it like Meth would…really feel it” and “Meth would have done it like this” while shooting the ALS video.  She kept referencing that and really pushed J’s buttons.  They replied that they aren’t trying to be Method Man...they are doing the video like ICP!  Seemingly disturbed by the image of Diane Martel’s butt sweat, J quickly introduced and performed “Another Love Song”

11. “Falling Apart”

There were no stories about this track. J simply said that this was a song from their latest release: The Marvelous Missing Link called “Falling Apart”, and rolled right into the performance.  If you’ll remember, towards the middle of the song, a little girl’s voice can be heard.  J reveals that this was his daughter Ruby’s voice, and starts shouting out her name and that he loved her!

12. “Fuck The World”

Violent J starts to tell a story, but prefaces it with the fact that this is NOT to brag, but is more about karma.  With that said, about 10 years ago, he and Sugar Slam were watching a show on the E channel about the top 10 clubs in the United States.  The top club was in Las Vegas and simply called “Ra”.  Sugar Slam asked if he thought they could get into the club.  They aren’t clubbers, but decided to try to get in.  So they went shopping for some clothes that people considered “cool” would wear, booked a flight, and were off to Vegas!  J describes that you have to be a celebrity to get into this club.  When he approached the bouncer, he did so without dropping his name and asked to be let in.  J was wearing Iceberg clothing and Jordan sneakers.  Sugar Slam was wearing something nice as well.  For those who don’t know, do a simple search on Iceberg.com.  They have $200 Tom and Jerry t-shirts and a $170 “dad” hat. What the fucking fuck? Anyways, back to the point.  The bouncer said that they have a dress code and J and Sugar Slam didn’t pass.  J asked the bouncer “What if I was Anthony Kiedis from Red Hot Chili Peppers and I was wearing this…could I get in?”  The bouncer said yes.  J asked him “If I sold a million albums, could we get in?” The bouncer said it would depend on who you are.  J asked why, but the bouncer insisted on knowing his identity.  J didn’t want to admit who he was because he knew that once he did, he would be thrown right the fuck out.  J finally told him that he was Violent J of the Insane Clown Posse.  The bouncer didn’t believe him at first, but after some convincing, rolled his sleeve up to show J a Riddlebox tattoo!  He called his bouncer homies over in excitement, and let J and Sugar Slam into the hottest night club in the country!  They went from one end to the bar, got drinks, and eventually made their way to the other end of the bar, then bounced because they were done.  He said if they weren’t let in, he would have had to tell them what they tell everyone else, which is “Fuck The World” and began playing the track.

13. “If I Was A Serial Killer”

After finishing with “Fuck The World”, Violent J thanks everyone for coming.  J and Shaggy say that they are incredibly grateful for Juggalos.  J said that if Juggalos were a bigger following, it wouldn’t be as personal as it is now.  If it was smaller though, the quality of their products would suffer.  They say that they can relate to Juggalos because they ARE JUGGALOS!  No Juggalo is more important than the next.  They also say that there is no speculation that they are the Illuminati either. Lol.  When Juggalos tell J and Shaggy that their music saved their lives, Juggalos saved J and Shaggy’s lives too.  J says there is no way to express how much they appreciate Juggalos, and that not one day goes by where they aren’t thankful.  They then wish everyone a Merry Xmas, say “Fuck Santa”, and then perform “If I Was A Serial Killer” while J walked through the crowd giving daps to everyone! *The Aftermath* Holy…fucking…shit Juggalos!  What a night that was…and it wasn’t even over yet!  After their performance, ICP left the stage and we all talked amongst each other about what we had just experienced.  Everyone funneled towards the exit door so that we could make our way to the after party, but of course we all congregated by merch to kick it with everyone.  At this point, I met a Juggalette whose name escapes me.  She was kickin’ it with Alligator Jesus, and flew all the way from JAPAN to see this show!  You read that right! Much props to her, and I hope she makes it to more shows soon! They were STILL putting together mystery boxes at the merch booth, only now they were packing them DEEP!  If you missed out on one of these $20 mystery boxes and had the chance to get one, you done fucked up! While we were gathering our crew to leave, I saw a familiar face in the back just chillin’.  Former Psychopathic employee Nathan Extra flagged me down! I had no idea he was coming, and it was such an awesome surprise to see him.  He actually had a gift for me which was completely unexpected as well.  He came across an artisan who made their own candles.  One of the “flavors” they made was called “Red Pop”.  He bought me one, and I shit you not, this candle smells good enough to eat!  Because it’s so dope, here’s a pic of it so you can look ‘em up...they're called Soy Comfort Candles: [gallery columns="2" link="file" size="medium" ids="179594,179595"] We hugged a lot of ninjas on the way out and then caught a shuttle over to the parking lot.  We loaded up into Cherry’s car, and it was off to see a little bit of JCW action along with the one and only Psychopathic Monstar: LYTE!  It was a quick ride to the Token Lounge, who were gracious hosts (until the clock struck 2 AM anyways…) Nathan Extra decided to come along with us to the after party, as did Vinnie and at least 100 other ninjas.  When we arrived, there was already some JCW action taking place.  Those guys always go balls out for Juggalos, but it's just not something that I'm really into.  Either way, we caught most of the main event on our live stream which you can see below. JCW Main Event: The grand finale for the entire event was a headlining performance from the one and only Lyte!  It has been 5 months since I have personally seen him onstage at the Gathering, and with speculation running wild about his status on Psychopathic, it was the shit to see him at an official event, schoolin' the fuck out of the crowd!  We were there and live streamed the entire 30 minute performance! You can watch that below... *SIDE NOTE*: Please excuse the "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! girl".  That's what she became known as to the commenters on this live stream.  Just press play and you'll understand why. Lyte's Full Performance: After Lyte's performance, I said what's up to Skitzo who showed up to show some love, chopped it up with Lyte for a bit, and talked to Jumpsteady for a brief moment as well.  We got a selfie with one of the remaining pics left on our disposable camera.  Since he's team flip phone, I thought that was appropriate. The staff at the Token Lounge was friendly as fuck...until 2 AM hit.  After that, it was basically "Get the fuck outta here...we're closed!"  I get it...it's late and they want to go home.  We were all hungry, but had to wait on a few more people who were inside saying their goodbyes. While I was outside, the homie Sid Jones of RoxxxTV.com came up to me, still on a high from the Ballas acoustic set.  He paid me some compliments and respect to what we have done with Faygoluvers over the past 20 years, and it was extremely appreciated.  This dude is the real deal, and if you haven't read his recap of Ballas yet (which isn't quite as verbose as this one), then you should do so by clicking HERE. After our crew was all situated, we went with Nathan to eat at a diner called Ram's Horn.  I don't know why I wanted to chance it after my first bland steak that day, but I took a chance and ordered the New York strip from there too.  Yeah, I know, it's like getting a steak at an IHOP, but it's what I was hungry for.  Let's just say I was 0 for 2 on my steaks for the day.  It didn't matter though...I was in great company, and the food was the last thing on my mind. After a quick visit with Nathan at his place, we headed back towards the AirBNB for our last night there.  The hostess already confirmed that we could have a late checkout, but we couldn't be too late because Jimmy's plane left at around 2.   After waking up, packing, and leaving the place as good as when we got there, we prepared to say our goodbyes.  Luckily, we only have like 6 weeks until Juggalo Day in New Orleans!  I'll spare you with the rest of the goodbyes, but let's just say we made it home safe and sound. Oh, I almost forgot about the merch since I promised to show you earlier.  Here is me and the wifey's haul from Ballas...and we didn't pay as much as you think we would have for it due to the mystery boxes and good deals! [caption id="attachment_179615" align="alignnone" width="504"] Click to enlarge!
Yes there is some MNE merch that we picked up while in Detroit too. Don't hate![/caption] What can I say about this event?  The $150 price tag seemed a bit much at first glance, but I would gladly pay it again to have even half of the fun that I did there that night.  For one-off events, Psychopathic keeps upping the bar on themselves!  We'll have to wait to see what's in store for next year's Ballas!  I don't know that they'll do something this special for it every year, but we'll let you know what they decide!  Much love to everyone who read this!  Let us know what you think (whether you were there or not) in the comments!

Disposable Camera + Cell Phone Gallery:

(View full Hi-Res gallery here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Faygoluvers/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2289982111045699)

[gallery columns="4" link="file" ids="180609,180608,180607,180606,180605,180604,180603,180602,180601,180600,180599,180598,180597,180596,180595,180594,180593,180592,180591,180590,180589,180588,180587,180586,180585,180584,180583,180582,180581,180580,180579,180578,180577,180576,180575,180574,180573,180572,180571,180570,180569,180568,180567,180566,180565,180564,180563,180562,180561,180560,180559,180558,180557,180556,180555,180554,180553,180552,180551,180550,180549,180548,180547,180546,180545,180544,180543,180542,180541,180540,180539,180538,180537,180536,180535,180534,180533,180532,180531,180530,180529,180528,180527,180526,180525,180524,180523,180522,180521,180520,180519,180518,180517,180516,180515,180514,180513,180512,180511,180510,180509,180508,180507,180506,180505,180504,180503,180502,180501,180500,180499,180498,180497,180496,180495,180494,180493,180492,180491,180490,180489,180488,180487,180486,180485,180484,180483,180482,180481,180480,180479,180478,180477,180476,180475,180474,180473,180472,180471,180470,180469,180468,180467,180466,180465,180464,180463,180462,180461,180460,180459,180458,180457,180456,180455,180454,180453,180452,180451,180450,180449,180448,180447,180446,180445,180444,180443,180442,180441,180440,180439,180438,180437,180436,180435,180434,180433,180432,180431,180430,180429,180428,180427,180426,180425,180424,180423,180422,180421,180420,180419,180418,180417,180416,180415,180414,180413,180412,180411,180410,180409,180408,180407,180406,180405,180404,180403,180402,180401,180400,180399,180398,180397,180396,180395,180394,180393,180392,180391,180390,180389,180388,180387,180386,180385,180384,180383,180382,180381,180380,180379,180378,180377,180376,180375,180374,180373,180372,180371,180370,180369" orderby="rand"]