The Mighty Death Pop!

The Mighty Death Pop!
Studio album by Insane Clown Posse
Released August 14, 2012
Recorded 2010-2012
Genre Midwest hip hop, horrorcore, indie hip hop
Length 62:14
Label Psychopathic
Producer Mike E. Clark
Insane Clown Posse chronology

Featuring Freshness
(2011)		 The Mighty Death Pop!
(2012)		 Forgotten Freshness Volume 5
(2013)
Singles from The Mighty Death Pop!
  1. "Chris Benoit"
    Released: July 26, 2012
  2. "Night of the Chainsaw"
    Released: October 26, 2012
  3. "Hate Her To Death"
    Released: February 4, 2013
  4. "Where's God"
    Released: March 22, 2013
  5. "When I'm Clownin'"
    Released: July 23, 2013
  6. "The Mighty Death Pop"
    Released: August 30, 2013
  7. "Forever"
    Released: July 22, 2014

The Mighty Death Pop! is the twelfth studio album by American hip hop group Insane Clown Posse, released on August 14, 2012. It is their second album to focus on the Dark Carnival since the conclusion of the group's original "Joker's Cards" series. The titular character The Mighty Death Pop!, is the second in a set of six new Joker's Cards. It is the group's 29th overall release.

Background

At their 2010 Hallowicked concert, Insane Clown Posse revealed the first face of The Mighty Death Pop character, and stated that the album would be the second in a new deck of Joker's Cards.[1] The following March, they announced that the album would have two faces. The second face was revealed to have the likeness of an exploding clown skull, as a representation of the character after it "pops".[2]

Since the release of Bang! Pow! Boom, Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler have accumulated various song topics and beats and traveled to producer Mike E. Clark's studio in northern Michigan to record the new album.[3] Insane Clown Posse focused on recording.[3] Bruce has stated that he expected that the new album would take quite a bit of time to record, saying it's "just gonna take a lot of time. There's so much that needs to be recorded. It's definitely a job, a lot of work. But I'm excited, I'm not bitching."[3]

As opposed to Bang! Pow! Boom!, which did not contain any guest appearances, Insane Clown Posse wanted to feature guest appearances on The Mighty Death Pop!, as they had done with The Amazing Jeckel Brothers.[4] Among their first choices to appear were Tech N9ne and Hopsin.[4][5] DJ Clay is also found in the outtakes section of The Mighty Death Pop! Following their collaboration with Jack White, ICP asked White to collaborate once again on The Mighty Death Pop!, but he declined their offer.[6] The 2012 Hallowicked song "Amber Alert" was originally meant to be a part of this album, but the subject matter conflicted with advertiser interests.[7]

Style and influences

Lyrics and concept

Joseph Bruce stated that the group would "take all the anger we feel and have saved up and stored inside from all the crazy dissing [of] ICP and the Juggalos [...] and we're gonna channel it all into the new album."[8][9] In keeping with the themes of the other Joker's Cards, the new album will teach the listeners something about themselves.[3]

According to Bruce, The Mighty Death Pop! "teaches us to respect the life we’ve been given and do our best to avoid an early death."[4] The album cover's colors are white, purple and yellow in order to appear harmless, but according to Bruce, the character is actually the most dangerous Joker's Card to date.[4] The song "Chris Benoit" was named after the professional wrestler, who died in a murder-suicide after killing his wife and son.[10] The album's title track contains a sample of "Everyone's a Winner" originally by Hot Chocolate. "Shooting Stars" contains a diss towards Chris Brown and mention his domestic violence case with Rihanna, as well as other pop stars Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga at the Staples Center during the Grammy Awards. "Dog Catchers" is a diss towards Dog the Bounty Hunter and his family.

Music and performance

For the album's music, Mike E. Clark appropriated influences which range from the film scores of Danny Elfman[11] to disco,[12] rock[12] and horrorcore.[12]

Release

On April 20, 2012, Psychopathic Records released an infomercial for the album, announcing that it will be available in three separate editions, each with a variant color cover and pre-packaged with one of three bonus albums.[5] The first variant edition, dubbed the Red Pop edition, contains an album of cover songs titled Smothered, Covered & Chunked—designed and illustrated by Detroit artist/designer, Patrick Hatfield.[13] The second variant, the Black Pop edition, contains the album Freaky Tales, and the third variant, the White Pop edition, contains the remix album Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop Emporium.[5][10] Preorders of the album also contain a Mighty Death Pop! keychain.[14][15][16]

The first music video from the album, "Chris Benoit", was filmed in June 2012 in the abandoned McLouth Steel mill in Trenton, Michigan.[17] On October 26, the second music video from the album, "Night of the Chainsaw", was released. The video was directed by special effects artist Roy Knyrim, who had previously directed Insane Clown Posse in Death Racers and Chronicles of the Dark Carnival. Its storyline depicts the hallucinations of a drug addict (played by Mark Jury) who murders several people with a chainsaw because he perceives them as flesh-devouring zombies.[18] An additional music video for the song "Where's God?" was released on March 22, 2013. The music video was directed by Douglas Schulze in promotion of the film Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead, which features the song.[19] ICP have also indicated that a new music video directed by the Deka Brothers will be released in 2013.[20] In addition to a music video for "Where's God?", ICP is also planning to release music videos for "Ghetto Rainbows", "The Mighty Death Pop", "Bazooka Joey", and "Forever".[21][22] There were also leaks of a music video for "Hate Her To Death" on the iTunes music store on February 3, 2013, which ended up being officially released a day later. On July 23, 2013, the music video for "When I'm Clownin'" was released with a cameo appearance from Boondox and a special verse by Danny Brown.[23] The music video was initially going to be the remix featured on Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop Emporium, but the plans were nixed due to Kreayshawn not returning Violent J's calls for appearing in their music video.[24]

The songs from The Mighty Death Pop! album debuted at the Gathering of the Juggalos.[4] Violent J has suggested that Psychopathic may release a box set containing The Mighty Death Pop!, the three bonus albums and a DVD featuring music videos and concert footage.[4] ICP have also stated that this may be the last album that they release in a physical format.[25] The seventh music video from the album is the song "Forever". It was released on July 22, 2014 on Psychopathic: The Videos Volume 2.

On October 11, Psychopathic released a DJ Tool Kit containing instrumentals, a capellas and remixes from the album.[26][27][28] The Mighty Death Pop was released on Vinyl on the 22nd of November 2013.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [11]
The Daily Blam [29]
The Oakland Press [30]
Spin 7/10[12]
Graveside Entertainment positive[31]

Reviews of The Mighty Death Pop! have been positive. The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 41,000 copies in its first week.[32] It is the 3rd album from the group to debut in the top 5 and ties The Amazing Jeckel Brothers and Bang! Pow! Boom! as the highest peak in the group's history.[33] The Mighty Death Pop! and Freaky Tales were named the 39th best Hip Hop album of 2012 by Spin.[34] The Daily Blam named The Mighty Death Pop! the second-best album of the year.[35]

Track listing

The Mighty Death Pop!
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Intro"    2:27
2. "The Mighty Death Pop"    2:48
3. "Night of the Chainsaw"    3:12
4. "Chris Benoit"    3:23
5. "The Blasta"    4:07
6. "Kickin' Kickin'"    3:38
7. "Bazooka Joey"    3:20
8. "Shooting Stars"    2:05
9. "Juggalo Juice"    3:04
10. "Hate Her to Death"    4:51
11. "Skreeem!" (featuring Hopsin and Tech N9ne)  4:40
12. "Ghetto Rainbows"    3:46
13. "When I'm Clownin'"    2:24
14. "Dog Catchers"    1:47
15. "Daisies"    3:42
16. "Where's God?"    3:41
17. "Forever"    5:04
18. Untitled (outtakes; featuring DJ Clay)  5:15
Total length:
 62:34

Personnel

Band members and production
Other personnel
  • Rich "Legz Diamond" Murrell – vocals
  • Hopsin - guest verse on "Skreem!"
  • Tech N9ne - guest verse on "Skreem!"
  • DJ Clay - uncredited guest appearance on the outtakes of "The Mighty Death Pop!"

Chart positions

Chart (2012) Peak
position
US Billboard 200[36] 4

References

  1. ↑ Graham, Adam (Nov 1, 2010). "ICP reveals next album title at Fillmore concert". The Detroit News. Retrieved Nov 1, 2010.
  2. ↑ Gustavo Turner (2011-03-17). "Insane Clown Posse: Exclusive Interview". Los Angeles: LA Weekly. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Insane Clown Posse Prepping 'Devastating' New Album". Billboard.com. 2010-10-27. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Hatchet Herald". Psychopathicrecords.com. 2012-05-04. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Insane Clown Posse - The Mighty Death Pop - Infomercial". YouTube. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  6. ↑ http://www.fuse.tv/2012/08/insane-clown-posse-dont-really-like-their-jack-white-collabos
  7. ↑ http://www.faygoluvers.net/v5/2012/10/new-hallowicked-single-amber-alert/
  8. ↑ Bruce, Joseph (2010-10-20). "Violent J's Twitter feed". Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  9. ↑ Bruce, Joseph (2010-10-20). "Violent J's Twitter feed". Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Jeffries, David (August 15, 2012). "The Mighty Death Pop - Insane Clown Posse Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Soderberg, Brandon (August 15, 2012). "Insane Clown Posse, ‘The Mighty Death Pop!’". Spin. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  13. ↑ http://www.hatfieldis.com/icp/800px-CoveredSmotheredChunked.jpg
  14. ↑ "CD - ICP - The Mighty Death Pop! (White Pop!)". Hatchetgear.com. 2012-08-14. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  15. ↑ "CD - ICP - The Mighty Death Pop! (Red Pop!)". Hatchetgear.com. 2012-08-14. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  16. ↑ "CD - ICP - The Mighty Death Pop! (Black Pop!)". Hatchetgear.com. 2012-08-14. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  17. ↑
  18. ↑ Video on YouTube
  19. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/MimesisMovie/posts/478788122153282
  20. ↑ http://www.psychopathicrecords.com/hatchetherald/121221/mayan/index.html
  21. ↑ http://www.faygoluvers.net/v5/2013/01/icp-working-on-forever-music-video/
  22. ↑ http://www.psychopathicrecords.com/hatchetherald/130315/lotus/index.html
  23. ↑ http://www.fuse.tv/videos/2013/07/insane-clown-posse-danny-brown-when-im-clownin
  24. ↑ http://gawker.com/the-new-insane-clown-posse-video-co-stars-danny-brown-880659344
  25. ↑ "Insane Clown Posse's 'Mighty Death Pop' May Be Its Last Physical Album". Billboard.com. 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  26. ↑ http://truejuggalofamily.com/4119
  27. ↑ http://www.hatchetgear.com/featured/cd-icp-the-mighty-death-pop-dj-tool-kit.html
  28. ↑ http://www.hatchetgear.com/usb-drive-icp-the-mighty-death-pop-dj-tool-kit.html
  29. ↑ Skinner, Kevin (August 16, 2012). "Music Review: INSANE CLOWN POSSE – The Mighty Death Pop!". The Daily Blam. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
  30. ↑ Graff, Gary (August 13, 2012). "LISTENING ROOM: ICP takes a serious look at mortality in "Mighty Death Pop!"". The Oakland Press. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  31. ↑ "Insane Clown Posse The Mighty Death Pop Album Review". Graveside Entertainment. August 15, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
  32. ↑ Jacobs, Allen. "Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 8/19/2012". Cheri Media Group. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  33. ↑ "2 Chainz Debuts At No. 1 On Billboard 200". Billboard. August 22, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  34. ↑ http://www.spin.com/articles/spin-40-best-hip-hop-albums-of-2012?slide=2
  35. ↑ http://www.dailyblam.com/news/2012/12/21/year-end-wrap-up-the-best-worst-music-albums-of-2012
  36. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/480319/2-chainz-debuts-at-no-1-on-billboard-200

External links