Trap of the Day: Juggaloes
As the Entertainment section editor here at Trapit, I have had the immense pleasure of following many topics that tug at my personal heartstrings. Perhaps none so perversely as my Juggaloes trap.
I created this trap months ago, the objective being to create a resource wherein we could follow all the Juggalo-related news leading up to the much-anticipated Gathering of the Juggaloes.
What is the Gathering? Well, that’s a hard question to answer. In many ways, it is a celebration of Juggalo culture–that is, it prides itself on standing apart from larger, more corporately-owned festivals like Bonnaroo or Coachella. It was started 12 years ago by facepaint-clad rap-rock group ICP (Insane Clown Posse), and serves as a bastion for music, carnival events (ranging from Midway games to “drunk helicopter rides”) not to mention lots of people spraying each other with cheap soda and eating mass amounts of meat.
There are always some names on the bill that come as a surprise to outside observers, but I’d say that in the case of Gathering 2011, there are some real anomalies performing. For one thing, it is to be emceed by none other than the Tiger-blood-swilling, Goddess-possessing, career-imploding Charlie Sheen. It gets deeper, though, with household rap brands like Busta Rhymes, Ice Cube, Juvenile, and funk legend George Clinton slated to perform as well.
The icing on the cake is ICP’s promotion for the Gathering, which usually involves a couple 30-minute infomercials depicting ICP and other Juggalo minions (one you may recognize as Vanilla Ice) being distressed with the state of music in the US. This year, the budget must have been higher, because both infomercials were filmed in what looked to be pretty elaborate sets.
At this point, you may be asking yourself: “Is this a joke?” The answer is inarguably no. Is it ridiculous? Yes. Pretty irresponsible, especially in light of recent festival-related deaths at Bonnaroo earlier this year? Totally. But a joke? I’d hope that after 12 years of ICP having produced the event successfully, we can move beyond entitling it a “joke.” Indeed, to some, this is the only event of 2011 that truly matters.
-Henry