Music / The Mighty Death Pop

Living on the wild side? Let's hope it's a long ride.

The Mighty Death Pop! is a 2012 album by the Hip-Hop act Insane Clown Posse. The album represents the second Joker's Card of the second deck. The title character's role is to "pop" people who abuse their lives by playing with death and taking stupid risks that could end their life. However, it lacks the ability to actually judge the people it kills, presumedly leaving it up to the Wraith to send them to their afterlife.

The CD edition of the album was packaged with one of three Bonus Albums, each with radically different recordings that are considered individual albums in their own right: Smothered, Covered & Chunked, Freaky Tales and Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop Emporium. The vinyl edition, pictured above, only contained the main album.

---

Track listings

The Mighty Death Pop!:

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 TechN9ne) 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 5:15

Smothered, Covered & Chunked (Red Pop Edition):

1. "Prelude" (featuring Cold 187um and Psychopathic Family) — N.W.A 3:20
2. "Jump Around" — House of Pain 3:21
3. "Shout" (featuring Blaze Ya Dead Homie) — Tears for Fears 4:51
4. "Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontin'" — MC Breed & DFC 3:49
5. "Hold Still" (featuring Downtown Brown) — Yo Gabba Gabba! 2:22
6. "Bitch Betta Have My Money" (featuring Fred Durst) — AMG 3:35
7. "Night of the Living Baseheads" —Public Enemy 3:26
8. "Beautiful (Indestructible)" — Christina Aguilera 3:34
9. "Mind Playin' Tricks on Me" (featuring ABK and Lil Wyte) — Geto Boys 5:17
10. "State of Shock" — The Jacksons and Mick Jagger 4:27
11. "Love for Dem Gangsters" (featuring Cold 187um) — Eazy-E 4:19
12. "Guess My Religion" — Willie D 6:25
13. Untitled (Outtakes) 6:14

Freaky Tales (Black Pop Edition):

1. "Freaky Tales" 60:15
2. Untitled (outtakes) 2:50

Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop Emporium (White Pop Edition):

1. "Traveling Circus" Insane Clown Posse 0:30
2. "Chris Benoit" (Kuma's Scrub Club Remix) Insane Clown Posse, Ice Cube, & Scarface 5:44
3. "When I'm Clownin'" (Kuma's Clownin' Remix) Insane Clown Posse & Kreayshawn 3:25
4. "Lost in the Music" Insane Clown Posse & Swollen Members 4:28
5. "Up Ya Ass" (Outtake) Insane Clown Posse 1:32
6. "Ghetto Rainbows" (Soft Ass R-N-B Remix) Insane Clown Posse & Color Me Badd 3:42
7. "Birfday Party" (Outtake) Insane Clown Posse 4:13
8. "Scrubstitute Teachers" Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid, & Willie D 3:09
9. "Playin' in the Woods" (Outtake) Insane Clown Posse 3:31
10. "Pass It to the Sky" Insane Clown Posse & Kottonmouth Kings 4:08
11. "Shugston Brooks 1959–2004" (Outtake) Insane Clown Posse 4:43
12. "Night of the Chainsaw" (Joe Strange Remix) Insane Clown Posse & Three 6 Mafia 3:52
13. "Forever" (Extended Geto Mix) Insane Clown Posse & Geto Boys 6:52
14. Untitled (Outtakes) Insane Clown Posse, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, & Jamie Madrox 3:56

---

The Mighty Death Tropes:

• Anvilicious: The ICP make no attempt to, and constantly remind you of, hide the message of The Mighty Death Pop!.
• Arc Number: The Mighty Death Pop! has 17 songs (not counting the Hidden Track, which is just outtakes from the recording sessions). Their first album only sold 17 copies on the first day of release.
• Bonus Material: Three different CD editions of The Mighty Death Pop! were released. Each contains a different bonus disc containing radically different Bonus Material that are considered individual albums in their own right: Smothered, Covered & Chunked (Red Pop Edition), Freaky Tales (Black Pop Edition) and Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop Emporium (White Pop Edition). The vinyl edition doesn't have any of the bonus albums.
• Call-Back: On "Kickin' Kickin'", "kee-ya!" and "hut-tah!" were Sugar Bear's karate training catch phrases from when he was training with Dolemite.
• Chainsaw GOOD: "Night of the Chainsaw" is about a man who, while high on several different drugs, including PCP, methamphetamines, anti-depression pills and crack rocks, goes on a crime spree which including choking a cop and then finding a chainsaw to murder victims with.
• Cover Album: Covered, Smothered, & Chunked, included in the Red Pop Edition of The Mighty Death Pop, consists entirely of cover versions of famous songs such as House of Pain's "Jump Around," AMG's "Bitch Betta Have My Money," Public Enemy's "Night of the Living Baseheads," and... Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful."
• Dirty Rap: Freaky Tales, packaged with the Black Pop Edition, is an album-length Cover of Too $hort's "Freaky Tales". It's 60 minutes of "hoe flows". Spin called it "a party record and boundaries-busting endurance test, all at once", and later named "Freaky Tales" as the 39th best Hip-Hop album of 2012. Not The Mighty Death Pop!, but Freaky Tales.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the music video for "Fonz Pond", Violent J wears a white glove on one hand, as a tribute to Michael Jackson.
• Fake Shemp: Kreayshawn appeared in the remix of their song "When I'm Clownin'", that appeared on the Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop Emporium bonus disc from The Mighty Death Pop! When it came time to shoot the music video, Kreayshawn didn't want to do it, so a reedit of the same remix was produced for the video, replacing her verse with an introduction by Boondox and a new verse by Danny Brown. This version of the remix was subsequently released as a single.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: ICP tapped Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit to record a guest verse on their cover of AMG's "Bitch Betta Have My Money". Six years later, Shaggy was drunk during a Limp Bizkit concert,^note at New Jersey's Rock Allegiance Festival, where Insane Clown Posse was also performing, and decided to prank Durst while the band performed and run up on stage and pretended to try to dropkick Durst while he was singing. He was subsequently dragged off stage by Limp Bizkit's security, despite Durst insisting that it wasn't necessary because "it's only one guy". Violent J later reached out to Durst personally to say it was just a joke and Shaggy wasn't actually trying to dropkick Durst, and Durst said there was no hard feelings. DJ Lethal was pissed at ICP, though, and posted a video to his Instagram trashing them, which he subsequently deleted. Shaggy later apologized to Durst for the incident. The incident's still funny, though.
• Hypocritical Humor: Some fans have suggested that "Shooting Stars" is this, as ICP rap about sneaking into the Grammys to murder Chris Brown in retaliation for his domestic violence towards Rihanna, given the Carnival of Carnage song "Blackin' Your Eyes".
• Misblamed: After Mike E. Clark returned to producing Insane Clown Posse following his absence on The Wraith: Shangri-La and Hells Pit, some fans blamed Clark for the Pop Rap approach taken on The Tempest, Bang Pow Boom and The Mighty Death Pop!, because they were expecting a return to the sound of The Amazing Jeckel Brothers and The Great Milenko, and didn't like the Lighter and Softer approach.
• Mood Whiplash: "Skreeem!", a Horrorcore rap song featuring Hopsin and TechN9ne, is immediately followed by the soft and light toned Pop Rap song "Ghetto Rainbows".
• Murder Ballad: "Chris Benoit" was inspired by the real life wrestler who, suddenly having no control over his actions due to multiple traumatic head injuries, killed his wife and child and, upon realizing what he'd done, ended his own life. Violent J was a fan of Benoit's wrestling career and found the idea of somnambulistically killing someone, and then coming to the realization that you've unknowingly committed such a horrible act to be terrifying, and wrote a song about this concept and named it after Benoit. The song is not, I repeat *not* about Benoit.
• New Sound Album: After two albums, The Tempest and Bang! Pow! Boom!, that especially leaned into Rap Rock and Pop Rap, The Mighty Death Pop! leaned more heavily into Hip-Hop instead of Rap Rock, but continues ICP's Pop Rap direction.
• Nightmare Fuel: "Chris Benoit" and its remix that includes Ice Cube & Scarface (not that Scarface). Another Sanity Slippage Song, using the professional wrestler as a loose metaphor. Its lyrics describe a normal person suddenly snapping and committing acts of violence and murder. The perspective varies from verses; Violent J's verse is definitely from the perspective of the person described, Shaggy's verse is pretty schizophrenic, implying the perspective of someone of multiple personalities, Ice Cube takes an outside perspective and your guess is as good as anyone as to what Scarface's verse is about.
  • "The Blasta" has a section where, later on in life, after having left the military and started a family in an attempt to put his vengeance-fueled, murder-filled past behind him, a bully who had picked on the main character's son at school turns up missing, and he goes to ask his son about it:
  "'Did you have anything to do with this?'
  He gave me no answer, just a hug and a kiss
  And said, 'Don't worry, Dad; everything'll be fine.
  Just you pay it no mind; it's all over.'"

  • In other words, it's heavily implied that vengeance-fueled murder runs in the family. Holy...
• Remix Album: Mike E. Clark's Extra Pop Emporium, packaged with the White Pop Edition, is a mixtape containing remixes of songs on the main album and songs recorded during the production that were cut from the main album.
• Sampling: The Title Track flips samples of Hot Chocolate's song "Every 1's a Winner" in an especially interesting way.
• Sequel Song: Carnival of Carnage had the "Night of the Axe". Hells Pit had the "Night of the 44". This album has the "Night of the Chainsaw".
• Shout-Out: On "Kickin' Kickin'", J raps, "Take the right side of my foot and place it where your teeth was" comes from the Billy Jack line "I'm gonna take this right foot, and I'm gonna whop you on that side of your face." Shaggy later raps, "Shick-cow! Like Dolemite."
• Special Guest: "Skreeem!", on the main album, features Hopsin and Tech N9ne. Smothered, Covered, and Chunked! has Guest appearances by Cold 187um, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Downtown Brown, Fred Durst, ABK and Lil Wyte. Extra Pop Emporium also features guest spots from Swollen Members and Kottonmouth Kings.

---