Down With The Clown
"Great Milenko wave your wand
Don't look now, your life is gone
This is all because of you
What you got yourself into"
Don't look now, your life is gone
This is all because of you
What you got yourself into"
— "Halls of Illusions"
The Great Milenko is Insane Clown Posse's Fourth Joker's Card, released in 1997. The album was originally released on the Disney-affiliated Hollywood Records, until pressure from the Southern Baptist Convention led to the album being recalled and ICP's tour and all other plans being cancelled. Island Records agreed to release the album. It was eventually certified platinum.
Tracklist:
- Intro
- Great Milenko
- Hokus Pokus
- Piggy Pie
- How Many Times?
- Southwest Voodoo
- Halls Of Illusions
- Under The Moon
- What Is A Juggalo?
- House Of Horrors
- Boogie Woogie Wu
- The Neden Game
- Hellalujah
- Down With The Clown
- Just Like That
- Pass Me By
"Ima be down with the tropes!":
- Abusive Parents/Parental Neglect: Mr. Clark, the "Dirty Old Man from the trailer park," is the second victim of the "Halls of Illusions.""Back to reality, your son's on crack
And your daughter's got nut stains on her back
And they both fuckin smell like shit
And live in the gutter, and sell crack to each other
When they were kids, you'd beat them and leave them home
And even whip 'em with the cord to the telephone
And that reminds me man, ey you got a call
'Watch your step to Hell, it's a long fall!'" - Asshole Victim/Pay Evil unto Evil/Laser-Guided Karma: The central theme of the album is that those who seek to succeed by using/hurting others are subjected to illusions of the good that could've been before finding out the truth—they fucked it up and now they're gonna pay.
- Call-Back: Shaggy says "I'll make a voodoo doll of you and flick your nuts" on "Southwest Voodoo". This is a Call-Back to his solo song "I'm Not Alone", from his 1994 EP Fuck Off!
- Chubby Chaser: Violent J, in "Hokus Pokus""Trunk full of Faygo, car full of fat chicks""I saw Milenko, he gave me Three Wishes
That night, I fucked three fat bitches" - Cluster F-Bomb: It's an ICP album, it comes with the territory.
- Fake Faith Healer: The preacher in "Hellalujah" does nothing to actually heal a boy's mangled body but claims that the boy's spirit has been healed.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: "Piggy Pie" is one of The Three Little Pigs.
- Hollywood Voodoo: "Southwest Voodoo":"A head from a newt, a wing from a bat"
A tongue from a snake, a tail from a rat
A neck from a chicken, an eye from a crow
And a little itty bitty little drip of Faygo" - Insult Backfire: This line from Shaggy in "Hokus Pokus":Call me a psycho, schizo freak
And I'll call you by your name! - Judgement of the Dead: The Halls of Illusions taunt their victims with what could've happened if they hadn't ruined the lives of their wives and children, but it's too late to change anything ("don't look now, your life is gone") — this is only the prelude to getting killed and dropped into Hell ("what you got yourself into"). Subverted with Victim #3, "Mr. Bigot", who arrives just as the carnival's packing up and heading to a new town; Violent J acknowledges that they don't have time to do the whole show, so they'll just skip right to the good part and slit his throat.
- Karma Houdini: It's never explained what happened to the drive-by shooter who killed J in "Just Like That."
- Karmic Jackpot: "Pass Me By" is about J going to The Carnival, where he can see "Jimi Hendrix, Selena and Eazy-E."
- Mythology Gag: On "Hellalujah," the evil preacher, simulating speaking in tongues, chants "Lama Namaneumi." This was also the name that they gave Japanese hardcore wrestler Shoji Nakamaki on the StrangleMania tape, which was a bootleg of the IWA Japan King of the Death Match Tournament (featuring Cactus Jack [who would later appear in Big Money Hustlas as "Cactus Sac," his name on StrangleMania] and Terry Funk) that ICP added their own sarcastic commentary onto and released themselves, paving the way for Juggalo Championship Wrestling. While ICP are known for their continuity, this one might just be a coincidence, given the two years in between the IWA Japan King of the Death Match Tournament and the release of this album.
- Necromancer: The Great Milenko himself, who tricks evil people.
- New Sound Album: It has more of a Rap Rock sound compared to the Hip-Hop sound of their previous releases.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The Boogieman has only three weaknesses, after a Beat he asks if you seriously thought he was going to tell you.
- Questioning Title?: "How Many Times?," "What Is A Juggalo?"
- Record Producer: Mike E. Clark and ICP
- Religion Rant Song: "Hellalujah" is a type 3 against con artist preachers.
- Rich Bastard: The third victim in "Piggy Pie".
- Sampling:
- "Hokus Pokus" samples The Turtles' "Buzzsaw"
- "Southwest Voodoo" samples Shaggy 2 Dope's "I'm Not Alone" and X-Clan's "Tribal Jam"
- "What Is A Juggalo?" samples ICP's own "Murder Go Round," "The Show Must Go On," "Dead Body Man" and "Beverly Kills 50187" and Eazy-E's "Eazy Duz It."
- The intro to "Boogie Woogie Wu" is sampled from the 1970 Horror Film I Drink Your Blood.
- Sermonette: Somewhat of a meta example. The track "Hellalujah" has lots of religious themes about televangelism. The track even opens with the sound of a TV changing channels. So why is it here? Because it's at the near-end of the album, being track 13 of 16.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a reference to the Professional Wrestler Boris Malenko.
- From "Piggy Pie": "I bounced off his head and did a Jackie Chan over the gate"
- Special Guest:
- Alice Cooper provides the male vocals on "Intro"
- Steve Jones plays guitar on "Piggy Pie"
- Slash plays guitar on "Halls of Illusions"
- Spoken Word in Music: "Pass Me By" opens with an excerpt from the Estus Pirkle film The Believer's Heaven, which plays again just before the final chorus.
- Take That!: "The Neden Game" is one to The Dating Game.note
-
Tear Jerker: "Under The Moon". A seventeen-year-old boy goes to prison for killing a guy who tried to rape his girlfriend. She promises to wait for him...but as the years go by, he knows for a fact that she didn't, ultimately culminating in his utter embitterment and his final declaration..."Fuck you and the moon!" - Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: "Boogie Woogie Wu" is an Ironic Nursery Rhyme about the Boogeyman.
-
What Could Have Been: George Clinton was recorded saying "clown dog, freak dog, Joker dog, Milenko dog" for "Hokus Pokus", when Clinton and ICP were staying in different suites at the same hotel. However, his voice was ultimately replaced by Violent J saying the same lines for unknown reasons. - Wife-Basher Basher: The first victim of the "Halls of Illusions" is a wife-beater:"Back to reality and what you're about
Your wife can't smile 'cause you knocked her teeth out
And she can't fucking see straight from getting hit
'Cause you're a fat fucking drunk piece of shit
But it's all cool, here come have a beer
I'll break the cap off and stick it in your ear
And your death comes wicked painful and slow
At the hands of Milenko" - Wrote the Book/Pretender Diss: From "How Many Times?":"How many times will a kid give a dirty look?
A little punk-ass bitch tryin to be a crook
I wrote the book, I was out robbin' liquor stores
When you were just a nut stain in your momma's drawers"
Dedicated to the Butterfly
