Ringmaster (album)

Infobox Album |
Name = Ringmaster
Type = Album
Artist = Insane Clown Posse


Background = yellow
Released = March 8, 1994
Recorded = 1993 – 1994
Genre = Horrorcore, Midwest hip hop
Length = 70:12
Label = Psychopathic Records
Producer = I.C.P.
Mike Clark
Reviews =*Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:mi3ibka9jakz link]
*Rolling Stone Rating|1|5 [cite book |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor=Brackett, Nathan |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2004 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location= |isbn=0743201698 |pages=405–6 ]
*Yahoo! Music (mixed) [http://music.yahoo.com/read/review/12050632 link]
Last album = "Beverly Kills 50187"
(1993)
This album = "Ringmaster"
(1994)
Next album = "The Terror Wheel"
(1994)Extra chronology 2
Artist = Joker's Cards
Type = Album
Last album = "Carnival of Carnage
(1992)
This album = "Ringmaster"
(1994)
Next album = "Riddle Box"
(1995)

"Ringmaster" is the second studio album by American hip hop group Insane Clown Posse, released on March 8, 1994 by Psychopathic Records. It is the second Joker's Card entry in the group's Dark Carnival saga. The album is meant as "all of your sins and hatred whipped and spun into form, a form that will bring about this dreaded Carnival's visit". This album gained Insane Clown Posse a strong local following, and they began to sell out at large clubs such as St. Andrew's Hall and the State Theater.cite book |last=Bruce |first=Joseph |authorlink=Joseph Bruce |coauthors=Hobey Echlin |editor=Nathan Fostey |title=ICP: Behind the Paint |origdate= |origyear=2003 |origmonth=August |edition=2nd Edition |publisher=Psychopathic Records |location=Royal Oak, Michigan |isbn=09741846083 |pages=pages 231—237 |chapter=Ringmaster's Word ] "The Ringmaster" was the first Insane Clown Posse album to be certified Gold; it was certified Gold a second time following its reissue by Island Records. The album spawned one single, "Chicken Huntin'".

The album contains 16 studio tracks. Featured guests on the album include Blake Webb and Capitol E; Jumpsteady also cameos as the cop in the intro of "My Fun House".

The song "Mr. Johnson's Head" was subsequently remixed in 1997, as it was intended to be featured on the group's fourth studio album "The Great Milenko". The idea was later scrapped and the re-recording was released on Insane Clown Posse's 1998 compilation "Forgotten Freshness Volumes 1 & 2".

Production

A music video for "Chicken' Huntin'" was produced with funding by Jive Records, after Insane Clown Posse signed with them. The director changed the original plans for the video, which had been created by Violent J and his brother Jumpsteady, that Violent J later described them as " [Some of] the stupidest thing [s] I had ever heard of." Insane Clown Posse were disappointed with the final video, as was Jive, and the video was not released until 2007, when it was included on the release "". "Chicken Huntin'" was remixed twice. After rejecting a remix by Jive, Insane Clown Posse did their own remix, and it was featured on their next Joker's Card, 1995's "Riddle Box".

Track listing

Message

The day has come, the time of reckoning. Who will perish in dreaded hell and who's soul will be content within the pleasures of heaven? Looking past the words spoken with a wicked tongue and looking past the evil deeds done in one's life, but instead looking into the conscious of man.What is the real evil that seems to plague mankind? Who are the real demons that walk this earth? Is it those whose minds have become devious because of a lifetime spent inside of a caged hell, or is it those who invented this caged hell years ago and done nothing to help destroy it yet? Who's guilty, Frankenstein or the doctor that created him? The sword, or the man who has slain with it? Which is the real evil, the man who kills another for food or the man who does not share his food to avoid the killing? While you sit in judgment of a criminal, you may very well be the one who's guilty. Guilty of greed, deception and hate.

Those who are rejected at the gates of heaven, shall be dragged off into the pits of hell. Viciously torn from this life by the non-living, the phantoms of the dead. These beasts take the form of a demented carnival, that of a wicked, dark, circus, led by one. One who was created by your own evil ways. One who will judge your very fate. The one known only as... The Ringmaster.

Personnel

* Violent J – vocals
* Shaggy 2 Dope – vocals, turntables
* Jumpsteady – guest vocals
* Capitol E – guest vocals
* Mike E. Clark – turntables, production

References