Those crazy Insane Clown Posse dudes are nothing if not unpredictable. After years of cussing down the masses, covering loyal fans with Faygo and directing holiday goodwill toward Halloween, the horrorcore-rap duo has decided to get into the Christmas spirit.
Not only is ICP leading a seasonal toy drive but it's also rewarding Juggalos who donate with a free holiday CD. Fans can bring toys to ICP's show at St. Andrew's Hall or mail them to their offices (address below), and in return, they'll receive "Holiday Heat," a CD of Christmas songs by Psychopathic Records artists like ICP, Twiztid, ABK and more.
The whole thing is the brainchild of Sugar Slam, Juggalo queen and girlfriend of ICP's Violent J. He spoke recently spoke about his girl's awesome endeavor, the Christmas album and the big ICP Christmas show tonight.
QUESTION: Tell me about Sugar Slam's Super Live Toy Drive.
ANSWER: It's all about absolute freshness. It's all about karma. It's about doing something awesome. It was a great idea and it's fun to do it. I think everybody involved wins. Everybody. From the people getting the toys, obviously, to the Juggalos sending toys in -- they get a full Christmas album from the Psychopathic Records family. ... Psychopathic wins because we're the ones that get all the karma.
Q: Where are the toys going?
A: It's Sugar Slam's toy drive in the sense that she's the one working behind the scenes, doing everything with it. She's the one on the infomercials. I know a lot of the toys are going to Toys for Tots. They've been sending the military out to our shows, and they have their gear on. Higher ranked guys looking fresh with their suits. They stand right next to Lay Low, who's collecting the toys. You can see him on the infomercials also. He gives all the Juggalos a dap, which is a quick thanks with a fist pound.
Q: What's on the "Holiday Heat" CD?
A: Fourteen songs. There are a couple of ICP classics, like "Santa's a Fat (Profanity)." That's a song we've had out since '95. It was a local release back then. Also off that EP there's "Red Christmas," which we do with our producer Mike E. Clark. He raps on that song and he doesn't rap very often. Practically never. Twiztid has a couple of Christmas songs and ABK has a brand new Christmas song featuring a stolen sample because it's a holiday giveaway and we're not selling it. There are a lot of cool giveaways we've done over the years. In 2003, me and ABK did a song together and that was only given away on the Internet for Christmas that year and it was never seen or heard from again. Now it's on a CD, immortalized forever. There's a song with Shaggy 2 Dope, Twiztid, Blaze Ya Dead Homie and ABK. If we were musicians, we'd all be sitting around jamming together. What we are is wicked rappers so we all sit around flowing together. It's really cool, flowing together about Christmas.
Q: People might not have thought of you guys as a charity band or a Christmas-y band. Is this a side of you that's always been there?
A: Oh yeah. The proof is on this CD. There are 14 different songs that we've done about Christmas over the years, including one or two new ones. The collection is from the span of our career. We're down with some Christmas love, but we don't exactly like Santa Claus.
Q: What do you have planned for the St. Andrew's show?
A: The best one of them all. Being in Detroit, at home, in St. Andrew's Hall, just like we did back in the day. We used to kill St. Andrew's, man. That's where it went down for us back in the day. Now we're back at St. Andrew's. A great, monumental place for all the groups that used to play there. ... That's the perfect place for the last night of the tour. We have the Big Ballas Christmas Party that night at the Shelter. We usually have the Christmas party somewhere else, but we moved it right to the Shelter because we're on tour and we're already playing Detroit. The night before, on the 22nd, we're having JCW wrestling at the Modern Exchange in Southgate, and that's gonna be fun. It'll be off the hook.
