God I have been waiting to do this for a long time !
Alright Nate, let me tell you about my observation and interaction with those who consider themselves "Down with the Clown".
I don't know how it is everywhere else, but here where I live there is an abundance of stereotypical "Juggalo's" as well as every other stereotype. Des Moines, Iowa is a weird place you see? Unlike a lot of cities there is nothing to really define a Des Moines native like there is in New York, Boston, Long Island, Jersey, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, etc... and as a result you have a bunch of people trying to portray everything they see people doing on T.V. in places like that. It's like a little bit of all those places mixed into one big cluster fuck, as this smaller city tries to act like it's bigger than it really is. As you can imagine the ICP crowd is the definition of this to a fault.
Here at least, it was all the drop outs, loadies, idiots, immature fucks, people who made themselves outcasts, people who refused to present themselves with any kind of self respect or dignity, they were all scurvy as fuck, the kind of people who thought it was funny to act like fucking ******s destroying shit all the time making anywhere they hung out a dingy rat hole as well, and breaking rules just to break them like that made them cool or something. Basically the dumbest most immature fuckfaces you've ever experienced. The saddest part of it too is that it is as a direct influence of this flaming pile of cat vomit, rhino shit, a squirrel nuts, yeah that's right, squirrel nuts! that these people passed off as real rap.
These people were all a bunch of clones. They all dressed the same, talked the same, acted the same, and untied themselves under the "Juggalo" banner like somehow that had become "it" and we just "didn't get it" as mentioned earlier. Most of them always went out of their way to act extra odd, or ridiculous, just to try and be different and weird, to be different and weird which was another display of their unmeasurable stupidity. It's like they didn't really have personalities of their own, so they listened to an ICP record and decided to be Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope by default because "High School Jock" "Brainiac" and "Prep" were taken so they decided to go with "Loser".
All of this because of the second rate music put out by two fucktards with make-up. I swear, I've never seen a bigger group of people battling with an identity crisis. They're supposed to be kind of like rappers but kind of metal but kind of goth but kind of like all the skater kids used to be but kind of like the hippie kids but with some misunderstood outcast thrown in there for some real drama. It's fucking stupid, make up your mind, who are you, what are you, what are you about? Get a fucking clue!!!
Getting into the music itself, I definitely understood why these people were flocking to it, they all needed that to grab onto because they didn't fit in with other crowds and this presented an opportunity to be accepted by somebody. Still, I think you should be your own person either way, be an original, not a fucking clone. It's fucked up, you look at them and it's like their wearing a uniform, all the same trying to be individuals following the same mentality as well. How the music itself is good enough to warrant all this is far beyond me is some ways. Don't get me wrong, I have heard some it I didn't mind, and have even owned a few albums myself because I wanted to hear what all the hoopla was about, but it never grabbed a hold of me like it did these other people.
There was one song on the "Ringmaster" album I liked called Mr. Johnson's Head. I heard it when I was in middle school and at the time the song reflected a lot of what I felt so I liked it, but found it hard to really get into outside of finding a few songs I liked. It became all the more difficult as I began to see and realize who the people that were into this brand were i.e the Juggalo's. Once I saw the way these fans reacted to the music, and how they let it form their entire identity, I quickly decided not to venture down that avenue any further.
I have a very eclectic taste in music ranging from classical to metal to rap. So, when I heard of this rap duo ICP I decided to hear it. some people I knew were telling me it was so great, so I went to place where I could pick up the CD's used at a lower price and checked a few out. I wasn't really impressed, especially for it passing itself as Rap. I decided to stick with Ice Cube, West Side Connection, Mack 10, 2 pac, Snoop, Dre, Master P, Silk The Shocker, etc...which was all real rap, especially at that time. I can understand in some ways why it attracts so many people, but it does not fit my fancy.
In closing though Nate, what I described above was an exact description of the so called "Juggalo's" where I live, and from what I have seen on the internet elsewhere, that seems to be the profile to a "T". Why you would voluntarily put yourself up to that kind of scrutiny? I do not understand, or why if your not like them, would want to be associated with them. If you know the stigma that is attached, and know you'll be looked down on and ridiculed for it, that why would you choose it? Maybe what you should do is explore some other avenues of influence.