Everyone has heard a Vanilla Ice song, and it’s probably the same one. Even if you don’t know who Vanilla Ice is by name, you would know by recognizing his enormous 90s hit, “Ice Ice Baby.” Vanilla Ice was so popular in the early 90s, his song “Ice Ice Baby” was the first hip hop song to ever top the Billboard charts. Some say that after the Beastie Boys and House of Pain, Vanilla Ice was just the third white rapper to achieve this level of mainstream success.
With all that said, how did Vanilla Ice go from chart-topping success to being an underground music star who performs at Gathering of the Juggalos?

Truth be told, Vanilla Ice always considered himself edgier and more of the underground music breed than his label and fans ever did. In fact, Vanilla Ice’s history will show you that he started getting into hip hop and break dancing  in the mid 80s long before it was popular.  Vanilla Ice’s nickname, Vanilla, came from his underground music friends because he was the only non African-American member of their friend group.

So really, it’s almost ironic that the once underground music maven would find his way to the top of the billboard charts. But even as unpredictable as that turn of events is, it doesn’t come close to outdoing how seemingly random Vanilla Ice’s collaboration with Detroic horror rap outfit Insane Clown Posse and their festival, Gathering of the Juggalos, is.

For those who are unfamiliar with Insane Clown Posse or Gathering of the Juggalos, just know that both are about as far as one can travel from the top of the charts and still call it music. I don’t say that to mean that ICP and Gathering of the Juggalos aren’t successful – in fact, they’re both enormously lucrative – but rather to mean hat sonically, one will never see an ICP at #1 on the billboard charts or see genuine coverage of Gathering of the Juggalos on MTV, VH1, or any other music television network.

However, Vanilla Ice and ICP, and those who attend Gathering of the Juggalos all have one very important trait in common: misunderstanding.

As mentioned above, Vanilla Ice always felt that his music was misconstrued as more mainstream than he wanted it to be. Believe it or not, his record label actually fabricated a biography that they deemed more appealing to the mainstream.

The same misunderstanding is felt well by Juggalos, or fans of underground music group Insane Clown Posse at Gathering of the Juggalos. They don’t feel properly understood, and bond over this fact when ever in touch with one another. Knowing that, it makes much sense that Vanilla Ice would choose to collaborate with underground music group ICP at their festival, The Gathering of the Juggalos.

So look deeper before you judge, there’s many layers to ever underground music artist’s career!

Resource Box

 

Vanilla Ice once topped the billboard charts but now collaborates with underground music groups like Insane Clown Posse and at underground music festivals like Gathering of the Juggalos. To learn more about Gathering of the Juggalos, please visit http://insaneclownposse.com.

Anytime an artist finds him or herself underneath the mainstream media spotlight, he or she will soon learn just how harsh the public can be when judging talent for itself. When said act under the spotlight is a band as deliberately notorious and underground as Insane Clown Posse and Saturday Night Live does the parody, well, it’s a good thing they have tremendously thick skin and a massive following of Juggalos to back them up. 
But when does the buzz garnered from parodies (like Saturday Night Live’s of Insane Clown Posse) and critics outweigh any negativity associated with those parodies or critics? Is it true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity? It’s been hypothesized that as long as music was being heard and/or getting into the hands of potential consumers, any cost associated with getting it there was considered worth it.

This question has been at the forefront of musicians and marketing teams in the music industry for quite some time. Insane Clown Posse’s Saturday Night Live parody, their shoddy relationship with mainstream media, and their Juggalo fan base provide the perfect case study for analysis on the topic.

The Saturday Night Live Insane Clown Posse Parody

Haters of ICP and Juggalos are one thing, but national comedians and other funny factories like college humor that reach an audience of millions are another. In spring 2010, another musical act fell victim to the famous Saturday Night Live parody: Insane Clown Posse. In the Insane Clown Posse Saturday Night Live parody, ICP is depicted as being dumbfounded by the most basic of things, i.e. why kids look like their parents, why some mountains look like presidents (Mt. Rushmore), and where the sun “hides” at night just to name a few. Juggalos were not amused.

But fortunate for the ICP team – and the crew involved in the Insane Clown Posse Saturday Night Live parody – Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope were cool, calm, and collected about the whole thing. They even thought the Saturday Night Live Insane Clown Posse parody was hilarious, and viewed it as a strategic move to gain a larger audience beyond any pre-existing Juggalos.

Insane Clown Posse member Violent J even went as far to defend the show against Juggalos outspoken against the event, saying “How can you be mad at Saturday Night Live? That’s what they do. They make parodies. They’re funny. That’s flattering, that you’re a large enough player in the game that Saturday Night Live even recognizes you.”

Considering there was no negative reaction from the band regarding the Saturday Night Live Insane Clown Posse parody and little to no physical reaction from the band’s Juggalo fan base, it’s strange to think that ICP’s members have such a bad reputation for violence and protest.

The same cannot be said for Insane Clown Posse’s Juggalo fan base, most of which took offense to Saturday Night Live’s Insane Clown Posse parody and aired their opinions on Juggalo channels of social media networks like YouTube and Facebook.

ICP Parody Affect Sales

 

Low and behold, if you look at a graph of ICP’s website traffic during the month the Saturday Night Insane Clown Posse parody aired and went near-viral on the Internet, there is indeed a spike. We’ll never know if there was also a spike in new Juggalo membership, but I’d say it’s a safe bet to assume so. 

Of course, Insane Clown Posse is an anomaly of a case, because they (and their Juggalo followers) love to be hated. In fact, they may have even enjoyed the Insane Clown Posse Saturday Night Live parody more than others.

ICP has deemed themselves “the most hated band in America,” yet ironically they happen to also be one of the most successful. All press may not be good press for most bands, but that seems to be the case for ICP. 

--

The Insane Clown Posse is an American horrorcore duo that often finds itself as the punch line for comedians, TV shows, and flash mobs. A Saturday Night Live Insane Clown Posse parody recently debuted, but ICP’s two members are more than alright with their band being the brunt of jokes, saying they too find the material hilarious and use it to their advantage when growing their fan base past existing Juggalos.

To learn more about Insane Clown Posse or their Juggalo fan base visit ICP's website at http://insaneclownposse.com/