Juggalo

The term originated during a 1994 live performance by Insane Clown Posse. During the song "The Juggla", Violent J addressed the audience as Juggalos, and the positive response resulted in Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope using the word thereafter to refer to themselves and their friends, family and fans, including other Psychopathic Records artists.[4] The fanbase boomed following the release of their third album, Riddle Box, in 1995, leading Insane Clown Posse to write the songs "What Is a Juggalo?" and "Down With the Clown" for their 1997 album The Great Milenko.[5]

According to Shaggy 2 Dope, "[Juggalos come] from all walks of life – from poverty, from rich, from all religions, all colors. [...] It doesn't matter if you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth, or a crack rock in your mouth."[6] Juggalos have compared themselves to a family.[7][8]

Common characteristics of identifying a member of the Juggalo subculture are as follows:

• Drinking and spraying the inexpensive soft drink Faygo.[9][10]
• Listening to horrorcore and other types of underground rap music.
• Wearing face paint, generally those either like an evil clown or perhaps similar to corpse paint.
• Wearing HatchetGear.
• Having the Hatchet man logo applied on personal effects and, die cast, worn as jewelry.
• Doing hair in the spider legs style, i.e. like the Twiztid members[7]
• Displaying the gesture of wicked clown, the westside sign with the left hand and the C sign in ASL with the right, with arms crossed over.
• Making and responding to "whoop, whoop" calls.
• Expressing a (generally) tongue-in-cheek obsession with murder, committed with a blade weapon.

Juggalos view the lyrics of Psychopathic Records artists, which are often violent in nature, as a catharsis for aggression.[11][12]

Many characteristics of the Juggalo culture originated from in the 1980s, when Joseph Bruce (Violent J) and his family were living in poverty. He and his brother Robert received all their clothes from rummage sales, and their food from canned food drives held at their own school.[13] Due to their poverty, the Bruce Brothers were the butt of many jokes in school. However, the brothers were not ashamed of their living standards, and instead embraced it.[13] Joe even made a name for themselves, Floobs.[13] According to Joe, a Floob was essentially a scrub, but not just an ordinary scrub. A Floob "wore the same old shoes and shitty clothes from rummage sales [...] but [...] didn't even have to be cool. [Floobs] turned [their] scrubbiness into something [they] could be proud of."[13] Though Joe only specifically names himself and his brother as Floobs, he alludes to other Floobs whom he had not met or known of, but were living in the same conditions as he and his brother; the respect that Floobs had for each other and their family-like embrace of likewise people influenced the philosophy held among Juggalos.[13]

Although the Juggalo subculture stems from the horrorcore subgenre of the general hip hop music fandom, criminal and gang-related activity has been attributed to self-described 'Juggalos' in recent years, including assaults,[19][20][21] drug trafficking,[19][20] vandalism,[19] burglary,[20] shootings,[20] theft,[19][20] robbery,[20] and numerous murders.[19][22][23][24]

The Gathering of the Juggalos (The Gathering or GOTJ) is an annual festival put on by Psychopathic Records, featuring performances by the entire label as well as numerous well-known musical groups and underground artists. It was founded by Robert Bruce, Insane Clown Posse, and their label in 2000. The Gathering has featured bands of a variety of genres within hip hop and rock, though the majority of the acts perform horrorcore and hardcore hip hop, similar to that of Psychopathic Records artists.[31][31][32]

Described by Joseph Bruce as a "Juggalo Woodstock",[31] the Gathering of the Juggalos spans four days and includes concerts, wrestling, games, contests, autograph sessions, karaoke, and seminars with artists. Over its first eleven events, the festival has drawn an attendance of about 107,500 fans.[3]

In July 2012, the media organization Vice released American Juggalo, a twenty-minute film documenting the festival, through their subsidiary music channel, Noisey. Sean Dunne directed the work.[33]

On August 9, 2013, 24-year-old Cory Collins died at the festival, following three more deaths at previous festivals.[34]

In 2012, Shaggy and Violent J created the annual Juggalo Day, a yearly event to thank and celebrate its fans.[35]

2013 started the album shows, playing a joker card album from front to back. 2013 was the "Riddle Box Show" in Detroit.[36]

2014 was the "Great Milenko Show" in Columbus, Ohio.[37]

2015 had the free concert called "Take Me Home" at the Detroit Masonic Temple.[38]

A man in Juggalo face paint next to a small child.

Psychopathic Records launched the professional wrestling company Juggalo Championship Wrestling in 1999.

In 2009, Psychopathic Video filmed a documentary about Juggalos entitled A Family Underground.[39][40][41]

Mainstream media has also made references to the Juggalo subculture. In 2009, television sketch comedy Saturday Night Live began a reoccurring series of sketches about the "Kickspit Underground Rock Festival" which parodies Juggalos and the Gathering of the Juggalos.[42][43] The following year, the television show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia featured a Juggalo character in the episode "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth".[44] In 2011, the television show Workaholics aired an episode called "Straight Up Juggahos" that revolved around Juggalos and an Insane Clown Posse concert.[45] Later that year, an independent documentary entitled American Juggalo was released.[46] Gathering Prey, the 2015 crime novel in the Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford, features a villain named Pilate who, with his disciples, are Juggalos. Much of the book takes place at the Gathering of the Juggalos.[47]

• Juggalo March

• Bruce, Joseph; Echlin, Hobey (2003). Nathan Fostey (ed.). ICP: Behind the Paint (2nd ed.). Royal Oak, Michigan: Psychopathic Records. ISBN 0-9741846-0-8.
• Watson, Elijah (September 19, 2017). "Yes, Female Juggalos Exist — And They Want You To Know Why They Marched On Washington". Bustle. Retrieved September 25, 2017.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Juggalos.

• Juggalos Fight Back, a website established by Insane Clown Posse and Psychopathic Records as part of their legal action against the Federal Bureau of Investigation