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With clown hysteria at an all-time high of late, TIME Magazine published an op-ed piece today from Insane Clown Posse's Violent J, who penned the impassioned article in response to a request for comment. The so-called "killer clown" phenomenon has been lighting up news outlets and Twitter timelines lately, in response to reports of people dressed as clowns apparently doing some scary things in South Carolina and elsewhere.
In the piece, Violent J leverages the opportunity to connect the current climate of fear around clowns to open up a conversation about what he feels is an unfair stigma around ICP, their fans, and Juggalo culture:
"After 25 years of unquestionably being The World’s Most Hated Band, Insane Clown Posse has just about seen it all. We’ve had an album censored and then yanked from stores by Disney, been completely slaughtered by music critics despite selling over 12 million albums and, for the first time in music history, had our entire fanbase—The Juggalos—officially labeled a “hybrid gang” by the FBI."
J then goes on to identify the "real clowns," broadening his discussion from censorship and clown stigma to civil rights violations in general:
"There’s a whole army of scary, terrifying and dangerous clowns out there in this country trying to suppress the rights of thousands of people," he continues, "From keystone-cop clowns shooting unarmed citizens, to racist clowns burning down Islamic centers or clowns in the NSA spying on us through our cell phones and laptops, America has turned into something far more terrifying than Insane Clown Posse’s Dark Carnival."
Read the full piece here, via TIME.