Gather ‘round, kids, it’s confession time. When I was rambunctious young scamp, around the close of the 20th Century and the earliest days of the 21st, I, like many in my demographic, fell under the slammin’ spell of the rap-rock craze. I’m sure you can probably grimly recall that fad pretty well — when bands like Papa Roach hurled bad rhyming couplets over ripped-off Iron Maiden riffs and Limp Bizkit “downloaded the Shockwave. For all the ladies in the cave” in order for you to “get your groove on” …
Well, while I and many other white suburban males were getting angry to chugging guitars and pummeling hip-hop beats for no apparent reason, a veritable smorgasbord of questionably talented bands made scads of money and toured stadiums across North America and beyond. One of the most controversial of these groups was the subtly-dubbed duo Insane Clown Posse, whose 1997 effort “The Great Milenko” got plenty of free press when its record label home, Disney-owned Hollywood Records, gave the disc a spin and, disgusted, briskly pulled it from stores shelves and demanded edits galore.
Not surprisingly, the album reached Platinum status, and increased the size of their fanbase (affectionately called Juggalos and Juggalettes), but Disney was having none of the grease-painted pair’s antics and they were forced to hop over to Island Records, where they set up shop with their own imprint Psychopathic Records and have been releasing multitudes of records and DVDs ever since.
Here’s where the real confession comes in. While I’ve never considered myself a Juggalo, been to an ICP concert (though I probably would have, had they been allowed to enter Canada) or worn an ICP shirt, I do own a few of the wicked Clowns’ albums. Four, in fact. And dammit all, if I still don’t occasionally find myself humming songs such as the very catchy “Tilt-a-Whirl” or their quasi-cover of Sly Fox’s “Let’s Go All the Way” on my daily routines. Go ahead and judge me for being down with the clown, I can take it!
Anyways, this is really just a painfully dragged out way for me to inform you that the duo — who refer to themselves as Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope — will soon be releasing their second feature-length film starring themselves as well as a legion of their own Psychopathic Records friends and family. Made in the spirit of their cinematic debut “Big Money Hustlas,” a semi-spoof of gangster movies unseen by me, their latest achievement, “Big Money Rustlas,” is an anarchic take on the western genre.
Seemingly shot on the cheapo equivalent of the Universal Studios backlot, “Rustlas” tells the epic story of Sugar Wolf (Shaggy 2 Dope), a mysterious lone gun-fighter tasked with cleaning up a small town overseen by the sinister criminal known as, um, Big Baby Chips (Violent J). Much profanity, sexual innuendos and unsavory antics involving topless bimbos has no doubt been also worked into the script (co-written by Violent J himself!) to satisfy their hormonally-crazed fanbase.
Featuring cameos from such acting and music luminaries as Vanilla Ice, Dustin “Screech” Diamond, Ron Jeremy, Jason Mewes, Todd “Diff’rent Strokes” Bridges, Brigitte Nielsen, Tech Nine and Jimmie “Good Times” Walker, “Big Money Rustlas” guarantees to be … something! Definitely something!
I urge you to check out the film’s trailer below and attempt to determine what exactly that “something” is. Personally, though, I’m not remotely interested in enduring “Rustlas,” but I’m sure my 16-year-old self would have found it to be a hollerin’ hootenanny. Just saying.
Regardless, thank you for listening to my secret shame and feel free to join me next time when I’ll tell you about when I almost willingly got a Marilyn Manson tattoo (*shudders*). Ah, God bless the indiscretions of youth.
Follow Cam Smith on Twitter at http://twitter.com/camspcepisodes.
Fun story. What a “great” cast. 😀
Haha — I never listened to them. But it seems like a crazy movie.
LOL! Epic!