Juggalos : More Then A Music Based Society

To be a Juggalo is not what most of soceity thinks, which is to be a fan of Insane Clown Posse(ICP). Many outsiders say Juggalos are like a cult or even part of some big gang, their man support for this is the calling of other jugglaos family, and the way the Dark Carnival is mentioned. I tell you though, when juggalos gather they do not cause violence to anyone or hurt anything. Most media and society labels juggalos as ICP\'s loyal followers and Gerard Ramalho(2004) says they are\"Self-described outsiders -- tired of trying to fit-in with quote, normal society. Most will tell you they had no sense of belonging until they joined the dark carnival.\"(para. 3) He even insults \"What they\'re saying is hardly inspirational. Most of the lyrics we found are about things like assault and murder.\"(para. 7) Researching this I\'ve found schools and police went far enough to ban something as small as wearing ICP t-shirt\'s, because they were supposedly gang clothing. I myslef for many years have been a juggalo, but can this be the true meaning of a juggalo or is it something deeper in meaning skipped over by the whole of our country? I would like to prove they are a Religion based subculture who share a same way of life, in a non-cult, non-gang fashion. The reason many people call them a cult are because they don\'t understand the religion and don\'t like the way they stick together and have gatherings. If you took the same people and said they were Christian and haveing a Christian event, society would have no problem with it. I have been to giant meetings of Christians from around the country in New York where they preach the message of god through their music.

Being a fan of ICP may be part of it but it is not just that. The biggest factors that make a juggalo are preached in their music and the unity they have. When The movement of the juggalo culture did start in the mid-90\'s with the imfamous band ICP and their

record company, Psychopathic Records. The community has been growing ever since and has even reached the UK. Gerard Ramalho(2004) states\"Of course the ultimate Juggalo experience is an ICP concert. In Philadelphia juggalos lined up hours before the start of the show .\"(para. 6) It\'s hundreds of juggalos hanging out, drinking faygo( a brand of soda pop), telling stories, and chanting to each other things like \"MAJIK MAJIK NINJAS WHAT.\" This chanting is from a movie made by ICP, I could find no deeper meaning so I assume. Juggalos excpet one anouther here and refer to each other as one big family. It brings a feeling of unity and has a positive effect on society because, a juggalo can be any color, any gender, or any class. The assumption that juggalos are only extreme fans of ICP to most juggalos seems proposterous. Every juggalo when I asked had a response similar to that of a juggalo named Kenny:

A Juggalo is a person who can relate to any situation and can listen to an opinion with an open mind, while keeping his own set of morales. It also is a way of life that teaches you right from wrong but sometimes you have to do wrong things to get by in life, basically karma.

When asked where they get these lessons of life, they all responded from the music\'s deeper meaning and mention the Dark Carnival. A meaning of a song which Kenny(Kennystein) speaks about is in the song Karma by Twiztid. Within the song, the chorus goes:

Are you going to hell or to heaven?/ Did you walk with the sinners/ Or pray with the reverend?/ Tell the truth I did a little of both/ And ain\'t no telling where I\'m going/ Till my body\'s a ghost/ And we sing/ The whole worlds gonna hate me in the end/ When they\'re surrounded by nothing but the fire (nothing but the fire)/ You can lie, but you\'re soaking in sin/ When you die let you\'re karma begin /From the beginning to the end

The Religious meanings can clearly be seen with references to hell, heaven, and sin. There are plenty of other songs that are the same and reference other things to god and leading a good life. The Dark Carnival is what many of them refer to as their religion, and different philosophy

of life. A juggalo named Merv defines the Dark Carnival as \" Heaven, where dead Juggalos go to meet after death, each jokers card is an attraction.\"

The jokers cards are along the lines of chapters in what happens to you