What Psychopathic Records Means To The Icp / Juggalo Family

Record labels are often viewed as evil by those on the outside. Thanks to the overwhelming amount of horror stories that music fans have heard, or rumors they’ve heard they think are true, it’s always thought that record labels are an evil force whose intent is to make artists’ lives miserable while taking an unfair share of the profit.

Whether you believe this to be true or not is another argument, but one thing that can’t be argued is the one way to stop any unfair record label treatment: start your own record label to put out your own music!

That’s what underground rappers Insane Clown Posse did. Way back when in 1991 before the ICP / Juggalo relationship existed, or before these Detroit based underground rappers had made a nationwide name for themselves, ICP’s two founding members and their manager formed a record label, Psychopathic Records.

It was decided that Psychopathic Records would release all content for underground rappers ICP. Seeing how it was run by members of the band, it would be pretty hard for the label to rip off ICP or Juggalos in want of great ICP music. And just like that, Psychopathic Records began operating out of the group’s manager’s mom’s basement.

At first the goal was to only focus on and release underground rap music written by ICP for Juggalos, the idea being that signing any other underground rapper that didn’t have any part in founding the company would be a distraction. Psychopathic Records stayed true to this objective for some time, but eventually began signing other underground rappers that had no connection to ICP or Juggalos.

Today, nine other underground rappers are signed to the record label formed by ICP for Juggalos. Better yet, ICP and Juggalos have a stronger relationship than most bands have with their fan bases thanks to the work put in by the Psychopathic Records team.

What do I mean by that?

You see, Psychopathic Records is not your ordinary record label. Not only was it started by its flagship band, but it’s also involved in other things that ICP and Juggalos are interested in: film, wrestling, and creative merchandise. Because ICP and Juggalos have a history in wrestling (it still happens every year at Gathering of the Juggalos), ICP and Juggalos have the same taste in movies (see any ICP movie, like Big Money Rustlas), and because ICP is renowned for how advanced the band’s merchandise is (shoes, backpacks, action figures, comic books), everyone’s a little happier thanks to Psychopathic Records’ involvement.

With any luck, some of the other underground rappers on the Psychopathic Records roster will blow up to the size of Insane Clown Posse some day. When that happens, horror rap will become one of the preeminent genres underground rappers write in for a considerable amount of time.

By: Jack Burden

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ICP and Juggalos have reached the success they enjoy today thanks largely in part to their record label, Psychopathic Records. To learn more about underground rappers ICP or Psychopathic Records, please visit insaneclownposse.com.