Michigan rapper, record producer, professional wrestler, and one half of Insane Clown Posse, Violent J recently stopped by our setlist.fm studio. Violent J dropped his solo album, Bloody Sunday, earlier this year, followed by summer dates in support of the release. ICP held their annual Gathering of the Juggalos in July and are currently gearing up to perform at Riot Fest in Chicago this month.
Watch as he recounts some of the most impactful live music memories- from seeing Rage Against The Machine, Sir Mix-A-Lot and INXS live.
Rage Against The Machine
"I'm gonna guess the year was 1993. The group, Rage Against the Machine had released their first album. We had just started bumping it, me and my boys, and it was undeniably wig-flippin'. Hearing that Rage Against the Machine was next level. They were coming to a venue called Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit, which is legendary. We were a big deal in Detroit at the time. I remember we were sitting on the steps, and the band had to walk down the steps from the dressing room to go to the stage. And so here they come down the steps, and I remember sitting there thinking, "Well, I'm a big shot in this town, so I'm gonna sit here and not say nothing." Thinking, "Yeah, let's see what y'all got," you know. They go up to the stage, and they totally fuckin' killed it! I never saw energy like that. I never saw that type of unbelievable presence. It electrified those 400 kids in the crowd. It electrified the sound man. It electrified the tiles on the floor. I was absolutely speechless and starstruck. When I look at the magic Rage Against the Machine applied to that performance, I can only hope to have that effect on somebody. To this day, anytime you see Shaggy and myself on stage doing an ICP show, you know that we are at the absolute peak of our physical abilities. We're about to throw up the entire time because we took a page out of their book. If you're up on stage performing intense music like that and you're not feeling it, it's probably time you get off the stage. You know what I mean? So yeah, they were a massive influence."
Sir Mix-A-Lot
"Sir Mix-A-Lot, they had an album out called "Swass," which was their first album. This is way before "Baby Got Back" and they became the iconic rapper he is today. It was one of the first hip hop albums, top to bottom, I truly fell in love with. Next thing you know, we hear about a concert they're doing at the Royal Oak Music Theatre. This would be the first concert I'd ever gone to anywhere. My brother had told me to read a book about Malcolm X, and at this stage in Malcolm X's life, he had joined an organization called The Nation of Islam. Where he was at in his life, the Nation of Islam believed that white people were the devil. So when I went to this show, to my surprise, the Nation of Islam were in the building. So I'm thinking, "Oh, no, these guys have the belief that white people are the devil." So during the show, Mix-A-Lot and them are just killing it and they're throwing vinyl albums off the stage. And one of the vinyls came flying all the way to the back and landed on the floor next to me. So I was like, "Oh, snap!" So I went to grab it. At the same time, one of the guys from the Nation of Islam saw it land too, and he went to grab it. So I stopped, and this dude grabbed the vinyl, stood up, looked at me and handed it to me, and it meant everything to me. That first hip hop concert and seeing the way it was done and the experience I had there was a massive influence on the career of Insane Clown Posse. Seeing the hypeness of that crowd and how everybody was there on the same page rocking like that, in our later career, of course, we only wanted the same thing. We wanted that sort of unison and comradery. Our whole legacy is the Juggalos. I mean, they are the fuel that makes us cool."
INXS
"INXS came to the historic venue in Detroit known as Saint Andrew's Hall. This had to be 1994. I was working at Saint Andrew's Hall at this point, and I remember the big deal about INXS coming to play Saint Andrew's because INXS was a band that was bigger than Saint Andrew's, the venue was. And I'll never forget the difference when INXS came because the first thing they did was they came into that venue and they actually built an extension onto the stage. The venue could only be smaller because of this extension. And when the band came on that night, I didn't know nothing about in INXS except the songs that were on MTV like everybody else. But when I was sitting there working that crowd, watching that band, the difference between INXS and Michael Hutchence and them was staggering. The way he was into his music, the way his eyes were closed for half the song, the way they radiated emotion, they were in the music, they were in the moment. And I never forgot the difference between seeing an arena band coming in that club. And it was so influencing because that type of bravery, to expose yourself, your inner feelings on stage, I just fell in love with that passion and that freedom and that bravery."
