Dark Lotus is an American hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 supergroup

Supergroup (music)

In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....

 based in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. Formed in 1998, the group consists of Psychopathic Records

Psychopathic Records

Psychopathic Records, also known as "The Hatchet", is an American independent record label based in Farmington Hills, Michigan that specializes in hip hop music. The label was founded in 1991 by Alex Abbiss and hip hop group Insane Clown Posse....

-associated rappers Joseph Bruce

Joseph Bruce

Joseph Frank "Joe" Bruce is an American rapper, record producer, professional wrestler and actor. Bruce is most commonly known as Violent J of the Insane Clown Posse . He is the co-founder of the record label Psychopathic Records, with fellow ICP rapper Joseph Utsler and their former manager,...

 and Joseph Utsler

Joseph Utsler

Joseph William "Joey" Utsler is an American rapper, record producer, DJ, professional wrestler and actor. Utsler is known as Shaggy 2 Dope of the hip hop group Insane Clown Posse. He is the co-founder of the record label Psychopathic Records, with fellow Insane Clown Posse rapper Joseph Bruce and...

 of Insane Clown Posse

Insane Clown Posse

Insane Clown Posse is an American hip hop duo from Detroit, Michigan. The group is composed of Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler, who perform under the respective personas of the "wicked clowns" Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope. Insane Clown Posse performs a style of hardcore hip hop known as horrorcore...

, Jamie Spaniolo

Jamie Spaniolo

James Spaniolo is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. Spaniolo is most commonly known as Jamie Madrox of the rap group Twiztid. He is also a member of the two supergroups Dark Lotus and Psychopathic Rydas...

 and Paul Methric of Twiztid

Twiztid

Twiztid is an American hip hop duo from Warren, Michigan. The group is composed of Jamie Spaniolo and Paul Methric, who perform under the respective personas of Jamie Madrox and Monoxide Child...

, and Chris Rouleau

Blaze Ya Dead Homie

Chris Rouleau, also known as Blaze Ya Dead Homie, is an American rapper from Romeo, Michigan. His stage persona is that of a reincarnated gang member killed in the late 1980s, and his music is a fusion of gangsta rap and horrorcore.-Biography:...

.

History

Dark Lotus made its debut with the single "Echo Side," which was later released on Insane Clown Posse's 1999 album The Amazing Jeckel Brothers

The Amazing Jeckel Brothers

The Amazing Jeckel Brothers is the fifth studio album by American hip hop group Insane Clown Posse, released on May 25, 1999, by Island Records, in association with Psychopathic Records. Recording sessions for the album took place from 1998 to 1999. The album is the fifth Joker's Card in the...

. It was later announced that each member "would act as a 'petal' of the lotus," and that there would be six members. After speculation as to who the sixth member would be, including rumors that Esham

Esham

Rashaam Attica Smith, better known by his stage name Esham , is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan known for his hallucinogenic style of hip hop which he refers to as "acid rap", which fuses rock-based beats and lyrics involving subjects such as death, drug use, evil, paranoia and...

 would join the group, it was announced that Marz would be a member.

Dark Lotus released their first album, Tales from the Lotus Pod

Tales From The Lotus Pod

Tales from the Lotus Pod is the first album by American hip hop group Dark Lotus. Released in 2001, the album featured the first and only appearance of former member Marz, who was soon dismissed from the group. Mike E. Clark was brought in to produce the album, but left the project after producing...

, in 2001. Mike E. Clark

Mike E. Clark

Mike Earl Clark is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan currently signed to Hatchet House.Clark is best known for his work with Insane Clown Posse, for which he has produced nine studio albums...

 was brought in to produce the album, but left the project after producing four songs, and Fritz the Cat produced the rest of the album. The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Heatseekers chart

Billboard charts

The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...

, #6 on the Top Independent Albums chart, and #158 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

. Marz left the group, and was replaced by James Lowery

Anybody Killa

James Lowery, also known as Anybody Killa, or ABK, is a Native American rapper from Detroit, Michigan whose stage persona is that of a Native American warrior. He is signed to Psychopathic Records.-Biography:...

. In 2002, Tales from the Lotus Pod was reissued in a new version removing Marz' vocals. On April 6, 2004, Dark Lotus released their second studio album, Black Rain. It peaked at #3 on the Top Independent Albums chart, and at #71 on the Billboard 200.

Lowery left the group, and a third album, The Opaque Brotherhood, was released without him. It peaked at #4 on the Top Independent Albums chart, #23 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, #45 on the Top Internet Albums chart, and #45 on the Billboard 200. Allrovi reviewer Stewart Mason praised the album, writing "Nothing on The Opaque Brotherhood will convince anyone who isn't already a fan, but the tormented lyrics and matter-of-fact delivery remove a layer or two of distance and artifice from the band's familiar themes, and make them that much more disturbing as a result."

Music and lyrics

Kimberly Chun of the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

described Dark Lotus' musical style as a mixture of "dub

Dub music

Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...

, goth

Gothic rock

Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...

, metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

, shock rock and hip-hop, with a WWF

World Wrestling Entertainment

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...

 announcer's delivery and shuffling stoner beats thrown in for good measure." Much of Dark Lotus' lyrics revolve around the occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

.

Discography

• Tales from the Lotus Pod
  Tales From The Lotus Pod
  Tales from the Lotus Pod is the first album by American hip hop group Dark Lotus. Released in 2001, the album featured the first and only appearance of former member Marz, who was soon dismissed from the group. Mike E. Clark was brought in to produce the album, but left the project after producing...
  
  (2001)
• Black Rain (2004)
• The Opaque Brotherhood (2008)
• TBA (2012)