The Amazing Jeckel Brothers
Encyclopedia
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 group's Dark Carnival
mythology. The album's lyrics focus on the 9 circles of hell, and the morality of man as he is torn between righteousness and evil, describing the Jeckel Brothers as spirits who juggle fire balls, representing the sins committed during the mortal life of the dead. For your fate of the light or darkness.
The Amazing Jeckel Brothers was the second studio album Insane Clown Posse released by Island, and features a more hip hop
-based sound, as opposed to the rock
-oriented sound of its predecessor, The Great Milenko
(1997). The Amazing Jeckel Brothers features guest appearances by rappers Ol' Dirty Bastard
and Snoop Dogg
, and additional contributions by The Jerky Boys and Twiztid
. It debuted at number four on the Billboard
charts and was later certified platinum
by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA).
sub-label Battery in 1995, Insane Clown Posse (ICP) attempted to find a new record label. Manager Alex Abbiss negotiated a contract with the Walt Disney Company
-owned label Hollywood Records
, which reportedly paid US$1 million to purchase the Insane Clown Posse contract from Battery/Jive Records.
After recording and releasing The Great Milenko
, Insane Clown Posse was notified that Hollywood Records had deleted the album within hours of its release, despite having sold 18,000 copies and reaching #63 on the Billboard 200
. It was later revealed that Disney was being criticized by the Southern Baptist Church
. The church claimed Disney was turning its back on family values
.
In due time, labels such as Interscope Records
wanted to sign the group, but Island Records
' Chris Blackwell
came to the group's rescue and agreed to release The Great Milenko as it was originally intended. Thanks to the controversy, and additional promotion by Island, over one million copies of The Great Milenko had been sold by 1998, and Insane Clown Posse was ready for the fifth Joker's Card, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers.
and Rich "Legs Diamond" Murrell, Joseph Bruce
and Joseph Utsler
developed their album with the highest of hopes. Hoping to receive the respect Bruce and Utsler felt they deserved, they planned to feature well-known, respected rappers on their album. Bruce stated outright that he wanted to involve Snoop Dogg
, Ol' Dirty Bastard
, and Ice-T
. Snoop Dogg requested that Insane Clown Posse not pay his then-current record label, No Limit Records
, and said that he would appear on the album if Bruce and Utsler gave him $
40,000 in a briefcase. Insane Clown Posse agreed, and Snoop Dogg appeared on the song "The Shaggy Show", which also featured the ska
band Gangster Fun play music before each of the song's faux commercial breaks. Snoop Dogg also helped them contact Ol' Dirty Bastard, who was paid $30,000 for his appearance. Ol' Dirty Bastard recorded his track in a matter of two days; however, his recording consisted of nothing more than him rambling about "bitches." It took Bruce and Utsler a week to assemble just four rhymes out of his rambling, and had to re-record the track and title it "Bitches", using Pro Tools
because his raps were out of synch with Clark's beat. Finally, Insane Clown Posse contacted Ice-T
. However, he charged them only $10,000. The group felt that Ice-T's song did not belong on the album, and was instead released on the compilation, Psychopathics from Outer Space (2000). The song "Echo Side" was originally released at an Insane Clown Posse concert in Garden City, Michigan
as the first ever single from Dark Lotus
.
To help increase their positive publicity, Island Records hired the Nasty Little Man
publicity team. The team set up a photo shoot for Insane Clown Posse that was to appear on the cover of Alternative Press magazine in Cleveland. On the set of the photo shoot, a member of the publicity team approached Bruce and explained that in the song "Fuck the World", the lyric that stated "Fuck the Beastie Boys
and the Dalai Lama
" needed to be changed. Insulted, Bruce exclaimed that his music would not be censored again – referring to Disney's previous requirement of censure. Nasty Little Man told Bruce that the Beastie Boys were not only clients of the company but also personal friends, and the Beastie Boys told the company to make Bruce change the lyric. In response, Bruce fired Nasty Little Man and asked its team to leave the photo shoot.
While the album's predecessor, The Great Milenko, was written and recorded in a more rock
-oriented style, featuring contributions by guitarists Slash
and Steve Jones
, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers featured a more hip hop
-oriented sound. Stephen Thomas Erlewine
of Allmusic wrote, "Where The Great Milenko [...] was targeted at white-boy, adolescent metalheads [...] The Amazing Jeckel Brothers contains cameos from Snoop Dogg and Ol' Dirty Bastard, plus a cover of a Geto Boys song, which brings [Insane Clown Posse] to street level."
To produce the album, Insane Clown Posse once again teamed up with renowned Detroit record producer
and DJ
Mike E. Clark
, who utilized standard hip hop techniques such as record scratching and samples
ranging from 1970s funk
to calliope
music. "Another Love Song" was based upon Beck
's song "Jack-Ass
", which itself derived from a sample of Bob Dylan
's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
". Bruce loved the song and wanted to rewrite it in his own style. Since Beck's song sampled the Dylan composition, Insane Clown Posse's sample was cleared with Dylan rather than Beck. Rolling Stone
writer Barry Walters wrote that Clark's production incorporates elements of "carnival organ riffs, power chord
s and shotgun blasts ... banjolike plucking and Van Halen
-esque guitar squeals."
, it also attracted Insane Clown Posse to public criticism for their style and lyrics. Bruce recalls the period as an angry era for the group due to all of the negativity directed toward them. He says that they "used to keep two piles of press at [their] office. One pile was all the positive press [they've] gotten, which was under an inch tall. Then [they] had the negative press pile, which was spilling over the side of a full basket." As a result, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers was recorded as a release for their anger.
The Amazing Jeckel Brothers focuses on the 19 circles of hell
, and the morality
of man as he is torn between righteousness
and evil
. Jack "the sinister" and Jake "the just" emerge from the flame of a candle to determine the fate of the dead. The Jeckel Brothers juggle
fire balls. For every sin
committed during the mortal life of the dead, another ball is added. Jack attempts to throw Jake curves in an attempt to see a ball drop. If a soul witnesses Jack drop one of the balls, he will be damned to hell. Souls who see Jake successfully complete the act ascend to heaven
.
. In order to promote the album, Island released multiple collectible versions of The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, emphasizing the faces of Jake or Jack Jeckel. In 2008, it achieved platinum certification
.
The album was panned by critics. NME
wrote that "the slick, dumbed-down Dungeons & Dragons
rap-rock
schtick [...] is often unbearable". College Music Journal
writer Matt Ashare described the album as "Cirque de so-lame
". Rolling Stone
writer Barry Walters gave the album two out of five stars, writing that "no musical sleight of hand can disguise the fact that Shaggy and J remain the ultimate wack MCs." In The Great Rock Discography, Martin Charles Strong gave the album four out of ten stars.
PopMatters
reviewer Brendan Maher accused Insane Clown Posse of misogyny and described The Amazing Jeckel Brothers as "music to strangle your ex-girlfriend to". Robert Christgau
gave the album a C+, writing "Though they claim clown, they rarely get funnier than 'I'd cut my head off but then I would be dead'." However, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album a four out of five star rating, writing that "[Insane Clown Posse] actually delivered an album that comes close to fulfilling whatever promise their ridiculous, carnival
esque blend of hardcore hip hop
and shock-metal
had in the first place".
Other personnel
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
group 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...
, released on May 25, 1999, by Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, in association with 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....
. Recording sessions for the album took place from 1998 to 1999. The album is the fifth Joker's Card in the group's Dark Carnival
Dark Carnival (Insane Clown Posse)
The Dark Carnival is the mythology of the concept album series used in much of Insane Clown Posse's discography. It is a concept of the afterlife in which souls are sent to a form of limbo while waiting to be sent to Heaven or Hell based on their individual actions. These concepts are related by...
mythology. The album's lyrics focus on the 9 circles of hell, and the morality of man as he is torn between righteousness and evil, describing the Jeckel Brothers as spirits who juggle fire balls, representing the sins committed during the mortal life of the dead. For your fate of the light or darkness.
The Amazing Jeckel Brothers was the second studio album Insane Clown Posse released by Island, and features a more 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...
-based sound, as opposed to the rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-oriented sound of its predecessor, The Great Milenko
The Great Milenko
The Great Milenko is the fourth studio album by American hip hop group Insane Clown Posse, released on June 25, 1997, by Hollywood Records, in association with Psychopathic Records...
(1997). The Amazing Jeckel Brothers features guest appearances by rappers Ol' Dirty Bastard
Ol' Dirty Bastard
Russell Tyrone Jones was an American rapper and occasional producer, who went by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard or simply ODB...
and Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
, and additional contributions by The Jerky Boys and 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...
. It debuted at number four 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...
charts and was later certified platinum
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA).
Background
After a tumultuous contract with Jive RecordsJive Records
Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...
sub-label Battery in 1995, Insane Clown Posse (ICP) attempted to find a new record label. Manager Alex Abbiss negotiated a contract with the Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
-owned label Hollywood Records
Hollywood Records
Hollywood Records is an American record label owned by Disney Music Group, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.-History:Hollywood Records was founded in 1989 by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner with the idea of expanding the music operations of the company and to develop and promote...
, which reportedly paid US$1 million to purchase the Insane Clown Posse contract from Battery/Jive Records.
After recording and releasing The Great Milenko
The Great Milenko
The Great Milenko is the fourth studio album by American hip hop group Insane Clown Posse, released on June 25, 1997, by Hollywood Records, in association with Psychopathic Records...
, Insane Clown Posse was notified that Hollywood Records had deleted the album within hours of its release, despite having sold 18,000 copies and reaching #63 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...
. It was later revealed that Disney was being criticized by the Southern Baptist Church
Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
. The church claimed Disney was turning its back on family values
Family values
Family values are political and social beliefs that hold the nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society. Familialism is the ideology that promotes the family and its values as an institution....
.
In due time, labels such as Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
wanted to sign the group, but Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
' Chris Blackwell
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...
came to the group's rescue and agreed to release The Great Milenko as it was originally intended. Thanks to the controversy, and additional promotion by Island, over one million copies of The Great Milenko had been sold by 1998, and Insane Clown Posse was ready for the fifth Joker's Card, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers.
Recording and production
Working with Mike E. ClarkMike 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...
and Rich "Legs Diamond" Murrell, 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...
developed their album with the highest of hopes. Hoping to receive the respect Bruce and Utsler felt they deserved, they planned to feature well-known, respected rappers on their album. Bruce stated outright that he wanted to involve Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
, Ol' Dirty Bastard
Ol' Dirty Bastard
Russell Tyrone Jones was an American rapper and occasional producer, who went by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard or simply ODB...
, and Ice-T
ICE-T
* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...
. Snoop Dogg requested that Insane Clown Posse not pay his then-current record label, No Limit Records
No Limit Records
No Limit Records was an American hip-hop record label that was founded in 1990 by hip-hop artist, Percy "Master P" Miller. It was distributed by Priority Records.-No Limit Early years:...
, and said that he would appear on the album if Bruce and Utsler gave him $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
40,000 in a briefcase. Insane Clown Posse agreed, and Snoop Dogg appeared on the song "The Shaggy Show", which also featured the ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
band Gangster Fun play music before each of the song's faux commercial breaks. Snoop Dogg also helped them contact Ol' Dirty Bastard, who was paid $30,000 for his appearance. Ol' Dirty Bastard recorded his track in a matter of two days; however, his recording consisted of nothing more than him rambling about "bitches." It took Bruce and Utsler a week to assemble just four rhymes out of his rambling, and had to re-record the track and title it "Bitches", using Pro Tools
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
because his raps were out of synch with Clark's beat. Finally, Insane Clown Posse contacted Ice-T
ICE-T
* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...
. However, he charged them only $10,000. The group felt that Ice-T's song did not belong on the album, and was instead released on the compilation, Psychopathics from Outer Space (2000). The song "Echo Side" was originally released at an Insane Clown Posse concert in Garden City, Michigan
Garden City, Michigan
Garden City is a city in Wayne County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,692. The city is part of the Metro Detroit region.- History :...
as the first ever single from Dark Lotus
Dark Lotus
Dark Lotus is an American hip hop supergroup based in Detroit, Michigan. Formed in 1998, the group consists of Psychopathic Records-associated rappers Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler of Insane Clown Posse, Jamie Spaniolo and Paul Methric of Twiztid, and Chris Rouleau.-History:Dark Lotus made its...
.
To help increase their positive publicity, Island Records hired the Nasty Little Man
Nasty Little Man
Nasty Little Man is a public relations firm based in New York City designed specifically to promote musicians and bands. It was founded in 1992 by Steve Martin, a freelance music journalist...
publicity team. The team set up a photo shoot for Insane Clown Posse that was to appear on the cover of Alternative Press magazine in Cleveland. On the set of the photo shoot, a member of the publicity team approached Bruce and explained that in the song "Fuck the World", the lyric that stated "Fuck the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
and the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
" needed to be changed. Insulted, Bruce exclaimed that his music would not be censored again – referring to Disney's previous requirement of censure. Nasty Little Man told Bruce that the Beastie Boys were not only clients of the company but also personal friends, and the Beastie Boys told the company to make Bruce change the lyric. In response, Bruce fired Nasty Little Man and asked its team to leave the photo shoot.
Musical style
While the album's predecessor, The Great Milenko, was written and recorded in a more rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
-oriented style, featuring contributions by guitarists Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
and Steve Jones
Steve Jones (musician)
Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.-Childhood:...
, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers featured a more 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...
-oriented sound. Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine is a senior editor for Allmusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for Allmusic, as well as a freelance writer, occasionally contributing liner notes. He is also frontman and guitarist for the Ann Arbor-based band Who Dat?Erlewine is the nephew...
of Allmusic wrote, "Where The Great Milenko [...] was targeted at white-boy, adolescent metalheads [...] The Amazing Jeckel Brothers contains cameos from Snoop Dogg and Ol' Dirty Bastard, plus a cover of a Geto Boys song, which brings [Insane Clown Posse] to street level."
To produce the album, Insane Clown Posse once again teamed up with renowned Detroit record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
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...
, who utilized standard hip hop techniques such as record scratching and samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
ranging from 1970s funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
to calliope
Calliope (music)
A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles....
music. "Another Love Song" was based upon Beck
Beck
Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...
's song "Jack-Ass
Jack-Ass (song)
"Jack-Ass" is a single by Beck, taken from the album Odelay. The song is based on a sample of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", performed by Them, from their 1966 album Them Again....
", which itself derived from a sample of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records . The song was originally recorded on January 15, 1965 with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass...
". Bruce loved the song and wanted to rewrite it in his own style. Since Beck's song sampled the Dylan composition, Insane Clown Posse's sample was cleared with Dylan rather than Beck. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
writer Barry Walters wrote that Clark's production incorporates elements of "carnival organ riffs, power chord
Power chord
In music, a power chord is a chord consisting of only the root note of the chord and the fifth interval, usually played on electric guitar, and typically through an amplification process that imparts distortion...
s and shotgun blasts ... banjolike plucking and Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...
-esque guitar squeals."
Lyrical themes
During the two years between The Great Milenko and The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, Insane Clown Posse had become nationally known, but were not taken very seriously. While the controversy over The Great Milenko allowed the duo to attract the attention of Island RecordsIsland Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
, it also attracted Insane Clown Posse to public criticism for their style and lyrics. Bruce recalls the period as an angry era for the group due to all of the negativity directed toward them. He says that they "used to keep two piles of press at [their] office. One pile was all the positive press [they've] gotten, which was under an inch tall. Then [they] had the negative press pile, which was spilling over the side of a full basket." As a result, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers was recorded as a release for their anger.
The Amazing Jeckel Brothers focuses on the 19 circles of hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, and the morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
of man as he is torn between righteousness
Righteousness
Righteousness is an important theological concept in Zoroastrianism, Hinduism , Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
and evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
. Jack "the sinister" and Jake "the just" emerge from the flame of a candle to determine the fate of the dead. The Jeckel Brothers juggle
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
fire balls. For every sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
committed during the mortal life of the dead, another ball is added. Jack attempts to throw Jake curves in an attempt to see a ball drop. If a soul witnesses Jack drop one of the balls, he will be damned to hell. Souls who see Jake successfully complete the act ascend to heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
.
Release and reception
The Amazing Jeckel Brothers debuted and peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200Billboard 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...
. In order to promote the album, Island released multiple collectible versions of The Amazing Jeckel Brothers, emphasizing the faces of Jake or Jack Jeckel. In 2008, it achieved platinum certification
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
.
The album was panned by critics. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
wrote that "the slick, dumbed-down Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
rap-rock
Rap rock
Rap rock is a cross-genre fusing vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock is often confused with rap metal and rapcore, subgenres that include heavy metal-oriented and hardcore punk-oriented bands, respectively....
schtick [...] is often unbearable". College Music Journal
College Music Journal
College Music Journal, commonly known as CMJ, is a music events/publishing company which hosts an annual festival in New York City, the CMJ Music Marathon, as well as a weekly magazine of and for the music industry and college radio stations in the United States and Canada. It publishes top 30...
writer Matt Ashare described the album as "Cirque de so-lame
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
writer Barry Walters gave the album two out of five stars, writing that "no musical sleight of hand can disguise the fact that Shaggy and J remain the ultimate wack MCs." In The Great Rock Discography, Martin Charles Strong gave the album four out of ten stars.
PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
reviewer Brendan Maher accused Insane Clown Posse of misogyny and described The Amazing Jeckel Brothers as "music to strangle your ex-girlfriend to". Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave the album a C+, writing "Though they claim clown, they rarely get funnier than 'I'd cut my head off but then I would be dead'." However, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album a four out of five star rating, writing that "[Insane Clown Posse] actually delivered an album that comes close to fulfilling whatever promise their ridiculous, carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
esque blend of hardcore hip hop
Hardcore hip hop
Hardcore hip hop, also referred to as hardcore rap, is a sub-genre of hip hop music that developed through the East Coast hip hop scene in the 1980s. Pioneered by such artists as Schoolly D, Spoonie Gee, Boogie Down Productions, and Kool G Rap, it is generally characterized by anger, aggression and...
and shock-metal
Shock rock
Shock rock is an umbrella term for artists who combine rock music with elements of theatrical shock value in live performances.-History:Screamin' Jay Hawkins was arguably the first shock rocker...
had in the first place".
Track listing
Personnel
Band members and production- Violent JJoseph BruceJoseph 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,...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, lyrics - Shaggy 2 DopeJoseph UtslerJoseph 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...
– vocals, lyrics - Mike E. ClarkMike E. ClarkMike 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...
– productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, programmerProgramming (music)Programming is a form of music production and performance using electronic devices, often sequencers or computer programs, to generate music. Programming is used in nearly all forms of electronic music and in most hip hop music since the 1990s. It is also frequently used in modern pop and rock...
, engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
Other personnel
- Rich "Legs Diamond" Murrell – guitar, vocals
- Snoop DoggSnoop DoggCalvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
— guest rap on "The Shaggy Show" - Ol' Dirty BastardOl' Dirty BastardRussell Tyrone Jones was an American rapper and occasional producer, who went by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard or simply ODB...
— guest rap on "Bitches" - The Jerky Boys — featured on "Bitches" and "Assassins"
- TwiztidTwiztidTwiztid 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...
— featured on "Echo Side"
Charts
| Chart | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| US 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... |
4 |
| Top Internet Albums | 5 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification (sales thresholds) |
|---|---|
| United States Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... |
Platinum |