Steve 'Flash' JuonLet’s start with a simple question — is Boondox a Psychopathic Records artist or not? The question might be simple but the answer is anything but. According to the lore David Hutto was selling his own album at an Insane Clown Posse concert and his hustle caught the attention of Joseph “Violent J” Bruce, who subsequently offered him a deal with the label, making him the first Southern rap artist on the Michigan based imprint. ICP’s Joseph “Shaggy 2 Dope” Utsler would then help him develop the Boondox identity before his official debut in 2006 with “The Harvest.” While it didn’t crack the Billboard Top 200, it did well enough independently for the relationship to continue for many years afterward. The “Seven (Remix)” on “PunkinHed” is a revisit of a track from that debut.
Not all relationships last though. He left Psychopathic in 2012 to explore his “Turncoat Dirty” persona, his return was announced at Gathering of the Juggalos 2013, and by 2015 he had already left again to join Malik Ninja Entertainment, a label run by Jamie Madrox and Monoxide of Twiztid. It’s not coincidental that they are former Psychopathic artists themselves and would want to work with like-minded individuals on their imprint. I need to be perfectly clear though so nobody gets it twisted (pun intended) – Twiztid have stated multiple times they have no beef with ICP or Psychopathic. They were with the label for 15 years and their time together had run its course. So far as I know there’s no beef between Boondox and ICP either.
“Southern Nights” does illustrate that he was a strange fit for Psychopathic though. While his persona was crafted to fit into the anti-mainstream Juggalo lifestyle, Hutto was a Georgia boy whose “drunk in the Waffle House” lyrics were “knee deep in the swamps” complete with banjos and harmonicas. He has more in common with Bubba Sparxxx than any of his labelmates. He attempts to get as dark and gothic as the rest of his homies on songs like “Suffering” and is convincing enough to pass. It’s the kind of macabre tale that wouldn’t be out of place on an ICP album.
“I looked down at the ground I saw her blood drip
Had to get her back fast, couldn’t lose her on the trip
So many things that I needed us to do
I call it love, others might call it taboo”
There’s one other from the Boondox debut on this album — “Praying with Snakes.” If you took away the two remixes you could consider it an extended play and not a full length, but given how many “albums” are under 24 minutes these days, it could go either way when you factor them in. On the whole I find Boondox to be competent enough to be a Psychopathic or a Malik Ninja artist. His Georgia accent certainly lends character to either roster, but the lyrics and delivery are neither great nor terrible. The curse of ICP is that they have more personality than almost anybody they signed, so even when they have sub-par lyrics their “rizz” makes them exceptionally entertaining. I didn’t hate “PunkinHed” but I don’t find myself eager to revisit it. If Boondox came up in a mix I wouldn’t skip over his track the first time, but if it came up a second time I probably would.