Steve 'Flash' JuonTo date we’ve only talked about Twiztid tangentially. I reviewed a Jamie Madrox solo album, and both he and Paul Monoxide have had cameos on other albums I covered, but “The Darkness” is our first review of the two together under their own name. Why this particular release? Well they’ve got almost two dozen full length albums, so if I’m being honest with you, I picked up an imaginary dart and threw it blindfolded. It happened to land here. If you’re one of the members of this group though it would be just as likely to land in someone’s skull. Okay — that would have to be a big heavy lawn dart, but you get the point. “The Darkness” they revel in is being purposefully macabre.
By their own admission Monoxide and Madrox are “A Little Fucked Up.” Thanks to the Jake One production this song was an instant win, and given this album is currently in the latter half of their catalogue, there’s no doubt Twiztid fans saw it the same way. Whether we admit it or not a lot of what gets said on rap songs is a comic exaggeration of reality for the sake of entertainment. Twiztid is more honest about that than most — they put on the clown paint and become Pennywise personified. At the start the group may have drawn inspiration from their label mates (and label owners) ICP, but “Boogieman” proves them perfectly capable of carrying that torch on their own.
Actually to hear Violent J tell it “inspiration” isn’t the right word. In an interview with Bootleg Kev he insists that ICP created Twiztid out of whole cloth. “Fuck ’em. I ain’t never been betrayed harder, in my life. It was a fucking physical pain the way those muh’fuckers betrayed me. I made them. I gave them the name. They didn’t have paint on — they were two other rappers. We signed them, put the paint on, created them. They got insane talent… but, we created that.” This is where I’m going to throw my hands up and admit I’m not that intimately acquainted with Juggalo politics. Do ICP fans hate Twiztid as vehemently as Mr. Bruce does? Is the opposite true? No clue. I do know they’re successful enough to film music videos like “F.T.S.” that look better than some Blumhouse horror films.
As a reviewer I can say I find no reason for them to be on opposite sides other than for the sake of drama to stir up record sales. If you came up with ICP, you came up with Twiztid, and there are so many mutual artists between them you’d have to start choosing sides at random. Do you feel like Blaze Ya Dead Homie “betrayed” the Insane Clown Posse too? He left Psychopathic Records. He releases music on Malik Ninja Entertainment. He appears on “A Place in the Woods.” Are all of them betrayers or were they simply making business decisions to focus on themselves and grow their own brands? Joseph Bruce sounds bitter — and maybe he has a right to be — but all the fans care about is the music.
As for that music, “The Darkness” is a bit much. The extended version, the one I listened to and linked to in this review, is nearly an hour long. The irony of a song on this album being called “On and On” isn’t lost on me. Stalwart producer Seven makes tracks like that one sing, but it comes back to the performances of Monoxide and Madrox at the end of the day. The latter has an incredibly gritty voice, and Monoxide unintentionally betrays that he’s not super diverse with his topics on songs like “Back to Hell.” Calling himself “stagnant” is one of the biggest self-owns I can imagine.
“I grew up on the madness, murder and sadness
So it’s really no wonder what my life is
Come and get me, call me tragic
Stuck and I’m stagnant like metal on a magnet”
Listen — this is not the worst album I’ve listened to. It’s not even in the bottom 100. The production is solid throughout, there are a few genuinely dope tracks, and Twiztid plays the roles they were born to perform to their fullest. Whatever Violent J says about creating them doesn’t take away the fact that Monoxide and Madrox grew into those roles to the point they outgrew their original home. I think if you were already a fan of the group going in “The Darkness” would be perfectly acceptable. If you were a newcomer or not a fan of horrorcore going in I think it would be a tough sell. They don’t reinvent the wheel here, they just keep rolling.