"The Juggalos Are Good," Steve Albini Declares

"I love them. I haven't heard much of the music, it's atrocious. Who cares"

Photo (left): Ryan Kostel

BY Kaelen BellPublished Feb 8, 2022

Insane Clown Posse are perhaps the most misunderstood clown-themed rap group operating today, with the Juggalo community labelled a "hybrid gang" by the FBI and accused of being associated with the 2021 Capital insurrection, among other unsavoury judgements. But at least one person out there is unabashedly pro-Juggalo, and that person, surprisingly enough, is Steve Albini

Albini — who recently had a reckoning of his own with his racially and sexually insensitive, "edgelord" past —  tweeted yesterday in response to a resurfaced quote from Violent J's 2020 interview with Stereogum, in which the rapper openly confronts and condemns some homophobic statements and racist lyrics from the duo's early days. 

"This is absolutely model owning-your-shit behaviour, and if a goddamn fucking Juggalo can manage it, a nine-figure podcaster can step the fuck up without whining," Albini tweeted, ostensibly referencing the ongoing Joe Rogan controversy

"Yes, I'm saying the Juggalos are good," Albini continued. "A non-judgmental, inclusive community for people on the fringe, built on a beautiful communion they call 'family.' They remind me of punk/queer chosen families and I love them. I haven't heard much of the music, it's atrocious. Who cares."

Fair! He goes on to say that Juggalos are "less annoying than Deadheads by an order of magnitude. Very few lawyers and CEOs for a start."

He caps off his pro-Juggalo statement by saying that "a lot about the Juggalos is dumb/laughable. So what, your life isn't? Get over yourself. The part that matters to them, that they are there for each other in material ways other communities fail at, that's the whole thing."

See Albini's tweets below, and revisit Stereogum's Violent J interview here
 

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