Insane Clown Posse: Ұлы Миленко альбомының тарихы

rap metal After Hollywood terminated the group's contract, Insane Clown Posse signed a new contract with Island Records (whose parent at the time, PolyGram, distributed Hollywood releases in North America), which agreed to release the album as it was originally intended. Island then re released the album on August 12, 1997. The music of The Great Milenko features a rap metal sound The following year, Insane Clown Posse signed with the label Battery Records, a subsidiary of Jive Records. The group's manager Alex Abbiss negotiated a contract with Disney's Hollywood Records label, which reportedly paid $1 million to purchase the Insane Clown Posse contract from Battery/Jive Records. The expansion of the Juggalo fanbase into its own culture inspired Insane Clown Posse to write the songs "What Is a Juggalo?" and "Down with the Clown" for this album.

The group started recording The Great Milenko in 1996, and Violent J began thinking of a title for the album shortly after. Bruce later came up with the title The Great Milenko. Bruce also admitted that he had always liked the ring name of professional wrestler Dean Simon ("Dean Malenko"), because he felt that the name Malenko had a "carnival" sound to it. Julian Raymond, the artists and repertoire representative for Hollywood Records, contacted Slash, Steve Jones, and Alice Cooper. Bruce, who knew very little about the Sex Pistols or Steve Jones, declined to show up at the studio when Jones played his guitar part for "Piggy Pie". Although not knowing much about Alice Cooper either, Bruce decided to fly to Arizona and coach Cooper on his parts. Bruce and Clark also met George Clinton, who was staying in the same hotel, and recorded his voice in his room, but it did not fit anywhere on the album. After the recording sessions were finished, executives at Hollywood Records—and the label's parent company, Disney—expressed dissatisfaction with several tracks. Disney requested that the tracks "The Neden Game", "Under the Moon", and "Boogie Woogie Wu" be removed because of lyrics referencing abuse of women, rape and murder, and the slaughter of children, respectively. Begrudgingly, Bruce and Utsler complied with Disney's requests.

The Great Milenko is the fourth Joker's Card in Insane Clown Posse's Dark Carnival concept album series. The Dark Carnival 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 Insane Clown Posse in a series of albums called the six Joker's Cards. Each of the six Joker's Cards relate to a specific character—an entity of the Dark Carnival—that tries to "save the human soul" by showing the wickedness inside of one's self. This Joker's Card is a necromancer and illusionist who tries to trick individuals into acts of greed, envy, and lust. The Card ultimately issues a warning against such acts of sin, and enlightens listeners that The Great Milenko is a part of every individual, and that they have the power to fall under his illusions or cast his hoaxes aside. Insane Clown Posse hired renowned Detroit record producer and DJ Mike E. Clark to produce the record. Clark made the album sound more rock oriented, as opposed to the duo's earlier material, which featured a more prominent hip hop sound. The album's themes mostly revolve around those of death, morality, and everyday decisions. For instance, "How Many Times?" talks about annoying traffic jams and other everyday life inconveniences. The album's second single, "Hokus Pokus", was released in June 1997. In 1998, it peaked at number 54 on the UK Singles Chart. The group was also informed that its in store signings and 25 city nationwide tour had been canceled, commercials for the album and the music video for "Halls of Illusions" (which had reached number one on The Box video request channel) were pulled from television, and that the group was dropped from the label. Although Abbiss told the press that Disney had stopped production of The Great Milenko to avoid further controversy, Disney claimed instead that the release of the album was an oversight by their review board, and that the album "did not fit the Disney image" because of its "inappropriate" lyrics, which they claimed were offensive to women. Although Hollywood Records had ordered record stores to return shipments of the now deleted album, many record stores refused, including the Michigan based Harmony House where 1,700 CDs were sold in 36 stores after the termination order. As part of the deal, Island also agreed to rerelease the group's first two Joker's Card albums. Milenko was released in four colors: red, green, purple, and gold. Each color had a different secret message that would help reveal the title of the fifth Joker's Card, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers. A music video for the Headhuntaz Remix of "Hokus Pokus" was produced after the release of the album. The video featured appearances by Twiztid and Myzery. Blackwell left Island Records shortly after the group released Forgotten Freshness Volumes 1 & 2, and the merger of PolyGram into Universal Music Group (which owned Interscope and Geffen) affected the way the label handled its next Joker's Card release. Despite the rough start, The Great Milenko has sold well over the years. As of 2007, the album has sold over 1.7 million copies in the United States.

Entertainment Weekly music critic David Browne gave the record a C minus rating: "[With] its puerile humor and intentionally ugly metal rap tunes, the album feels oddly dated." In The Great Rock Discography, Martin Charles Strong gave the album five out of ten stars. The album received two out of five stars in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, in which Ben Sisario identified it as the album in which "the group came into its own". Although the reviews were mostly negative, some critics complimented the album's improved sound over its precursors. Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that the album was "a better record than [its] predecessors, boasting a tougher sound and some actual hooks, without losing the juvenile vulgarity that pleased their following", and added that "it is better than the rest of ICP's work".