Ringmaster: Вторая карта Джокера

the Insane Clown Posse album

Ringmaster is the second studio album by American hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse, and their second Joker Card in the first Deck of the Dark Carnival mythology. It was originally released on January 28, 1994 via Psychopathic Records and was reissued in 1998 through Island Records. Recording sessions took place at 313 Studio in Detroit. Production was handled by Mike E. Clark and ICP themselves. It features guest appearances from Capitol E and Jumpsteady. The album's lyrics describe the leader of the Carnival, who serves as one of the judges of one's soul in the afterlife, as being created from the listener's own evils. The album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on June 7, 2004 for selling 500,000 units in the United States. Its promotional single, "Chicken Huntin'" was remixed and featured on the duo's third studio album, Riddle Box, which was released the following year. Another remix of the song appeared on the soundtrack album to Reginald Hudlin's 1996 film The Great White Hype.

Following a dream by group member Violent J in which "spirits in a traveling carnival appeared to him", Insane Clown Posse created the mythology of the Dark Carnival. The Carnival, a metaphoric limbo in which the lives of the dead await to be judged, was planned to be elaborated through a series of stories called Joker's Cards, each of which offers a specific lesson designed to change the "evil ways" of listeners before "the end consumes us all." The group also released their first EP, Beverly Kills 50187, in 1993. When they felt the building anticipation for the second Joker's Card, the duo began work on Ringmaster. 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 wicked inside of one's self. Ringmaster is the overseer of the Carnival of Carnage. He is created through one's own sins, and is one of several who will judge whether a soul is worthy to enter heaven or doomed to eternal hell.

"My Fun House" samples the bass line of the song "Bullet in the Head" by Rage Against the Machine. "Who Asked You" contains a small part of the song "Nobody's Fault" by Aerosmith. "Get Off Me Dog" samples Spice 1's "Trigga Happy" from 187 He Wrote. The psychedelic rock band Gong track "You Can't Kill Me" is sampled on "For The Maggots", whose opening flute note comes from Gong's "Bambooji", while the melody of "Ringmaster's Word" comes from the closing notes of Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies", as well as "The Dead One", which samples Gong's "Selene" and "Who Asked You" which samples the flute from "Oily Way".

Ringmaster's popularity enabled Insane Clown Posse to sell out larger nightclubs across their hometown of Detroit, Michigan such as St. Andrews Hall and the State Theatre. During a concert in 1993, Bruce threw an open bottle of Faygo at a row of concertgoers who were giving them the finger. After receiving a positive response, J and 2 Dope since continued to spray Faygo onto audiences. The idea was later scrapped due to their label at the time, Hollywood Records, rejecting the track for its violent lyrics, as they would with several of the group's other songs. The re recording was released on Insane Clown Posse's compilation album Forgotten Freshness Volumes 1 & 2.