 Mike E. Clark
Mike worked with ICP hand in hand from day one. Quite simply put, Mike E. was the third member of the group, without a doubt. ICP even said so themselves on numerous occassions. ICP's outlandish vocals just seemed to fit perfect with MEC's wicked carny beats. It seemed like a lifetime partnership had been formed.
They worked together on album after album for almost 10 years, starting with the very first Joker's Card, Carnival of Carnage. But in the year 2000, it finally started falling apart. That year and the next was a bad time for Psychopathic, as things all over the place seemed to be turning to shit. Juggalos were turning their backs on ICP due to a little incident called Ray Day/Lienda, album sales were dropping like rocks after the Hollywood Records novelty was dying off, and Violent J was becoming more and more depressed. But one of the harshest blows was the departure of Mike E. Clark.
 The first Joker's Card, Carnival of Carnage
In his book, Violent J says that one of the biggest problems was that being in the studio with Mike E. just stopped being fun. They didn't get along, they argued, so on and so forth. They had 2 different ideas for the direction of the music. Mike E. says that the main thing that tore them apart was when Psychopathic finally built it's own recording studio, The Lotus Pod. They didn't need to come to the Funhouse Studio (MEC's studio) to record anymore and they found a new producer named Mike P. In short, he says ICP just sort of shut him out because they didn't need him anymore.
Either way, the relationship dissolved and ICP and MEC started working together less and less, until finally, they weren't making music together at all. Mike E's production would still wind up on future albums....he had his hand in a few of the songs on the Dark Lotus debut album Tales From The Lotus Pod and he produced "Wondering Why" on Twiztid's 2003 masterpiece, The Green Book, but for the most part, he was done with Psychopathic and working on his own side projects.
In 2004, Mike E. Clark teamed with Detroit rapper Prozak and together, they formed the group Project: Deadman. They also got signed to Tech N9ne's record label Strange Music. The album was entitled Self Inflicted and featured some of MEC's best beats to date. Project: Deadman's debut album, Self Inflicted.
At the Gathering in 2005, ICP announced that the producer of their next album, The Tempest would be none other than...Mike E. Clark! Mike reunited with ICP and began working on new and devestating tracks with ICP just like old times, even remixing a few 6th Joker's Card tracks for Forgotten Freshness Vol. 4.
Currently, ICP and MEC are reunited and all is right again in the Psychopathic camp.
|
