JiggyJay's Full Review: Wizard of the Hood [EP] [PA] by Violent J
Introduction
It happens with every music artist. The Backstreet Boys had solo projects, Justin Sane of Anti-Flag had a solo project, Tom Delonge and Travis Barker of Blink-182 went on a side project that was Box Car Racer, so now it was inevitable that Violent J was gonna follow suit and make a solo album just like his best friend and band mate Shaggy 2 Dope did in 㥦 with his solo debut, Fxck Off, but is this solo CD good or bad for Violent J (real name: Joe Breezy)? Well, in Wizard Of The Hood he gets help from Shaggy, Anybody Killa, Twiztid, and Blaze Ya Dead Homie—all members of his juggalo family, so it’s not really Violent J by himself rapping—he has back up so it’s sort of like the whole family rapping just with Violent J in front seat as he has always been with Insane Clown Posse, the group that gave way to Twiztid, Esham, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, and an evil record company named Psychopathic Records which Violent J and his homie Shaggz have been in for over ten years. But Wizard Of The Hood isn’t an ICP album; it’s Violent J’s time to shine and how did he do? I think he did remarkable and hopefully he’ll make another one soon to stop my eager craving of it all.
Wizard Of The Hood, named after a song Shaggy 2 Dope and J did on their first Joker’s Card release Carnival of Carnage, was released in late July and has over-hyped on their website www.insaneclownposse.com with being released at the same time as Violent J’s autobiographical novel, Behind The Paint (named after a song on ICP’s Bizaar record), so actually, this whole month has been huge for the clown. Wizard Of The Hood is an EP. EPs are short versions of full-length albums and are sometimes released as previews of what the full length CD is going to be, but some bands release them just to say to fans that there is genius still brewing so they shouldn’t worry. EPs can be letdowns because they are so damn short spanning four songs to eight songs, but when there is a lot of goodness in the EP (like what happened with AFI’s All Hallows EP and MxPx’s The Renaissance EP), you forget, but what I can’t forget (or forgive) is how short it is. Why couldn’t they release it as a full length with the standard 15-20 songs for an Insane Clown Posse disc? There are eight songs in Wizard Of The Hood that deal with the actual storyline (talk about that in a minute), but the bonus two are sort of like the “aftermath” of what went on and just filler (but they are still really good, mind you).
There is a storyline in this CD. Well, you can call it a storyline at least. You’ve read the books, watched the movie, and seen it all over TNT for years, but haven’t ever seen it done in albums—especially rap albums—until now. Welcome to Oz, where Violent J’s house has landed on the wicked b!tch of the east and the midget munchkins worship him—until he leaves to find the wizard of Oz to get the bastard to send him back to Detroit. On the way down the yellow brick road smoking joints and getting into trouble meets a scarecrow that reminds J of Jamie Madrox and when the talking scarecrow joins him on his journey to find the wizard, he meets a tin man reminding him of Monoxide Child and a fearful lion that looks like Blaze Ya Dead Homie. The wizard? He reminds Violent J of none of than his best friend in the whole world Shaggz. The whole CD is just Violent J’s journey to get back to Detroit and the results are frighteningly hilarious. The whole CD is pretty funny. What more can you expect from Violent J since he’s the one who makes Insane Clown Posse hilarious. It’s just funny how Violent J has Twiztid the perspective of what Oz is all about and completely redefined the original Wizard of Oz movie. But there’s also the subject matter. A lot is about sex, violence, and sex, but drugs take front seat in this album. Sure, Insane Clown Posse talked about weed and stuff a little bit, but in Wizard Of The Hood, that’s all it’s about with everyone smoking blunts and whatnot. It does get annoying, but you can’t dismiss the strong elements of the CD. All of the drug talk is not my type of thing, but it may appeal to some people. Hey, Violent J even says in the liner notes that “This is the CD to smoke dope to.”
Yellow Brick Alleyway is the title track of the album and certainly my favorite song on the whole CD. It basically explains what happens after the tornado picks up J’s crack house in the second track when Violent J lands onto the wicked witch of the east and seeing how a ton of midgets are hiding and stuff. The song sort of has a carnival-tone to it with a lot of small voices talking and remixing the famous munchkin track. The amount of imagination and realistic beats really make the song the best along with nice lyrics and understandable themes that make me want to watch the movie. The ending of the song sort of bothers though with Anybody Killa repeating the chorus “take your as* down the yellow brick road, muthafuxka! Next up comes Homies 2 Smoke With, which is my second favorite song on the whole CD and is sort of like a marijuana-filled Homies and the song even features the Homies melody at the end of the song (from The Wraith: Shangri-La). The song sort of sets a serious tone, but when the lyrics start happening with the harmonicas blasting and turntables scratching with wanting someone to smoke with. The song introduces the scarecrow (Jamie Madrox) and it’s humorous with scarecrow just hanging out. The pot talk gets old quickly, but I love the chorus, melody, and beats.
Horribly Horrifying comes in at song number six and was the first song I heard from the album and it remains my favorite. After Thug Whilin’ introduces Monoxide Child as the tin man, it directly comes into the tin man, J, and scarecrow walking through the familiar, eerie woods right before they meet lion and they’re just rapping as they’re getting more scared each scared. The song is really catchy and humorous to the maximum. The chorus is probably the best on the CD and reminds me a lot of Violent J’s work with Dark Lotus. It’s hilarious when Violent J talking about taking a crap in the forest and wiping with a “magical mushroom” along with the basic introduction of the lion. I wish the song was longer…okay, next on my favorites list comes to Shiny Diamonds. I like this song because of its mature tones that differ from all of the other songs with a mellow drumbeat and Violent J rapping fast, but softly and gentle. The song is really good, but it really reminds me of an ICP song, but I don’t know why. I really don’t know. It’s certainly one of the slowest songs on the CD and the lyrics aren’t as catchy as all of the others, but it’s still fun to listen to and that’s all that counts with small humorous themes every now and then despite the serious intent. As the final track in the Oz part of the album, The Wizard’s Palace totally satisfies. Featuring Shaggy 2 Dope, it explains when J, lion, tin man, and scarecrow visiting the Wizard of the Hood. Shaggz does a great job covering the wizard’s duties, I just wish that he had a bigger part since he was mostly in the album for simple comic relief, but he still is awesome and makes the song what it is today resolving all of the problems that happened in the whole record. It’s a perfect pre-closer to the album and is comical and very hilarious. I love this song and you will too—if you know what’s good for you.
Track Listings
1. Intro [5/5]
2. Let It Rain [5/5]
3. Yellow Brick Alleyway [5/5]
4. Homies 2 Smoke With [5/5]
5. Thug Whilin’ [5/5]
6. Horribly Horrifying [5/5]
7. What U Thinkin’ About? [5/5]
8. Shiny Diamonds [5/5]
9. The Wizard’s Palace [5/5]
10. *Bonus track* Axes Swingin’ [4/5]
11. *Bonus track* Multiple Myselves [5/5]
Conclusion
Well, this review was fun to write and even funner to listen to, so I think you should do yourself a damn good favor and buy Wizard Of The Hood because this is the start of the great albums that are coming out this year. I’m positive that I’ll still be listening to this past the time when the records I’m looking forward to come out later this year and although I do regret the spiffy price tag of fifteen bucks for it. If you’re a juggalo, there should be no doubt in your mind that this is another must own CD from the boys as Juggalo records because it’s colorful, funny, unique, and different from anything I’ve ever heard before. I’d say that buying this and Violent J’s Behind The Paint book would be a great buy if you went to Borders or some other store who sells the two. I’m just hoping that Shaggy makes another solo EP or Violent J makes another one, or Insane Clown Posse release a new album soon because no matter how many albums I buy from all of these rappers—I will listen to them and love them all and I am very glad that I had the chance to listen to Violent J’s Wizard Of The Hood EP because this is the CD that I’m gonna hand down to my grandkids…okay, so maybe I won’t do that, but I’m definitely gonna cherish it until it’s broken.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![Wizard of the Hood [EP] [PA] by Violent J](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/da/89/a1/2002252915-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.