Underground hip hop group Dayton Family is often associated with horror rap outfit Insane Clown Posse because they are signed to ICP’s Hatchet House Records. Although Hatchet House is really nothing more than a holding stall for artists Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope think will be the next big thing in underground hip hop, many old Dayton Family fans take this to mean the ICP has faith that Dayton Family will soon be on the top of the charts, and thanks to the support ICP has given them. While that’s a fair assumption to make in some respects, be careful with the amount of sound similarities you think Dayton Family (traditional underground hip hop) and ICP (horror rap) have. For one, Dayton Family, at least when they were up and coming in the mid 90s, were not a horror rap group. They were a more traditional underground hip hop group whose lyrics touched on themes of survival in an economically challenged environment. There is little talk about the morbid content covered heavily in ICP’s horror rap songs. For proof, let’s take a look at some examples from one prominent ICP horror rap song and one prominent Dayton Family underground hip hop song. ICP’s "Chicken Huntin’" Horror Rap: Barrels in your mouth, bullets to your head The back of your neck’s all over the shed Boomshacka boom chop chop band I’m 2 Dope and it ain’t no thang To cut a chicken, trigger’s clicking Blow off his head but his feet still kicking Last as long as you can my man Cause when that chicken head hits the fan you got Blood guts fingers and toes Sitting front row at the chicken show so… As you can see, these lyrics are vile to say the least. Furthermore, it’s pretty obvious that ICP doesn’t expect you to take these horror rap lyrics seriously, they’re plainly meant to be funny and for novelty purposes only. Despite the fact that both Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope come from backgrounds similar to Dayton Family, they choose to make funny horror rap songs in most instances instead of more traditional underground hip hop songs. Dayton Family’s "F.B.I." Underground Hip Hop: I'm wakin’ up in the mornin’, with problems on my mind Motherf*ck the education and drug rehabilitation I'm smokin’ on that weed and the green is getting’ tasty Dead feds in my closet cause they tried to chase me These are the opening lines to Dayton Family’s "F.B.I.", and the paint a completely different picture than the horror rap lyrics do right off the bat. With much of underground hip hop’s themes similar to those mentioned above in the Dayton Family song, it would appear that they are not the anomaly, ICP and their horror rap is. So, to say that underground hip hop group Dayton Family will be the next big thing in horror rap because of ICP taking them under its wing would be misguided. Chances are that, if Dayton Family does regain the momentum it once had, it will be because they’re bringing back the same gritty street lyrics that once made them popular, not because they crossed genres into horror rap. However, as is the path for an successful artist signed to Hatchet House, if Dayton Family does get their career back on track, they will most likely end up being signed to horror rap record label Psychopathic Records, where every artist as a horror rap artist. None are mainstream underground hip hop like Dayton Family. Keeping that in mind, it would not shock anyone if Dayton Family and the horror rap heads in charge at Psychopathic found a way to make a hybrid sound by combining both horror rap and the underground hip hop Dayton Family is known for! Resource Box Dayton Family is an underground hip hop group from Flint, Michigan, who is trying to get their career back on track with the help of Psychopathic subsidiary Hatchet House Records. To learn about other underground hip hop artists on Psychopathic Records and those who run it, please visit http://hatchetgear.com.
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