Comparing Hard Core Rap Groups like Dayton Family to Horror Rap Groups Like Dark Lotus

This best way to demonstrate the difference between hard core rap and horror rap groups would be to compare different lyrical samplings of each side by side. However, it’s smarter to start with the difference in backgrounds and mentalities of hard core rap groups like Dayton Family and horror rap groups like Dark Lotus. Dayton Family is a hard core rap group from Flint, Michigan, who named their group after one of the most crime-ridden streets in their crime-ridden city, Dayton street. That should say enough about the attitude of these hard core rappers. It’s not often that an environment such as the one Dayton Family originates from breeds anything other than gritty, honest, street-heavy rap. You won’t hear anything lighthearted in Dayton Family’s rhymes, and when they talk tough, they’re not kidding around. If there was ever any doubt about Dayton Family’s cred, said doubt vanished once founding members Bootleg (Ira Dorsey) and Backstabba (Matt Hinkle) were each incarcerated separately during the turning point in the band’s short career. These two imprisonments undoubtedly hindered the quality and quantity Dayton Family was able to produce as a hard core rap group throughout its career. Now Dark Lotus, on the other hand, is different in many respects. For one, Dark Lotus is a horror rap super group, so each one of Dark Lotus’s members was an established horror rap artist in his own right before joining up with Dark Lotus. That said, the themes present in Dark Lotus’s horror rap music really is not far off each of its individual member’s own horror rap music. For those unfamiliar, horror rap themes usually include but are not limited to death, suicide, murder, violence, Satanism, and other terrifying themes. Unlike Dayton Family, you will not see Dark Lotus rapping about the hood, drug dealing on street corners, or about cops in a derogatory fashion (at least not often). Dark Lotus’s horror rap, in contrary, is much more personal, introspective, and spiritual. Often times you can find Dark Lotus’s horror rap artists bemoaning the fact that they are still alive and wishing to die, thoughts that often travel into the supernatural with talk of souls traveling to different destinations. One common link between Dayton Family’s hard core rap music and Dark Lotus’s horror rap music is their origin. Members in both groups come from impoverished, street-centric adolescenses, and thus have much of the same fodder for their rhymes. Though they may approach these topics from two different angles in horror rap and hard core rap, when you boil it down, Dark Lotus and Dayton Family are the way they are for very similar reasons! Resource Box The Dayton Family, one of hard core rap’s most notorious Midwestern groups, and Dark Lotus, arguably the largest horror rap super group of its kind in the world (definitely in the Midwest), may write different styles of music, but they come from similar backgrounds. To learn more about Dark Lotus and their music, please visit http://hatchetgear.com/bands/darklotus.html.

How Dark Lotus Brings the Juggalo Family Together

There are super groups (groups comprised of one or more musicians that are successful in their own right) in every musical genre. Recent examples of such include Them Crooked Vultures (Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal), Velvet Revolver (Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, Slash of Guns n’ Roses, + more), and Broken Social Scene who have so many members it would take the entire page to list them all. You may have noticed that all of these super groups are in the rock or indie rock vein, and that’s true for most super groups throughout history, except for those Psychopathic Records super groups appreciated by the Juggalo family! Yes, there are indeed super groups that the Juggalo family approves of because they’re made up of Psychopathic Records recording artists. Psychopathic Rydas is one that receives a decent amount of attention from the Juggalo family, but Dark Lotus (made up of Psychopathic Records artists Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid and Blaze Ya Dead Homie) is the Psychopathic Records supergroup that receives the most attention. And don’t think for a second that they’re not appreciative! Find an excerpt from Dark Lotus song "Juggalo Family" below that details how much they owe and how connected they feel to the Juggalo family. So many people in the matrix die alone, hey Not me, my soul belongs to Juggalos, they Keep me going when I’m down and out I pick up the phone drop them a line and hear them shout Saying Twiztid is the shit, and I’m down with the clown Dark Lotus for life until I’m dead in the ground I give a shout to all my homies and killers who get it started All my Juggalos always representing for the departed That verse alone represents how Monoxide child of Twiztid feels towards the Juggalo family, and you can believe they respect him more for airing out his true feelings. Now it would be one thing if Monoxide Child was doing this on his own as a solo Psychopathic Records artist, but when you factor in the other Psychopathic Records members of Dark Lotus who more or less give the same message to the Juggalo family, it grows even stronger. Considering Dark Lotus has been a Psychopathic Records super group since 1998, it’s looking like, at least for now, Dark Lotus will not suffer the same fate as its super group contemporaries. However, Dark Lotus’ last album, The Opaque Brotherhood, was released by Psychopathic Records in 2008 so they should probably deliver something in the near future to keep the Dark Lotus love strong from the Juggalo family. Maybe Dark Lotus will get their act together after ICP releases The Mighty Death Pop! later this year, the biggest Psychopathic Records release in years. Resource Box Psychopathic Records super group Dark Lotus has been a favorite of the Juggalo family ever since they formed in 1998. To learn more about Dark Lotus and see what Dark Lotus merchandise is available, please visit http://www.hatchetgear.com.