@nichobert said:

"Some of their songs are just incredibly violent and abhorrent"

Some movies are incredibly violent and abhorrent too. We (hopefully) don't jump to the conclusion that the people making them are actually championing such ideas.

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I've almost finished with "You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me" and find the author's descriptions of Phish and its community seeking ecstatic transcendance in the music -- coming from a former skeptic and critic who decided to immerse himself in the culture and actually listen to the music -- was dead on and that the author "gets it".

I knew very little about ICP and its music and community except for the stereotypic knee jerk derision they provide among many, but after reading Rabin's book came away with a much more sympathetic and positive take on the band. Their gatherings aren't so different than Phish festivals, where "outsiders" to white-bread culture find community among like-minded people.

As to violence in the lyrics, this passage from late in the book is instructive:

After Cube's performance, we headed into the wresting tent and talked to another man who defied stereotypes regarding Juggalos. He was a steelworker by day and a wrestler by night.

He seemed more interested in (Rabin's girlfriend) than in me, but when she went to the bathroom he offered a surprisingly sophisticated critique of the Juggalo's ethos. He began by saying ICP is a metaphysical anomaly within the music industry because unlike the Grateful Dead, its central ethos is not about worshipping the source of the music; it's bigger than that. It's not just a way of thinking, it's an ideology devoid of the specifics, that, in his mind at least, get in the way of of the purity of a simple idea like "Be good to others" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

"ICP is totally fake", he said, "And they're totally upfront with that. All those other rappers, they're pretending they're whatever their personas are supposed to be, but ICP, they come right out and tell you it's all an act."

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I didn't learn much I didn't know about Phish fandom, but came away from Rabin's book with a much better understanding of where ICP and Juggalos are coming from and the similarities with our cultural fringe being greater than our differences. I highly recommend Rabin's book. A good, quick summer read.