With so many Insane Clown Posse albums having been released over the course of the last 20+ years, there are bound to be a few that fall through the cracks. The Insane Clown Posse album titled Featuring Freshness is one of those albums. There are a few reasons Featuring Freshness did indeed fall through the cracks, but that doesn't mean it deserved to be forgotten.
Underground rap music is a genre in which collaboration with other underground rap musicians abounds. Some might say that there is more inter-genre collaboration within underground rap music than there is in any other genre.
For instance, underground rap musicians often times produce each other's albums, write each other's beats, invite each other to rap verses on one another's tracks, and so on. One can see the visual manifestation of this practice in underground rap music videos where rappers and their collaborators, or non-collaborative posse members, often appear together.
Perhaps the most collaborative product flowing through the underground rap music game is the mixtape album, or compilation album. These collections of various artists' work exist to showcase the best of the best in one place. The Insane Clown Posse album, Featuring Freshness, is one of these albums.
If this is the first time you're hearing of Featuring Freshness, don't be alarmed. It didn't make much of a splash when released because when you get to the level of success that ICP enjoys, side-project type releases like Featuring Freshness often aren't promoted as heavily as pure Insane Clown Posse albums (those Insane Clown Posse albums where all songs were written and performed by ICP).
However, if you're a Juggalo, then surely you're aware of Featuring Freshness. Sure, it might not be as exciting to listen to for the first time as an Insane Clown Posse album containing new music would be, but for long time Juggalos Featuring Freshness is the next best thing.
As you might expect, Insane Clown Posse being stalwarts in the underground rap music game for more than 2 decades, they've amassed a lot of collaborations over the course of every Insane Clown Posse album they've released. Featuring Freshness is the home for the best of those collaborations off all Insane Clown Posse albums. Instead of taking the time to sort through all Insane Clown Posse albums and pick your favorite collaborations from each, Featuring Freshness does the work for you and lists 30 of these tracks.
Featuring Freshness does more than just compile all your favorite underground rap music compilations involving ICP. More importantly, it paints a picture of the various artists that have had influence on ICP and all their Insane Clown Posse albums over the years, from horror rap juggernauts Twiztid and ABK to mainstream superstars like Snoop Dogg and Ice-T.
Insane Clown Posse albums that are entirely created by Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope undoubtedly have their own place in the Insane Clown Posse album discography, but so do these one-off compilation albums. And they might stand for more than you think!
Insane Clown Posse albums are always received in different ways by different members of the underground rap music community, and some Insane Clown Posse albums are hardly recognized upon their release, like Featuring Freshness. To learn more about Insane Clown Posse albums and their underground rap music, please visit http://www.hatchetgear.com/bands/icp.html.
