Guess who's coming to your big town.
"Jugglers, come out to play-ay!
—Opening line of "Kiss the Clown" (and the extended play)
Beverly Kills 50187 is a 1993 Horrorcore extended play by the Detroit Hip-Hop act Insane Clown Posse. This was their last release as a trio, and subsequent albums would reform ICP as a duo consisting of Violent J and 2 Dope (later ''Shaggy'' 2 Dope). On this EP, John Kickjazz was replaced by short-lived member Greez-E, who subsequently quit ICP, making "In the Haughhh!" the only ICP song he was ever featured on.
Despite being named as a parody of a now-forgotten Soap Opera from The '90s that was once very popular but completely obscure to modern audiences, Beverly Kills 50187 is one of ICP's best-reviewed releases, owing to its sampledelic production style, which many see as an improvement over the Horror Synth-driven sound of their debut album, Carnival of Carnage.
This album marked the start of a recurring event within ICP's discography where, inbetween the main "Joker's Cards", ICP would release several "sideshow" releases that were not a part ofnote ICP's "Joker's Card" saga.
Track listing
- Kiss the Clown / Beverly Kills 50187
- 17 Dead / Ink Town Posse
- The Stalker / Phone Messages
- Interlude / In the Haughhh!
- Chop! Chop! (featuring Esham)
- Joke Your Mind / Hidden Track
Beverly Kills 50187 exhibits examples of the following tropes:
- Arc Number: "17 Dead". 17 was the number of copies that Carnival of Carnage sold on it's first day of release.
- Artifact Title: The title of the EP is a parody of what was, in 1993, an inescapably popular Teen Drama called Beverly Hills, 90210. The show has been off the air for ages and is probably not known to anyone under the age of 30, but even though you might not have any idea what the title is even referring to, please believe me that it was this super huge show in 1993 and everyone was talking about it back then.
- Bowdlerise: On "Chop! Chop!", Esham's line "I gotta catch these carnival thrills, newborn bloody babies' heads I drill" was too extreme, even for ICP, so they simply reversed the offensive line.
- Call-Back: The opening line of the Title Track is "Stop the bus, Violent J comes out, barrels to your face, and blow your fucking face off" — which is nearly the same as the opening lines to "Your Rebel Flag".
- Cop Killer: The zip code of J and 2 Dope's Beverly Hills nightmare is a combination of 5-0, slang for law enforcement, and 187, which is the police code for murder. Ergo, 50187 means "Cop Killer".
- Cover Version: Jumpsteady recorded a cover of "Joke Ya Mind" years later.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Violent J may be a serial killer, but he is not a rapist. Rape is too low a crime for even him.
- Hidden Track: "Kiss the Clown" is the first song on the EP, but is not listed on the artwork or indexed. "17 Dead" is followed by another Hidden Track called "Ink Town Posse". "The Stalker" has a Hidden phone message from a man who
was really stalking Violent J's then-girlfriend at the time. There's an unnamed Hidden Interlude indexed at the start of "In the Haughhh!" After "Joke Ya Mind", the instrumental of the Hidden Track from "The Stalker" reprises. - Insane Troll Logic: On the Title Track, Violent J tries to convince Kelly to have sex with him before he kills her, then backs off because, in his words, "I'm not a raper". But he's holding her hostage and he's made it clear that he's still going to murder her even if she has sex with him, so the whole scenario kind of throws consent out of the window, because he didn't hide the fact that he was planning to murder her, and started his conversation with her by insulting her and saying that her vagina smells bad. She would have consented to having sex with him if he just used his charm on her instead of saying her private parts smelled and flat out told her he was going to murder her. He still could have murdered her afterwards, and had consensual sex with her, but he had to tell her her neden's smelly and he's going to kill her.
- New Sound Album: Carnival of Carnage featured a sparse, Horror Synth-driven Hip-Hop sound with minimal Sampling, while this EP is more aligned sound wise with the sampledelia of other Detroit Hip Hop acts at the time, like Esham, Natas, Kid Rock,note House of Krazeesnote and Eminem's single under the name Soul Intent.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: "The Stalker". Violent J's real life girlfriend was actually being stalked by a creep who kept harassing her with unsolicited phone messages all the time. His actual messages appear as a hidden track after the end of the song.
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Retroactive Recognition: The "swing, swing, swing and chop, chop chop" hook from "Chop! Chop!" was sampled from Ice Cube's "Horny Lil' Devil". In 2012, Cube himself recorded a verse for a remix of ICP's song "Chris Benoit". - Sampling: An especially interesting example occurs in the title track, where the love song Shaggy is playing on the stereo as he murders a woman by drowning her in a fish tank is actually a slowed down version of The Archies' hit Bubblegum single "Sugar, Sugar
".- "Chop! Chop!" flips a sample of Bernie Worrell's keyboard playing from Funkadelic's "Atmosphere" into Creepy Circus Music.
- Similarly Named Works: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti has a song called "Beverly Kills (Freaks With Golden Heirs)", released in 2010.
- Special Guest: Esham has a verse on "Chop! Chop!", which he produced. He also co-produced "17 Dead" with Violent J.
- Surprisingly Improved Sequel: This has significantly better reviews than Carnival of Carnage, owing to ICP Growing the Beard, finding their footing more in a sampledelia-oriented production style,note and is lyrically and vocally more aligned with the style ICP are known for, compared to their debut. Violent J uses the word Juggalo on record for the first time and the production uses more sound effects, giving the recording a vibe that's closer to the cartoon without visuals vibe ICP are known for than the Minimal Synth-driven Hip Hop sound of their debut.
- Tear Jerker: "Joke Ya Mind" is about a homeless clown who prefers to sleep because he has a better life in his dreams than in the real world where he has no money, no girlfriend and the world hates him. He's woken up by a robber who shoots him because he has no money.
- Title Track: After the unlisted Hidden Track "Kiss the Clown", we get "Beverly Kills", an extensive parody of Beverly Hills, 90210 where Violent J and 2 Dope fall asleep watching the show and dream that they're students in the fictional high school where the show is set and murder every one of the show's characters, who they perceive as Rich Bitches.
- Unintentional Period Piece: This recording's title and Title Track are references to Beverly Hills, 90210, which in 1993 was a massive hit that a lot of people either watched or knew about. Decades later, no one even remembers the TV show or any of the characters ICP are referencing, so while ICP feel that the recording musically and lyrically still hold up, the actual Beverly Hills, 90210 satire is incredibly dated.
- X Meets Y: Shaggy 2 Dope described "Beverly Kills" as "the Bohemian Rhapsody of rap", comparing it to Queen's Progressive Rock classic.
