Welcome to Hell. Why did you choose this?
Hell's Pit is a 2004 album by the Hip-Hop duo Insane Clown Posse and the Darker and Edgier follow-up to 2002's The Wraith: Shangri-La. It is their second album after Carnival of Carnage to not use the word "Juggalo", because, in Violent J's words, "I don't want to see one motherfuckin' Juggalo in Hell's Pit."The album completesnote ICP's Joker's Cards Concept Album saga. Every song's lyrics are about death, with the emphasis on Hell rather than Shangri-La. The songs are predominately Murder Ballads. The lyrics emphasize the darker and more evil side of Horrorcore, in contrast to the lighter Pop Rap approach taken in the lyrics of the Shangri-La album. Additionally, the album's style is minimalist Hip-Hop, in contrast to the Rap Rock sound of Shangri-La. It also features zero Special Guest appearances, with Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope serving as the only rappers delivering verses on the entire album, due to the gravity of the messaging they are trying to deliver. As a result, Hell's Pit is one often one of ICP's best-reviewed releases.
Track listing
- "Intro"
- "Walk into the Darkness"
- "Suicide Hotline"
- "C.P.K.'s"
- "Truly Alone"
- "Everyday I Die"
- "The Night of the 44"
- "The Witch"
- "Bowling Balls"
- "24"
- "Burning Up"
- "Sedatives"
- "In My Room"
- "Basehead Attack"
- "Angels Falling"
- "Manic Depressive"
- "Real Underground Baby"
Walk into the Dark Tropes:
- Arc Number: Like the previous album, this album only has 17 tracks, which is the number of copies that ICP's first album sold upon initial release.
- Boisterous Weakling: The Witch is never shown to have any supernatural powers, relying solely on lies and trickery to get it's way.
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Bonus Material: One of two DVD's are randomly packaged with different copies of the album, giving buyers either a copy of their longform Music Video Bowling Balls or a Concert DVD with the Music Video for "Real Underground Baby" included as a bonus feature. - Concept Video: ICP have often said they were influenced by Michael Jackson, and on this album's track "Bowling Balls", they decided to follow Michael's influence into visual medium by making the music video a short Horror Comedy Slasher Movie in which Shaggy 2 Dope plays a mentally impaired hunchback who likes to decapitate people with his brother Violent J at their Hatcehtman-themed Bed and Breakfast.
- Consummate Liar: Unfortunately for those the Witch tries to tempt, it is really good at lies and trickery.
- Darker and Edgier: Hell's Pit is often better reviewed than other releases in ICP's catalog due to the much darker and mostly serious tone, with very little of the Black Comedy that defined most of ICP's previous recordings, with ICP aiming for straight up Horror instead of the Horror Comedy they're known for.
- Distinct Double Album: With The Wraith: Shangri-La, which was about Heaven, in contrast to this album, which is about Hell. The two albums were released separately with similar cover art. The slipcover of Hell's Pit has a different illustration depicting J and Shaggy in Hell in a Comic Book art style.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: The song "Every Day I Die" describes waking up every day in Hell, murdering people horrifically, getting horrifically murdered yourself, and then waking up to do more of the same. Every day is different, but it doesn't get any less horrible.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: The Hell's Pit cover depicts the Good Wraith trying to pull you out of Hell into Shangri-La, while the Shangri-La album depicts thy Bad Wraith trying to pull you into Hell.
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Heartwarming Moments: Violent J is about to commit suicide at the end of "Suicide Hotline", but he is interrupted by a phone call from his girlfriend to make a date with him, and he decides that life is worth living after all. - I Love the Dead: On "Bowling Balls", Violent J likes to collect human heads. He told his therapist about it and he was okay with it, he just wanted a couple of heads for himself. Oh and in case you're thinking that J had nothing to do with how the people the heads belonged to died, that he might just be picking them up from morgues or something, he then reveals that his therapist's head is on one of his shelves, meaning their entire conversation was all in his head.
- Medley: "Real Underground Baby" is a 13 minute DJ megamix of memorable ICP songs against what one reviewer described as a "booty beat".note
- New Sound Album: Their previous album was guitar-heavy Rap Rock with Pop Rap lyrical themes, while Hells Pit is predominantly minimalist Horror Synth-driven Hip-Hop, the instrumentation mostly consisting of programmed beats and synthesizer parts with minimal Sampling, with only a few tracks featuring electric guitar, giving the album a more unnerving quality compared to the fun energy of the Shangri-La album. It also almost entirely lacks the Comedy of their previous recordings.
- Nightmare Fuel: The intro is an auditory trip into Hell.
- The very first song on the album "Walk Into The Darkness". Violent J's verse describes him decapitating a mule and shooting up a school with the mule head on his head, and Shaggy's verse has him shooting up a funeral and burning down the place, and both of these events are happening in the name of The Witch.
- "Everyday I Die": J and Shaggy wake up each day, try to make it through the darkness of Hell, cannot die, but still feel pain. It's particularly worse when Shaggy is basically being eaten alive by demons.* "The Witch", a full description of the devil's (successful) lies and manipulations of J and Shaggy.
- The shock therapy sounds in "Sedatives"
- "In My Room" with lots of Yandere goodness. J is involved with a ghost girl and they hang out a lot in his room. One night, he murders one of his mother's cats because it scared her. It certainly doesn't help that you actually hear a cat yowling during the verse. The girl is obviously freaked out by his behavior and runs away. Then she tells him that she was seen by a neighbor's kid and he proceeds to brutally murder the kid and his parents. It doesn't help that the song leaves it ambiguous as to what the girl actually is: a ghost? A demon? A hallucination? And on top of all of that, the girl never comes back, forcing him to realize he's just killed those people for nothing.
- "Basehead Attack" describes zombie baseheads coming out of the grave begging for change and J and Shaggy attacking seemingly-undying crack addicts.
- Sampled Up: One reviewer completely misidentified the sample on "Bowling Balls", which was lifted from Public Enemy's instrumental "Security of the First World", which in turn samples "Funky Drummer" by James Brown. Allmusic incorrectly identifies the song as being sampled from Madonna's "Justify My Love", on which producer Lenny Kravitz utilized an uncredited sample from the Public Enemy instrumental.
- Sequel Song: "Night of the 44" is a sequel to the Carnival of Carnage song "Night of the Axe".
- Tear Jerker: "Angels Falling". The singer recounts how he began to shoot at the sky with any weapon he can get his hands on. The reason? The woman he loved is dead, and he can't accept it. He hopes that he can wing her and bring her back down to him.
- Vindicated by History: Negatively reviewed by some reviewers and fans at the time,.who felt that the absence of Mike E. Clark as producer hurt the album, today, Hell's Pit is seen as one of ICP's best albums, due to the Darker and Edgier approach to lyrics and effective minimalist Hip-Hop style.
