Music / The Marvelous Missing Link

Find your missing link.

The Marvelous Missing Link is a Distinct Double Album by the Hip-Hop act Insane Clown Posse released in 2015 as two separately released albums serving as the third Joker's Card of the second deck of the Dark Carnival Concept Album saga: Lost, an album of dark, serious Horrorcore songs, and Found, an album of mostly light, often comedic Progressive Pop Rap songs. The concept of the double album is that mankind is lost without faith, and must "find your missing link", which is spelled out in the intro to Lost as meaning faith in a higher power — but any faith at all, not any particular religion. The albums' lyricism showed ICP Growing the Beard as songwriters, as Violent J later told comedian Harland Williams that they had been incorrectly perceived as promoting Christianity when they released The Wraith: Shangri-La, due to J's inexperience as a songwriter in 2002. So on The Marvelous Missing Link, ICP set out to clarify that they don't think any specific religion is a path to God/Heaven, and that they want their fans to just have faith in a higher power, not to follow a specific religion, as neither member of ICP are Christians, although both believe in God.

For both albums, ICP once again parted ways with longtime producer Mike E. Clark, who previously had quit working with ICP before the development of The Wraith: Shangri-La due to a disagreement with ICP over the artistic direction of the Sixth Joker's Card of the first deck. Here, Clark and ICP departed on better terms, as Clark would mostly go into retirement. Additionally, ICP were no longer as reliant on Clark's beat-making skills as they were in The '90s, as Violent J had learned how to make beats himself, and ICP had been more reliant on live instrumentation rather than Sampling and solely programmed beats, due to the increasing costs of clearing samples making sampledelia less common in contemporary Hip-Hop.

ICP had decided to work with TechN9ne's producer Michael "Seven" Summers. Additionally, some tracks were produced by Axe Murder Boyz, as AMB member Young Wicked was an impressive Hip-Hop producer, and Mike Puwal, formerly of Zug Izland, who had previously worked with ICP on The Wraith: Shangri-La and Hells Pit, but left Psychopathic Records after Clark returned.

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Track listings

Lost:

1. "Intro"
2. "Lost"
3. "Apocalypse"
4. "Shock"
5. "Confederate Flag"
6. "Vomit"
7. "Falling Apart"
8. "How"
9. "Explosions"
10. "I'll Keep My Hatchet"
11. "Neighbors Are Fighting"
12. "You Should Know"
13. "Flamethrower"
14. "I See the Devil"

Found:

1. "Intro"
2. "Found"
3. "Get Clowned"
4. "OK"
5. "Lost at the Carnival"
6. "Mr. White Suit"
7. "Pineapple Pizza"
8. "Juggalo Party"
9. "The Midway"
10. "I Fucked a Cop"
11. "The World is Yours"
12. "Dreams of Grandeur"
13. "I'm Sweet"
14. "Time"

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These tropes are missing. They're gone!

• Darker and Edgier: Lost is a serious and dark album lacking the Comedy of ICP's other albums.
• Distinct Double Album: Lost, the first part of the double album, has a black cover, and the Missing Link's face is locked up in an Iron Maiden. Found, the second part of the double album, has a white cover, and the Missing Link's face is freed.
• Epic Rocking: The two albums' closing tracks. "I See the Devil" is 7 minutes, while "Time" is 6 minutes. Additionally, the second-to-last songs on both albums are 6 minutes long each.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: "Flamethrower" describes J and Shaggy making a homemade flamethrower and driving to a Ku Klux Klan rally to murder them as retribution for The Klan's virulent racism.
• Genre Mashup: Found was described by one reviewer as a Progressive Pop Rap album.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "You Should Know", due to Violent J's divorce from Sugar Slam, and subsequent short-lived relationship with rapper Blahzay Roze.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Many fans consider "Dreams of Grandeur" this, due to J's short-lived relationship with rapper Blahzay Roze.
• Lighter and Softer: Found is much lighter than the previous album, consisting of predominantly comedic Pop Rap songs.
• Nice Guy: Mr. White Suit is just a really cool rich guy who drives into the ghetto and gives a lot of struggling poor people money out of the kindness of his heart, a complete contrast from many of ICP's songs about Rich Bitches who are nothing but greedy, selfish and mean. This is similar to how ICP have previously given props to "the cool in the South" who despise and reject racism, despite appearing to trash Southerners in their songs, because ICP hate racists and the greedy, not Southerners and rich people in general.
• Plot-Inciting Infidelity: On "How", from the Lost album, one of J's concerns about maintaining a righteous lifestyle free from sin is about being faithful to his wife without checking out the "slamming bodies" of other "hotties", because he doubts that his wife is faithful to him.
• Politically Correct Villain: "Confederate Flag" is about murdering racists who fly the Confederate flag.
• Sampling: "Flamethrower" flips a sample of Gong's song "Princess Dreaming" into a breakbeat that runs throughout the song.
• Spiritual Successor: Lost, to Hells Pit, and Found, to The Wraith: Shangri-La, as well as the songs "Confederate Flag" to "Your Rebel Flag", and "Found" to "Miracles".
• Values Dissonance: On "You Should Know", the protagonist is admitting to his fiancee that he's cheated on her and he's going to cheat on her again any chance he gets because that's how he was raised, and this kind of behavior was applauded when he was growing up, but that she shouldn't be upset about it, because she is his wife, and all of those other women are just "whores".
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: On "Vomit", various sinners wind up in hell with Satan vomiting on their face as part of the punishment for their sins.

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