I haven’t seen anyone else say this at time of writing (10th July) so I’m just going to come out and say it; it’s clear to me that the release of Woh the Weeping Weirdo at the start of this month is NOT the same EP which was allegedly finished and ready to drop in October last year. Something clearly changed with that record at the eleventh hour in production, either with the music or concept itself, and today I will outline all my points to explain why.
To begin we must first look at the track list and my reason to be sceptical, where applicable, for each.
1) Woh The Intro
Despite naming Woh in the song name, the opening track for their EP contains no lore or information about the third seedling whatsoever. Not only is Woh also never mentioned again in the entire project, Shaggy name drops Woh as ‘Woh the Warrior / Worrier’ during this intro. Woh the what now?
2) Out The Sky
Out The Sky was the single released a couple of days before the start of 2023’s Gathering of the Juggalos. The theme for Gathering 23, Wicked Clowns From Outer Space, was announced by and reported on by Juggalo news website Faygoluvers.net in early March 2023, way later than the original scheduled drop for Woh of October 2022. It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to conclude this song was recorded this year.
3) Elly May
Featuring a country sounding instrumental, this song is reminiscent of After Murder Sunrise, the song ICP released to promote their (hopefully) since scrapped country / horrorcore themed Bloody Brothers album. While Elly May is a much better song than the aforementioned single, the lyrical theme and entire tone of the song contain several similarities to say the least.
4) Keep On Choppin’
This is the first song off Woh that I believe was on the original track list for the Weeping Weirdo edition of the project. Yum Yum Bedlam as well as Wicked Vic both contained covers of songs by other artists, and there’s no reason Woh couldn’t also have one.
5) Banshee
You could make an argument for this to have also been on the Weeping Weirdo, but after listening to it a few times it sounds a lot closer to the styles from Violent J and Shaggy’s solo 2023 projects than it does to that found on the previous seedling, Pug Ugly. That being the case, I think this track was also recorded this year.
6) Average Joey
As mentioned above, J and Shaggy have both released solo music this year, and while it is not uncommon for an ICP song to solely feature Violent J, a track of exclusively Shaggy is a significantly rarer occurrence. As a result, I wouldn’t be at all surprised for this to have originally planned for the Professor Shaggs EP, hastily pulled from it and stuck on Woh the Warrior to reach the required seven tracks.
7) Something to See (Mike P remix)
This is the only other track I’m confident would have been from Weeping Weirdo as well as Warrior. I love the original version of this song but the mixing was indisputably fucked when it dropped on Yum Yum Bedlam in 2021, with later lyrics completely drowned out by the singing from the hook, and even the beat itself. Something to See was always a highly likely contender for a remix version, if only to release it in a more coherent form.
The general consensus I have seen of Woh the Warrior has been that it was underwhelming, particularly after its October release was apparently pulled last minute despite Shaggy 2 Dope and Kegan confirming on stream it was finished and would release on time less than a week from the date of that stream.
During DCFAYGOGUY’s Woh the Weeping Weirdo video unpacking the physical CD for Woh, he notes that there is no booklet within the case with any details whatsoever for the third seedling, speculating that could be because ICP are keen to get on to the sixth Joker’s Card of the second deck.
After a cryptic posting on ICP’s Twitter from 24th June that their Gathering seminar would keep Juggalos guessing, as well as shrewdly mentioning the sixth Joker’s Card (though not of which deck) that seminar came and went without so much as a whisper of the next Card. As all previous Cards for the second deck were announced during a Hallowicked event, it makes sense that they would keep that trend going for the last entry of deck two. I admit I got swept along in the hype wanting a Gathering announcement..
The mystery surrounding the identity for the next Joker’s Card aside, I think there is just as much room for speculation on exactly what happened to the original identity for Woh the Weeping Weirdo.
Do you think any other songs from the final released track list were also on the original one? Could any of the songs off Bloody Sunday and Professor Shaggs been pulled from the originally planned Weeping Weirdo line-up? Let’s talk about it in the comments, and I will catch you again soon. Thanks for reading!
Written and edited by Alexx.