The Insane Clown Posse Guys Are Worth A Lot More Than You Think

A couple of guys from Detroit in clown makeup, blasting out hip hop anthems and calling themselves Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope? On paper, the Insane Clown Posse sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the pair have certainly found their audience. For years, the facepaint-wearing duo have been celebrities who enjoy an almost cult-like following among their hordes of Juggalo fans, a community so devoted and tight-knit that the FBI has actually listed them as a "loosely-organized hybrid gang" in their 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, according to Jon Blinstein of Rolling Stone. Oh, and as Alicia Lee of CNN tells us, the band even has its own annual festival, the Gathering of the Juggalos. 

The strange duality of being largely shunned by the mainstream, but nevertheless having a sizable subculture revolve around them, puts Mr. J and Mr. 2 Dope in a position that's financially very interesting. Are their clown antics actually lucrative, or are they spending every single cent they earn just to keep the circus going? It's time to take a look at how much the Insane Clown Posse guys are really worth.

It turns out that donning clown makeup and rapping can be surprisingly lucrative, at least if you know what you're doing. According to wealth estimation site Celebrity Net Worth, Insane Clown Posse certainly does. The site estimates the earthly possessions of Joseph "Violent J" Bruce and Joseph "Shaggy 2 Dope" Utsler at no less than $13 million each. 

The thing to remember, here, is that when you mentally remove the whole "clown" thing and FBI's gang allegations from the picture, the ICP guys are basically just popular musicians who connect so well with their audience that they can actually keep a long-running festival going. The Juggalos are a record-buying audience, too, seeing as several of the band's albums have made appearances on the Billboard 200. In fact, 1999's The Amazing Jeckel Brothers and 2012's Mighty Death Pop both peaked at #4. So, regardless of what it seems to the outside world that they're doing, the Insane Clown Posse are certainly doing very well for themselves.