Jumpsteady :: Master of the Flying Guillotine

In the lore of the Insane Clown Posse, Jumpsteady is referred to as the “Don” of Psychopathic Records. Why? Because he’s Robert Bruce, the older brother of Joseph “Violent J” Bruce, and thus literally the most senior member of the family. He was there from the very beginning, even though he spent part of his time at the group’s inception serving with the Army in Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless he was a guiding hand in his brother’s career, encouraging the fledgling group to pursue a more professional direction by hiring a manager and forming a record label. You could in fairness say there would be no Psychopathic Records without Rob.

The chemistry between the brothers is apparent on “Ima” from “Master of the Flying Guillotine,” where they trade bars and vow to “stick to the guns of the juggalo creed.” It’s strange to hear the “file transfer complete” sound from Fetch repeated through hook but in its own way it works; that is, it works better than Jumpsteady introducing the album like a lost member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Now obviously the brothers are the right age to be influenced by “Enter the Wu-Tang” and it’s impossible to fault Rob or Joseph for that. I’m going to say this though — once RZA and his friends made sampling from kung-fu flicks their signature, it was generally expected in rap that anybody else using it would be friends or affiliates of the Clan. It just seems off to hear it without any part of the Wu involved. Not even a track produced by 9th Disciple. Perhaps it would have made more sense to borrow from Conan the Barbarian? They tried on the “Crom Skit.”

The strange disconnect between the Shaolin Slums of the Wu and the mean streets of Novi, Michigan reflect the disconnect between the more serious Rob and his psychopathic friends. They all love each other and there are cameos from the label throughout “Master of the Flying Guillotine.” Myzery is on “My Mans an Them,” Esham and J are on “Thirteenth Skull,” and so on. The problem is that while Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope sound like they’re trying to one up each other in demented wicked clown shit, Rob sounds exactly like what he is — a seasoned military veteran who is not phased by violence, gore, bloodshed or mayhem. In trying to find a way to bring that maturity to their audience, weird experiments like “Battlefield” result, with an interpolation of Pat Benatar and helium inflated vocals sounding younger than early Kris Kross. Frankly it sucks.

There’s no doubt everybody wanted the “Don” to succeed, so why did they make so many mistakes putting this album together? It swings wildly from corny to mediocre to occasionally interesting, never finding its footing for more than a song or two in a row. It’s hardly surprising to me that Jumpsteady “retired” from rap after “Master of the Flying Guillotine.” He continued to make cameos for his brother and labelmates, released a spoken word album, and even pursued his passion of making role playing games for juggalos worldwide. Well done Rob. I think everyone can be inspired by both his service to this country and not riding on his younger brother’s coattails to attain his own success. I think by the time this release came out it was too late for Jumpsteady to succeed as a solo artist and everybody knew it. He did just fine though and he’s still the “Don” regardless.