''Hannicap Circus'' is the debut solo studio album by American rapper

Bizarre Bizarre may refer to: *Bizarre (rapper) (born 1976), an American rapper and member of hip hop group D12 * Bizarre (band), a Spanish rock band * ''Bizarre'' (TV series), a Canadian sketch comedy television series * ''Bizarre'' (magazine), a siste ...

. It was released on June 28, 2005 via Sanctuary Urban. Production was handled by several record producers, including Hi-Tek,

Mr. Porter Denaun Porter (born December 7, 1974), also known by the stage names Mr. Porter, Kon Artis, and more recently simply Denaun, is an American rapper and music producer. He was a member of Detroit hip hop group D12 until its disbandment in 2018. ...

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

and

Erick Sermon Erick Sermon (born November 25, 1968) is an American rapper, musician, and record producer. He is best known as one-third—alongside PMD & DJ Scratch—of 1980s/1990s hip hop group EPMD and for his production work. Career Sermon started profe ...

. It features guest appearances from D12, Young Miles,

Big Boi Antwan André Patton (born February 1, 1975), better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is best known for being a member of the southern hip hop duo Outkast alongside André 300 ...

Devin the Dude Devin Copeland (born June 4, 1970), better known by his stage name Devin the Dude, is an American rapper from Houston, Texas. He is known for his unique rapping style and his 2002 songs "Lacville '79" and "Doobie Ashtray". Early life Devin Cope ...

, Dion Jenkins,

Fatt Father Shabazz Ford (born February 17, 1980), known by his stage name Fatt Father, is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. He is a one fourth part of the Fat Killahz (with Marv Won, Bang Belushi and King Gordy) and one half of Twin Towers (with M ...

, King Gordy, Obie Trice, Raphael Saadiq,

stic.man Khnum Muata Ibomu (born Clayton Gavin, March 6, 1974), better known by his stage name stic.man and more recently as stic, is an American rapper, activist and author known for his work as one half of the political hip hop duo dead prez with M-1. ...

, Sindee Syringe, and Torrey Holloway. ''Hannicap Circus'' is a huge reflection of Bizarre's rap persona and stage presence and yet many of the songs carry important subject matter, a bit of Bizarre's past and talking about the state of hip-hop. The album peaked at number 48 on the ''Billboard'' 200, selling 21,000 copies for the first week. It spawned only one single: "

Rockstar Rock Star or Rockstar may refer to: Films * ''Rock Star'' (2001 film), an American film starring Mark Wahlberg * ''Rockstar'' (2011 film), an Indian Hindi-language film by Imtiaz Ali * ''Rockstar'' (2015 film), an Indian Malayalam-language fi ...

Critical reception

''Hannicap Circus'' received mixed reviews from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mu ...

s who were less than enthusiastic with Bizarre's brand of humor and drama. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 reviews from mainstream critics the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 44, based on 8 reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

's David Jeffries praised the album for its beats and lyrical content that were more akin to a better produced

Insane Clown Posse Insane Clown Posse, often abbreviated as ICP, is an American hip hop duo. Formed in Detroit in 1989 as a gangsta rap group, ICP's best known lineup consists of rappers Violent J (Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (originally 2 Dope; Joseph Utsl ...

, calling it "solid, filthy, fun, and everything else that you'd want from a less nimble

Kool Keith Keith Matthew Thornton (born October 7, 1963), better known by his stage name Kool Keith, is an American rapper and record producer from The Bronx, New York City, known for his surreal, abstract and often profane or incomprehensible lyrics. Kool ...

". Steve 'Flash' Juon of ''RapReviews'' found Bizarre's brand of demented shock humor entertaining and is complemented with appropriate production and a cast of equally game featured artists, concluding that "for fans of D12 and/or Hunter S. Thompson, ''Hannicap Circus'' is one crazy trip through the mind of a lunatic". Usman Sajjid of The Situation felt that the material was hampered by the beats and lyricism lacking energy, concluding that "With a moderate effort from D12’s Bizarre, 'Hannicap Circus' may have just exceeded expectations of rap listeners not expecting a strong album". Dorian Lynskey of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' said that the album had potential to be a competent horrorcore effort but was weighted down by Bizarre wanting it to be both humorous and dramatic with neither side fully delivering, concluding that "''Hannicap Circus'' is the last thing you'd expect from a fat, shower-cap-wearing, nipple-rubbing son of a bitch: boring".

Nathan Rabin Nathan Rabin (; born April 24, 1976) is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for '' The A.V. Club'', a position he held until he left the ''Onion'' organization in 2013.

of '' The A.V. Club'' heavily criticized Bizarre for his monotonous delivery over subject matter that fails to gain laughs, saying "anyone who doesn't find the topics of pedophilia, drug abuse, or incest innately hilarious will find ''Hannicap Circus'' rough going".

Soundtrack

"Gospel Weed Song" is featured during the credits of '' Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay''.

Track listing

Credits adapted from

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

. Notes * signifies an additional producer. * signifies a co-producer. *On the edited version, all skits were cut and it left only 17 tracks. Also all profanity was blanked on the edited version with the exception of "Fuck Your Life", which allegedly contained backmasking. *Dion provides additional vocals on tracks 7 and 18. *

provides additional vocals on track 12. *Shaphan "MAESTRO" Williams provides additional vocals on track 13.

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2005 debut albums Bizarre (rapper) albums Albums produced by Eminem Albums produced by Hi-Tek Albums produced by Mr. Porter Albums produced by Erick Sermon Albums produced by Raphael Saadiq