Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J. Stole Tender Poem: Lawsuit

DETROIT, MI — A musician who goes by the name of Violent J. and whose fans have been labeled a dangerous gang by the FBI might not seem a good bet to pick a fight with, but an Ohio poet says in a federal lawsuit filed in Detroit Tuesday that the frontman of the hip-hop horror duo Insane Clown Posse stole his poem for a video that was posted on social media.

In his copyright infringement lawsuit, Ohio poet Stanley Gebhardt said Violent J., the on-stage persona of Joseph Bruce, ripped and recited his poem, “But You Didn’t,” verbatim in the YouTube video. Both Bruce and Insane Clown Posse are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The tender poem about a fractured father-and-son relationship was published in one of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books, and also is engraved on a veteran’s memorial sculpture in North Merrick, New York, according to the lawsuit.

Attorney Michael Dezsi, who is representing Gebhardt said in the lawsuit, told the Detroit Free Press that his client didn’t learn of the 2009 YouTube video of Violent J. reading the poem until 2015.

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“It’s a verbatim rendition of my client’s artistic, copyrighted poetic work,” Dezsi said.

Gebhardt, who copyrighted the 22-line poem in 1993 and allowed to be published in “A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul” in 1994, reached out to Port Clinton, Ohio, attorney Amanda A. Andrews for help in getting the video taken down. Andrews reached out to Dezsi, and the two lawyers filed the lawsuit Tuesday.

Gebhardt is asking for a jury trial, damages, court costs and attorney fees.

Insane Clown Posse is fighting the FBI’s 2011 description of its fans, known as Juggalos, as a “loosely organized hybrid gang.” A 2014 federal lawsuit was dismissed in 2014, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to the lower court in 2015.

Photo: Joseph Bruce, aka Violent J, left, and Joseph Utsler, aka Shaggy 2 Dope, members of the Insane Clown Posse, pictured in 2014 during a hearing before a Detroit federal judge regarding the FBI’s classification of its fans as a dangerous gang. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)