LOS ANGELES - Reaction from the mourners attending Michael Jackson's memorial was unanimous: the heartfelt finale by hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse was well worth the wait.
"There wasn't a dry eye in the house," said one concert-goer, who happened to be standing next to me in the crowd. "When they went up .. over the sarcophagus," she said, quickly wiping away a tear. "Magic."
Insane Clown Posse (ICP) was an unlikely choice to end the day-long tribute to "the king of pop," yet this was a perception the band was anxious to change. "We really wanted to be there, to honor the legend that inspired us to get into [explicative deleted] music in the [explicative deleted] first place," said Violent J (Joseph Bruce). "We wanted the [explicative deleted] to know, that those [explicative deleted] who [explicative deleted] with us, you know, could [explicative deleted]! [explicative deleted]!!!"
It was I.C.P.'s genre-bending rendition of "We Are The World" that would eventually reach out to mourners and music critics alike. "I was skeptical, at best, when I saw that I.C.P. was booked to sing over [Jackson's] sarcophagus," confessed L. Judge Hamilton, music columnist at large for Rolling Stone magazine. "More so when I heard they were going to do 'We Are The World.' But by the time they hit 'Heaven's Newest Angel," and 'Heavenly Tears Tonight,' they'd completely won me over. It was like nothing I've ever heard before."