Bizarre:
Hannicap Circus

Release Date: 27 June 2005

Reviewed By: Usman Sajjid

1. Public Service Announcement (Skit) (Bizarre)

2. Intro (Bizarre)

3. Gospel Weed Song

4. F*** Your Life (Bizarre) (Sindee Syringe)

5. Fat Father (Skit) (Bizarre)

6. Let The Record Skip (Bizarre)

7. I'm In Luv Witchu (Bizarre)

8. Rock Star (Bizarre)

9. Ghetto Music (Bizarre) (King Gordy) (Stic. Man) (Swifty)

10. Life Styles (Skit) (Bizarre)

11. I'm So Cool  (Bizarre)

12. Porno Bitches (Big Boi) (Bizarre) (Devin The Dude)

13. Crush On You (Bizarre)

14. Bad Day (Bizarre)

15. I Need A Friend (Bizarre)

16. One Chance (Bizarre)

17. Hip Hop (Bizarre) (Eminem)

18. Doctor Doctor (Bizarre) (Obie Trice)

19. Coming Home (Bizarre) (kuniva) (Raphael Saddiq)

20. Nuthin' At All (Bizarre) (D12)

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Detroit has raised many unique characters and teams over the past few years going on to achieve success. Firstly, the NBA Champions in 2003-2004, the Detroit Pistons, consisting of stars such as Ben Wallace. Also, not to mention one of the biggest selling rappers in history, Hip Hop’s most talked about white boy, Eminem. So can a belly rubbing, shower cap wearing, obscene character by the name of Bizarre achieve the right to have himself be known as a mainstream rap icon in Detroit? With success in D12 and his standout weird lyrics on both albums, ‘Devils Night’ and ‘D12 World’, Bizarre steps onto the solo path with ‘Hannicap Circus’.

With the album featuring an impressive roster of guests appearances from the likes of Eminem, Big Boi from OutKast, Stic Man from Dead Prez, Raphael Saadiq, D12 and Obie Trice, who can knock the big man? Beats on the album come from some notable producers, including Denaun Porter (50 Cent ‘P.I.M.P’), Erick Sermon, Eminem, Hi-Tek and many others. 

The opening single to Bizarre’s quest for recognition in the rap game, ‘Rockstar’, was the ultimate follow up to D12’s earlier hit ‘My Band’. ‘Rockstar’ sees Bizarre humorously attempt to step out of the spotlight of Marshall Mathers and imagines ultimate caviar dreams of his life as a rock star. Eminem, who features in the video for ‘Rockstar’ and is the man behind the boards for the track, jumps on the Hi-Tek produced ‘Hip Hop’, a real head mover. ‘Doctor Doctor’ is another standout track again produced by Hi-Tek, with a catchy hook and a finishing 16 bars from fellow Detroit native Obie Trice. 

However, ‘Hannicap Circus’ enters into a phase of boredom on some tracks with poorly laced beats such as ‘Crush On You’ and ‘I Need A friend’, making the tracks easy to skip within a minute. 

Perhaps the album’s better track is ‘Bad Day’, which sees rap legend Erick Sermon behind the boards creating an excellent beat for Bizarre to add humorous lyrics to.  It’s a cover of one of rap’s greatest West Coast tracks, ‘It Was A Good Day’ by Ice Cube. With opening lyrics such as ‘Just woke up in the morning gotta thank God/Got my ass cheeks stuck to a fishing rod’, Bizarre adds tons of laughs to the track.

Dead Prez’ Stic Man joins D12’s craziest member on ‘Ghetto Music’, and both Big Boi and Devin the Dude accompany Bizarre on ‘Porno Bitches’, both records turning out to be adequate. 

On ‘One Chance’, Bizarre recreates Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’, detailing his struggle in the early days of rap, and offering advice to upcoming rappers.  

Tracks such as ‘Coming Home’ lose value and presence on the album, with a generic and disappointing hook for the standards of Raphael Saddiq. The track is from Bizarre’s perspective of not seeing family members whilst on the road, but it fails to stand out from the other light hearted tracks on the LP. 

With a moderate effort from D12’s Bizarre, ‘Hannicap Circus’ may have just exceeded expectations of rap listeners not expecting a strong album. However, the album is filled with some of today’s most exciting rap stars and features some solid production, so Bizarre can at least enjoy some success with ‘Hannicap Circus’. But, he will need to give it another shot if he wants to live up that “millionaire lifestyle” he talks so fondly about on ‘Rockstar’.  

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 

Top 3 Tracks 

14. Bad Day

18. Doctor Doctor

16. One Chance

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