It's Pop. It's Red. What's So Hard to Understand About That?

As you may know, since hardly a week goes by when I don't mention it, I'm from the D. The 313. Motown. D-town. I'm from Detroit, in other words. Which, you probably don't know, is the heart of pop country. It's well north of the soda/pop dividing line which marks where the heathen tongue takes hold and people start referring to their carbonated beverages as “soda” instead of the correct “pop”. Oh, we Midwesterners are a welcoming bred so we'll humor visitors when they request a soda at our restaurants but we all know what they're really called. And the reason we do, in large part, is thanks to Faygo. Who've been in operation for a hundred years at this point. To celebrate, have a commercial:

Oh yeah. Although I'm more of a Towne Club partisan, myself. I have a TC crate within arm's reach as I type this very sentence - no longer used for storing bottles, though - which has been in my possession since I loaded up on a trip back home during college (My brother was the same way with Crush cream soda – the day-glo pink kind which you can only get in Canada.). Still miffed they switched from those retro-cool glass bottles to plastic ones, by the way. But I'm still partial to a good Rock and Rye among other flavors. The best – and most popular – is the Redpop mentioned in that song.

It's strawberry flavored, in case you're wondering. And while Faygo's earned a reputation as cheap pop (It's usually priced a bit lower than the national brands since they have to be competitive and all.), it's really good. And you can credit its popularity with spreading the use of the word “pop”.

But, really, I can't think of Faygo without think of the ICP. Juggalos!

I'm probably dating myself but the first concert I ever went to was for the Insane Clown Posse and, yes, I did get sprayed with some Faygo – one of their bits is to drench the crowd with some Orange Pop or similar as part of their stage show. We did, in fact, travel to the show with a trunk full of Faygo ourselves. Sadly no fat chicks...

Great Milenko wave your wand. Don't look now but your life is gone. This is all because of you. What you got yourself into.

Those are all songs from their best album (Because it came out when I was still in high school, of course. My friends and I weren't hardcore Juggalos or anything but, you know, we thought they were cool.), the Great Milenko. Which was one of the six Joker cards the ICP would reveal to cause the rise of the Dark Carnival and the apocalypse. Jebus Christ, what the hell were we drinking?

Oh, right:

I hear that's actually on a shirt. I so want it.

And, because I don't want to end this post with the...unique taste of ICP rattling in your ears, have some Esham. Not his best, but to keep with the theme the song mentions the Faygo, too, so it's all good: