He is a part of the hip-hop duo of Insane Clown Posse and the co-founder of Psychopathic Records (with fellow rapper Shaggy 2 Dope aka Joseph Utsler) and their former manager Alex Abbiss. Bruce and Utsler are also the founders of the professional wrestling promotion Juggalo Championship Wrestling. Bruce dropped out of school in the ninth grade and moved in with his friend, Rudy, in River Rouge. There he formed his own gang called Inner City Posse, which would terrorize people with Army-issued tear gas and steal car radios for money. He was soon jailed and the experience convinced him to get away from gang life. In 1990, after a short career in professional wrestling, Bruce and his friend Dale recorded Intelligence and Violence on a karaoke machine, which marked the debut of Bruce's stage name 'Violent J'. Bruce formed a comical group called Golden Goldies, which consisted of Psychopathic Record's employees and friends and their only LP was recorded in 1995 in a span of one week and was not publicly released. He went on to form several other groups, including Dark Lotus, Psychopathic Rydas and Soopa Villainz. He cites his influences as Esham, N.W.A, Ice Cube, Awesome Dre, Geto Boys, Gong, Pearl Jam, and Michael Jackson. Allmusic reviewer James Monger referred to Bruce's style as an "onslaught of Midwest Dirty Rap." His wresting history began alongside friends Joseph and John Utsler when the three got involved in backyard wrestling, creating two backyard wrestling rings for their made-up promotion Tag Team Wrestling, later renamed National All-Star Wrestling. The trio staged National All-Star Wrestling's first show, NAW Wrestling Extravaganza, in front of friends and family. The show featured Bruce wrestling under the moniker Darryl "Dropkick" Daniels and Joey Utsler wrestling as both Rhino and the masked NAW World Champion White Tiger.
