By Conroy Boyd
Hostile, proto-electro, hip-hop, noise. That’s the preferred genre of Death Grips, the strange music project based out of Sacramento, California. The “band” consists of Stefan Burnett (MC Ride), on vocals. His lyrics are an angry combination of the challenges faced by urban youth and incomprehensible yelling. The other member of the group is Zach Hill who drums, programs, produces, synthesizes, and plays keyboard. His drumming abilities are so in-your-face that many listeners hear Death Grips for the first time are genuinely confused. However with this group, there’s a song for almost everyone.
Every Death Grips song is different. What I mean by that is that every Death Grips song sounds like a different genre of music. Completely different sounds and feelings evoked upon listening. One of the more intense Death Grips songs is called “You Might Think He Loves You For Your Money But I Know What He Really Loves You For It’s Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat”. The song consists of MC Ride’s vigorous yelling, along with some hard electric guitar with the tuning completely wrong. The song is a perfect representation of what Death Grips is: completely authentic experimental music. Their latest album, Bottomless Pit, expands the group’s audience by creating some more accessible music. The song “Eh” leaves out the hostile vocals and distracting noises of traditional Death Grips, but remains captivating all the same.
The success of Death Grips is as fascinating as the music itself. According to Spotify’s “About Page” for Death Grips, they “put out their first mixtape, Exmilitary, in 2011. Despite the album’s raging intensity, it became a favorite among critics upon its release.” Having listened to Death Grips for a while now, I was absolutely fascinated to find the amount of support that they received at first by critics everywhere. It’s just not the type of music you would expect anyone to listen to. Following Exmilitary Death Grips released The Money Store, No Love Deep Web, Government Plates, The Powers That B, and Bottomless Pit. Each album (like each track) is totally new material for the group and has received widespread acclaim.
The most interesting part of the Death Grips experiment is the fact that they don’t seem to want to be big. After signing with the label Epic, they decided to release their next album as a free download for listeners and were dropped from Epic. This is one of the reasons that Death Grips is so great. They care more about their fans than they do about success. I’ll always remember one of the stories that my friend told me regarding the band’s financial stability. She told me that they once blew all of the money they had after a good tour on a five star hotel for a week, then went back to being homeless. Despite this, the diversity and enthralling nature of their music has led to success for the band. The internet loves them. Other musicians love them. Musicians and artists like Linkin Park/Fort Minor frontman Mike Shinoda, actor Fred Armisen, and actress/singer Emily Osment as well as many more have offer support and talk of their enjoyment of the band. Check out Death Grips to be immersed in musical noise that goes beyond what you expect.