Death Grips :: Death Grips

Was there ever a point at which Death Grips became a “household name” as such? No. I thought about dancing around the issue and trying to pinpoint a time where any random person on the street would know their name and/or have heard their music, only to realize their music by its very nature makes that an impossibility. Take “Full Moon” for example.

The video for this song from their self-titled EP has over two million views, which is a powerful amount in total, but averages out to 140,000 a year between when they released their extended play and the present day. Most “content creators” will tell you they do the majority of their traffic in the first 30 days after uploading a video, so even without access to their analytics I can guess that a million of those views were in the first year, with under 100K per year trickling in ever since. I’m not telling you any of these things to belittle Death Grips but rather to answer my own question about the size of their reach.

Grips can’t be oblivious to their niche given songs from their first EP like “Known for It (Freak Grips)” were recycled immediately for their next album “Exmilitary.” Lead vocalist MC Ride is an amazing lyricist and performer who has to shout at the top of his lungs in a perpetual battle with Andy Morin’s keyboard and Zach Hill’s drums. You could tweak these things in the studio or even in post, but that would be anathema to the group’s intentions. They WANT to be abrasive. They WANT to be loud. From their inception they sought to shoot their music “rapid fire through your skull” and sound nothing like any other rap artist in existence. The spectacular success of “Takyon (Death Yon)” in achieving that goal makes them as fascinating to me as they are inaccessible to 99% of the public.

I love this song. The pulsing bass, the energetic way MC Ride screams “oh shit, I’m feeling it” in reaction to the track, and the way they collectively decided to dissect their own song as they were recording it. It’s an ongoing experiment in adding and removing layers of sound, chopping and doubling the vocals, sampling and editing their work and reinserting it back into the mix. As an album or as a group “Death Grips” is a powerful and visceral experience. You can love it or you can hate it but you can’t be indifferent to it. Even a relatively toned down track like “Where It’s At (Death Heated)” is still a direct challenge to the expectations of rap listeners in 2011, with MC Ride declaring “I really don’t give a shit” if you like it and setting the tone for everything they’d do from that point on.

“Responsibility’s cool, but there’s more things in life
like getting your dick, rode all fucking night
By the kind of girl that knows how to keep her shit tight
Legs in the air, looking like they feel nice
Volcano pussy melt your peter like ice
and the drugs got you going back for more cause you’re like
I just can’t get enough of that cum clutch, well alright”

Death Grips got enough buzz from their unexpected debut to get signed to Epic Records, then did the most Death Grips thing ever by leaking their own album because they were pissed at the label stalling on putting it out. They were promptly released from their contract. That story epitomizes why Grips would never become a “household name” but also points out how foolish it was for Epic to sign them in the first place. The foundation of DG’s success is that they’ve never played along with anyone — not the genre of rap, not the music industry, not their critics OR their fans. They zig when you think they’d zag and then go straight just when you’ve become accustomed to them throwing you a curve.

DG are notable, notorious and not for everyone, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. “Death Grips” is like all of their releases — a middle finger to the world with every passing second, but for the right listener one that makes you smile even if you’re their target. In keeping with that raised digit, the entire thing is free on their own website, so click any link to their name here and if you hate it just delete it. You might not though. Sometimes being told to fuck off is the best thing in the world.