I have begun my descent into madness. It’s been calling and the call was finally loud enough. I need to listen through Death Grips discography. This three man group has been on my radar for as long as I can remember and I never successfully got into their music after a few forays into their supposed magnum opus, “The Money Store,” and it still never clicked so I gave up. However, it has been a year or two since then and my taste has developed a bit more so I decided to give this a justified effort, listening to their main discography in order to get an idea of just what makes these guys so legendary.
The group consists of the infamous MC Ride as the main vocalist, a demented and tortured soul from what I have heard and can now confirm after listening to Exmilitary, the groups first album. Along Ride to craft this mind-fucking music is (admittedly legendary) drummer Zach Hill and bassist Andy Morin. It was difficult for me to differentiate when listening to this what was digitally produced and what was actually being done by Hill and Morin, I went out on a limb and assumed all percussion on the album was done by Hill and any specific basslines that I could make out were likely provided by Morin.
The production on this album is actually really cool honestly, although I was keeping in mind that this is apparently the group’s most accessible album, and it is still probably too much for an average music listener to just throw on and kick back. I listened to it fully twice in one sitting, the first time I just listened to the sounds and delivery from Ride, and the second time I read through the lyrics while listening. I’ve had some friends say Ride is a great writer so I had to see what the hype was about.
MC Ride’s lyricism is pretty sharp, if not disturbing. He raps(/sings/screams?) about sex, drugs, weird concepts of death, suicide, and insanity; So it is all a real walk in the park, great summer songs for the pool party and cookouts.
I liked the first two tracks on this album (‘Beware,’ and ‘Guillotine’) a little bit more on my second listen but on first listen to first track I did find myself getting into was the third one, ‘Spread Eagle Across the Block.’ This shit does go pretty bezerk I cannot even lie. The beat is creative as hell and it was the first MC Ride vocal performance I heard that I felt like was really hitting. I don’t know if this is an egregious or strange comparison to make but when Ride chills out with his delivery every once in a while and hits a more discernible flow he sounds mildly similar to Billy Woods on older tracks on albums like “History Will Absolve Me.”
The production on the next track, ‘Lord of The Game,’ is rapid and ever changing. The chopped and glitchy samples that cut through the pulsing bass and spasming drums actually come together in a really dope way. MC Ride is strange as shit though. Going to take some getting used to. I got some anti-war vibes from this track in the second verse. The girl that’s featured on this kinda sounds like MIA.
I also did enjoy ‘Takyon,’ which means there is at least a solid three track run on this album with Spread Eagle – Takyon. ‘Takyon,’ felt like the most typical industrial hip hop song on the album with some pretty cool delivery from MC Ride and a thundering beat that has one of the most menacing 808’s I’ve ever heard.
I really like the way the production developed and almost waxed and waned if we are speaking on moon terms. It will hit ungodly peaks of noise and aggression and then dip into something that sounds mildly beautiful or very trippy. A good example was the contrast between ‘Takyon’ and the ‘Cut Throat’ instrumental that directly follows it. Also, the beat switch at the end of ‘Klink,’ was pretty dope.
The last few tracks of the album were interesting because they seemed to be mildly interconnected after my second listen with the lyrics. On ‘Known For It’ MC Ride seems to detail everything he is struggling with and outlines his mental illness and drug use habits, these are common topics throughout the album but on this track Ride seems to apply it more directly to himself than before. This leads directly into ‘I Want it I Need It (Death Heated)’ which is a psychedelic and crushing escapade into a drug and sex fueled night. Ride spits 7 or 8 convoluted and explicit verses about consuming drugs and having sex with random women. This track has some of his clearest vocals throughout the album and it is really easy to understand him. I feel like there’s a level of storytelling on this track that implies Ride is currently living out what he is known for and having a wild night after working too hard all day. This finally leads into the last track on the album, ‘Blood Creepin,’ which is an onslaught of drums and distorted bass while Ride screams about paranoia and hiding from the police, seemingly in the aftermath of the crazy shit he was getting up to in ‘I Want It I Need It.’
I have no clue if this is actually what the band was going for with these last three tracks but it’s a cool little theory.
Overall, I did enjoy this more than I was expecting. Especially after being a certified Death Grips hater for years. That was more to piss off my super noided friends than anything else though. 6.5-7/10 but that could go up if I continue to revisit this.
DM me on twitter if there is anything you’d like me to cover or review! I am going to do some discography rankings in the next few weeks and keep finishing up the Death Grips discography. Review of the new Black Country New Road coming tomorrow as well.
Peace to your Mental,
STEVE
The First Spin 