In my recent review of Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction, I mentioned how I was surprised how much I liked that band, despite previously not being a fan of the genre. Well here I am again, and this time I'm even more surprised. A while ago, looking to expand my musical horizons, I talked to some of my friends about wanting to try to find some hip-hop that I liked, and knowing my music taste, one of them recommended that I checked out Death Grips. When I first listened to their most popular album, The Money Store, I was skeptical, but their unique blend of hip-hop, industrial, and noise spoke to me. Over the next few weeks I started listening to their other releases. Now, call me Anthony Fantano because I'm a fan of Death Grips. Now, enough about me, lets talk about the band.
Death Grips is an experimental industrial hip hop band from California, consisting of Zach Hill, Andy Morin, and Stefan Burnett aka MC Ride. Their music is defined by harsh industrial beats and melodies with vocals shouted over them. These beats were very unique for the time and stood out to me due to how they seemed to draw inspiration from early industrial noise music, such as that of Throbbing Gristle. The band is also known for going against the norm and making several controversial moves, such as canceling several tours halfway through, releasing their music for free on torrenting sites, and making the cover of one of their albums a picture of Hill's dick with the name of the album, "No Love Deep Web," written on it. Needless to say, Death Grips is a band that is not afraid of controversy. This also stays true in their lyrics, choosing topics like suicide, Charles Manson, paranoia, sexual kinks, nihilism, addiction, and extreme violence. These themes pair well with their harsh, experimental music, giving it a dark, unclean feel.
The Money Store stands out in Death Grips' discography as their breakout album. As this is also their most commercially successful album, it should be unsurprising that this is also their most accessible album, missing a lot of the strange abstract melodies and electronic chaos of their later albums. One of the members of the band even said later that even though they liked this album, and were satisfied with how it came out, it wasn't really the vision they had for the band. Despite this, it is indisputable that The Money Store is one of the best albums in Death Grips' discography, and a required listen for anyone who wants to get into the band.
When talking about The Money Store, it is impossible to not talk about the song "I've Seen Footage." This is the band's most traditional song with a catchy melody and chorus and a standard song structure. Despite this (or maybe because of this?), this song is an absolute banger. It's a song than just makes you want to get up and dance. The lyrics of the song are interesting too. They deal with how the narrator is paranoid due to awful videos they've seen on the internet; such as videos of violence, child soldiers, people getting run over, and one particular video which seemed to stick with him of a cop shooting a child in the face, causing their head to explode. Throughout the song, the lyrics "I've seen footage; I stay noided" are repeated, indicating how paranoid the videos are making him. "Noided" is slang for "paranoid" and has been adopted by the Death Grips fanbase as a name for fans. If you are a fan of Death Grips, you are "noided."
There are many other good songs on this album, so I can't really go through them all but some others that really stood out to me are "Get Got," a song about evading the police after a robbery, while also delving into issues of drug abuse and mental illness among other things, "The Fever (Aye Aye)," which delves into the personal demons haunting the narrator such as addiction and mental illness (notice that drug abuse and mental illness are common themes throughout the album), and "Hacker" which acts as an amazing closer to the album, giving the ominous lyrics "When you come out, your shit is gone... I'm in your area... I know the first three numbers." Also, as the name of the song suggests, the song deals with hacking, mentioning things such as Wikileaks and identity theft.
The whole album portrays an image of a person who is the worst of the worst; a criminal, drug addict, and murder; giving you a dark and terrifying look into their life, showing you things from their perspective. This cool concept, combined with interesting cryptic lyrics that delve into deeper issues, and catchy songs that stick with you long after listening to them makes this an amazing album. Overall, The Money Store is probably one of my favorite albums I've listened to in months. The harsh industrial instrumentation, and the vocals, which have been described as "an angry homeless man yelling at you," might not be for everyone, but this album is definitely worth at least 1 listen, if not 50.
Rating: 10/10
Favorite Tracks: Get Got, The Fever (Aye Aye), Blackjack, I've Seen Footage, Double Helix, Bitch Please, Hacker
Death Grips is an experimental industrial hip hop band from California, consisting of Zach Hill, Andy Morin, and Stefan Burnett aka MC Ride. Their music is defined by harsh industrial beats and melodies with vocals shouted over them. These beats were very unique for the time and stood out to me due to how they seemed to draw inspiration from early industrial noise music, such as that of Throbbing Gristle. The band is also known for going against the norm and making several controversial moves, such as canceling several tours halfway through, releasing their music for free on torrenting sites, and making the cover of one of their albums a picture of Hill's dick with the name of the album, "No Love Deep Web," written on it. Needless to say, Death Grips is a band that is not afraid of controversy. This also stays true in their lyrics, choosing topics like suicide, Charles Manson, paranoia, sexual kinks, nihilism, addiction, and extreme violence. These themes pair well with their harsh, experimental music, giving it a dark, unclean feel.
The Money Store stands out in Death Grips' discography as their breakout album. As this is also their most commercially successful album, it should be unsurprising that this is also their most accessible album, missing a lot of the strange abstract melodies and electronic chaos of their later albums. One of the members of the band even said later that even though they liked this album, and were satisfied with how it came out, it wasn't really the vision they had for the band. Despite this, it is indisputable that The Money Store is one of the best albums in Death Grips' discography, and a required listen for anyone who wants to get into the band.
When talking about The Money Store, it is impossible to not talk about the song "I've Seen Footage." This is the band's most traditional song with a catchy melody and chorus and a standard song structure. Despite this (or maybe because of this?), this song is an absolute banger. It's a song than just makes you want to get up and dance. The lyrics of the song are interesting too. They deal with how the narrator is paranoid due to awful videos they've seen on the internet; such as videos of violence, child soldiers, people getting run over, and one particular video which seemed to stick with him of a cop shooting a child in the face, causing their head to explode. Throughout the song, the lyrics "I've seen footage; I stay noided" are repeated, indicating how paranoid the videos are making him. "Noided" is slang for "paranoid" and has been adopted by the Death Grips fanbase as a name for fans. If you are a fan of Death Grips, you are "noided."
There are many other good songs on this album, so I can't really go through them all but some others that really stood out to me are "Get Got," a song about evading the police after a robbery, while also delving into issues of drug abuse and mental illness among other things, "The Fever (Aye Aye)," which delves into the personal demons haunting the narrator such as addiction and mental illness (notice that drug abuse and mental illness are common themes throughout the album), and "Hacker" which acts as an amazing closer to the album, giving the ominous lyrics "When you come out, your shit is gone... I'm in your area... I know the first three numbers." Also, as the name of the song suggests, the song deals with hacking, mentioning things such as Wikileaks and identity theft.
The whole album portrays an image of a person who is the worst of the worst; a criminal, drug addict, and murder; giving you a dark and terrifying look into their life, showing you things from their perspective. This cool concept, combined with interesting cryptic lyrics that delve into deeper issues, and catchy songs that stick with you long after listening to them makes this an amazing album. Overall, The Money Store is probably one of my favorite albums I've listened to in months. The harsh industrial instrumentation, and the vocals, which have been described as "an angry homeless man yelling at you," might not be for everyone, but this album is definitely worth at least 1 listen, if not 50.
Rating: 10/10
Favorite Tracks: Get Got, The Fever (Aye Aye), Blackjack, I've Seen Footage, Double Helix, Bitch Please, Hacker
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