I almost don’t want to write a review for experimental rap outfit Death Grips, because I feel like I’d be giving them exactly what they want: attention. Their overly abrasive attitude – from no-show live shows to perpetually shitting on their record label via publicity stunts – comes off as an immature gimmick begging for press. But it would be a lot easier to just ignore Death Grips and not give them the attention they so obviously crave if they didn’t put out such interesting music. Their latest album, Jenny Death, is just like the rest of Death Grips’ career: Extremely gimmicky but nonetheless unique and interesting.
Let’s start with the gimmicks. Technically, Jenny Death is part of a double album called The Powers That B, with the first half called Niggas on the Moon (which we reviewed last year, and the name itself is Gimmick 1) and the second half called Jenny Death. But Niggas on the Moon was released almost a year before Jenny Death, and each half of The Powers That B sounds so different – just like the rest of Death Grips’ albums – that it makes you wonder why they made this a double album in the first place (maybe it’s Gimmick 2?) Niggas on the Moon heavily featured samples of Björk’s voice on every track, which gives us Gimmick 3. And we should remember that after Niggas on the Moon Death Grips claimed they “broke up” (Gimmick 4) and thus Jenny Death was going to be their final release, but their giant tour in support of the album suggests that they might not have broken up. And as for Gimmick 5: In between Niggas on the Moon and The Powers That B, Death Grips released a fairly mediocre instrumental album called Fashion Week whose track titles spelled out “JENNY DEATH WHEN,” which sent hordes of white, suburban, teenage boys to reddit and 4chan to type the message in all caps for months.
If you have the patience to get past all the gimmicks, you can actually enjoy some pretty hard-hitting music. The first track, “I Break Mirrors With My Face in the United States” is pretty cursed with unnecessary bleeps and bloops that covered Niggas on the Moon, but its fast-paced tempo is a welcome return to feeling “noided” at all times. The second track “Inanimate Sensation” sounds like a full return-to-form, with the racecar-like hums a la “Hustle Bones” (from The Money Store) and Zach Hill’s pounding drums really driving the song. Not to mention MC Ride’s unrelenting yells, which somehow make everything sound so badass that you’re willing to overlook nonsensical Dr. Seuss-esque lines like “Axl Rose in a blender / Slash on Satan’s fender / Rick James on the cover / Running through your lover.”
There’s a pretty huge line between the absolutely ridiculous and the ridiculously insightful, but somehow Death Grips always manages to finely balance on it. “Turned Off” features some pretty thought-provoking lyrics about wanting “fatal cardiac over cancer” and really interesting guitar-work (an instrument Death Grips has never used), but the sporadic “boom boom – BOOM BOOM BOOM” makes the song almost sound like YouTube Poop. “Pss Pss” has a great, tipsy groove but pretty laughable lyrics: “I piss on your face like PSS PSS, PSS PSS.” And halfway through the title track "The Powers That B," MC Ride gives us a badass breakdown with his classic out-of-breath delivery, but the instrumental behind him also kind of sounds like a really long fart.
Probably the biggest boundary-pushing on this album is the synergy of heavy guitar and MC Ride’s wailing rap. “Why A Bitch Gotta Lie” features some huge acid-rock guitar, and “Beyond Alive” sounds like what would happen if Hill’s guitar-oriented math-rock band Hella and Death Grips merged. The desert guitar on “Centuries of Damn” preps you for the even better guitar on “On GP,” which is probably the best track on the album. Those guitars on “On GP” are dynamic enough to be on a post-rock song, and it leaves me wanting more post-rock/angry-rap, which I’m not going to get anywhere else but Death Grips. The album ends with the extremely ambiguous instrumental “Death Grips 2.0,” which suggests we might be seeing more Death Grips – we can call this Gimmick 6.
And all those gimmicks really do piss me off. You don’t need to be gimmicky to put out great music. But whether you like them or not, you got to give Death Grips their due: They’ve released seven albums in four years, and each of them has sounded incredibly different from the last. Their work is controversial and substantial enough to get people talking about what’s “good music” and what isn’t. Death Grips has brought experimental rap as close to the mainstream as it might ever get, but hopefully their work will allow other unique bands to get press without having to depend on gimmicks for attention.
Related news
