The new Death Grips album begins with the sound of a shattering bottle. The remainder of the Death Grips latest album, could make that shattering bottle an allegory for the gauntlet. Death Grips is throwing down here, they’re drawing a line in the sand, and daring Hip Hop to cross it. At one point Hip Hop was dangerous, volatile and scary. Much like the initial feedback drenched guitar rings of Greg Ginn’s Black Flag, Hip Hop stared the status quo in the eye, then spit in it.
Sadly, those days are gone. Hip Hop has devolved into a laundry list of attitudes and possessions one must have to claim the genre as an identity. Greg Ginn? Well, he’s suing former members of Black Flag for performing Black Flag music. It’s a sad state of affairs, they need an enema, and Death Grips is more than happy to play both rubber tube and rushing water. Their new assault, titled Government Plates, is a free download. Nobody has to pay, you just get to hear it. Second, Death Grips are expanding their identity as a band.
Government Plates finds Death Grips moving away from Hip Hop, and closer to a blend of noise band, electronica, poetry slam and spastic performance art. There are absolutely no trappings of the standard Hip Hop formula in this record. Collections of feedback, electronic chirps, heavy beats, massive bass, samples, it all converges into a perfect storm, a digital stream of consciousness. At the eye of the storm is MC Ride, who manages to give poetry a staggeringly large set of balls. The first time we hear Ride speak, he bellows “I hover above you”. It’s not a statement of superiority, but more that Ride is always watching. The preacher of a fiery and violent congregation.
Then again, Ride, drummer/producer Zach Hill, and keyboardist/sampler/producer Andy “Flatlander” Morin, might all be full of shit. It doesn’t matter. I don’t need social revolutionists to make my music, just people with talent. If a need to reflect the great injustices of our time gives Death Grips the inspiration to make their music, then awesome. If the music comes from their egotistical need to laugh as people attempt to “get” their music, then so be it. Whatever the reason behind their need to make music this chaotic, I just want them to keep doing it.
Individual songs have no purpose on Government Plates. Each entry has something interesting to it. The descending bass thump of “Anne Bonny”, the busy industrial beat of “This Is Violence Now”, or the comforting keyboards of the instrumental title track are all solid, but I wouldn’t count a “single” among any of the tunes. To get the full brunt of the fire, Government Plates has to be heard start to finish. It’s a vibe record, one that can lull you into a haze and then transport you away. If you have copious amounts of drugs, all the better. Death Grips music always reaches into your third eye once it’s open.
So the bottle is smashed. Death Grips stands in the shadows, watching, waiting, and planting audio grenades into the soup. They may never become a mainstream success, and they could experiment themselves into a failure. Whatever happens, Death Grips will be an influential force in the future of a genre that is on life support. Put Government Plates on and listen to Death Grips give Hip Hop, normal life, expectations and all genre-rules, a swift kick in the balls.
