DAILY FIX: Death Grips, “Get Got”

Death Grips are a new hip-hop group out of Sacramento, CA, who made a big impression on a lot of people last year with their debut mixtape, Exmilitary, which was released as a free download on their website.

Death Grips are a new hip-hop group out of Sacramento, CA, who made a big impression on a lot of people last year with their debut mixtape, Exmilitary, which was released as a free download on their website. On the strength of that glorious, apocalyptic mixtape (#20 on my personal countdown of the top albums of 2011), Death Grips earned themselves a deal with Epic Records, and are now planning to release two albums in 2012. The first of those two, The Money Store, drops April 24, and “Get Got” is the first single from that album. Rapper MC Ride’s delivery on this song is mellower than it was anywhere on Exmilitary, at least for the first two verses, but his lyrical fixations on weaponry, conspiracy theories, and other vaguely occultish topics is still present, and the backing track laid down by producer Flatlander and drummer Zach Hill accentuates the paranoid feel of Ride’s verses and delivery. Hill, the true celebrity of the group, also plays in Hella, and has done side projects with members of The Mars Volta, Pinback, and The Deftones, among others. However, he tones down the flashiness of his other projects when playing in Death Grips, concentrating on laying down a heavy beat without too many frills. It works well here, and the overall result is an ominously infectious hip-hop track that is only made more memorable by its video, in which MC Ride delivers his verses while sitting in a chair in the middle of a crowded city street, or while walking down the middle of a highway tunnel, miraculously avoiding any oncoming traffic. If you haven’t heard these guys yet, this video makes for a great introduction. Check it out.