In Your Area

So did you know that most people don’t have the first fucking idea about Death Grips? That’s not some statement about the exposure they have, or how they’re not actually a big deal. I mean that, most people have no idea what Death Grips is. I’m always quick to say that I think they’re interesting art, but before this show that was because I thought the aesthetic that came along with the music was interesting. After having two weeks to figure out how to phrase this, I now say that because it’s all the same thing.

There are visual artists inside of Death Grips, working with film/video. I mean, this is probably obvious. All of their videos seem very cheap, are very DIY, and are quite provocative with such modest means. I mean, the video for Guillotine is haunting and it’s just filming a drive with MC Ride reciting the lyrics. The way the video is sequenced and edited turns it into this stroll beside a vessel of something haunting.

Okay. See, here’s the thing. The conceit of those music videos is a breaking of the fourth wall. It is performed with knowledge of the camera and the desired end. Since it’s all conscious, it’s a little harder for me to take the entirety of it in.

The footage Death Grips brings with them is not only more distressing than what they put in their music videos, it lacks that conscious conceit. It is the stigmatization of the every-day. It made sure that I can’t look at the world I live in the same way anymore. And the worst of it all is that I can’t really give a detailed recap of what those videos were and where they happened during the set. The images and the songs swirl around, and have been haunting me since that show.

So I don’t know what the fuck to say about The Money Store, or Death Grips any more. My ability to actually articulate what that band does has been impaired because of how deep that shit is in my brain now. It’s sent me into days of research and coping, noided nights where I’m patrolling the house over and over, knife in my hand. I went into Coachella thinking Death Grips is the most interesting art today. When I woke up the next day, I couldn’t trust anything around me, from screens to clothes.

And now I’m trying to get shit together to go see them again in July, because there’s nothing like Death Grips.