In today's long read, Alex Thompson takes a look back at the chaotic and complex world of Death Grips with their magnum opus - The Money Store.
Kicking and spluttering with an untamed, psychotic aggression, Death Grips’ The Money Store can be a challenging listen. On first listen it is a cacophony of noise - buzzing synths, piercing vocals and breakneck breakbeats driving the unrelenting and vicious tracks. It’s hip hop with none of the restraint, electronic with added rage and a sort of guitar-less punk rock album all rolled into one. It's musical blitzkrieg, primal and cathartic.
From those first pulsing 808s and glitchy synths of ‘Get Got’, it’s clear Death Grips are angry. Angry is an understatement. There is a rage in this album that sees the trio deliver a disorientating and fast-paced collection of songs, blending influences, genres and ideas to create something unique. There’s nothing that sounds quite like Death Grips, and if it does then it was probably influenced by them.
Vocal lines are barked and spat by front man MC Ride, razor sharp bars that cut and chop between the barrage of drums on tracks like ‘The Fever (Aye Aye)’ or fight against laser-like synths and warped vocals on cuts like ‘Lost Boys’. Ride isn’t concerned with things as trivial as rhymes or punchlines, just pure, unmitigated violence. ‘Blackjack’ sees these vocal lines chopped and skewed, slowed down and warped so that they bleed into the fabric of the track itself. ‘Hustle Bones’, on the other hand, sees Ride’s vocals front and centre, a choppy and violent refrain masquerading as a chorus before devolving into more, rapid fire bars laced with that trademark intensity and venom.
‘I’ve Seen Footage’ is perhaps the closest thing to an actual rock track on the album, but even that comparison is a stretch. A droning guitar line plays off bouncing, synthesised drums and some of my favourite verses off the entire project. It’s controlled chaos, so precise in its execution yet so utterly untamed and violent in its performance. For me, this is a stand out track that sees the Sacramento trio at their most cohesive and their most unhinged.
This momentum is continued with ‘Double Helix’ and ‘System Blower’, two tracks which might not pack the sickening gut punch of energy that earlier tracks culminate in, but expertly fuse Ride’s trademark vocals with the utterly intoxicating instrumentals that make The Money Store such a rewarding listen.
While it may not be objectively the greatest Death Grips record, it’s my favourite because of this - because I don’t ever seem to get tired of the sheer anger or driving creative force that makes these tracks so dense and brilliantly complex. They’re not impenetrable but they certainly reward re listening and, once you’ve tuned yourself into the rapid-fire vocals and clattering instrumentals, they’re an awful lot of fun.
The chipmunk-sped Bollywood sample on ‘Punk Weight’ and booming drums on ‘Bitch Please’ are yet more ammunition for Ride and Co to play off, vocals and beats blasting you simultaneously with that unadulterated and unrelenting aggression.
The final track ‘Hacker’ is another bonafide banger, machine gun vocals slotting effortlessly between the choppy and glitchy beat which blends fuzzy synths, warped vocal samples and blasting drum grooves with the best hook on the album - “I’M IN YOUR AREA”.
The Money Store is an album that redefined experimental and industrial hip-hop, providing one of the richest and most densely textured rap albums ever made. But it’s so much more than that. It’s a punk record that rocks between heavy, electronic riffs and brutal, unforgiving drum grooves. It’s noise rock with its fuzzy, scuzzy basslines and loose structures that loop and spiral into chaos. It kicks and bites like an old school hardcore record but chirps and whirs with the synth-fuelled melodies and drops of heavier electronic music and, dare I say, dubstep…
In short, The Money Store refuses to fit into simple categorisation, it defies genres, labels and aesthetics and stands alone as something that is totally unique. It’s an album buzzing with life and bursting with rage, one that isn’t afraid to experiment and certainly isn’t afraid to kick and scream.
9.5/10
Alex Thompson
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